LSU Law Professor Michael J. Malinowski’s recently released book, “Personal Genome Medicine: The Legal and Regulatory Transformation of US Medicine,” has been honored with the 2023 Best in Law award from the American Book Fest.
LSU Law Professor Michael J. Malinowski’s recently released book, “Personal Genome Medicine: The Legal and Regulatory Transformation of US Medicine,” has been honored with the 2023 Best in Law award from the American Book Fest.
Published by Cambridge University Press in August, “Personal Genome Medicine” is a groundbreaking examination of the ethical, legal, and social implications of direct-to-consumer genetic health risk testing services such as 23andMe’s Personal Genome Health Service.
“I am honored to receive the award, and hopeful that the recognition raises awareness about the book and my research,” said Professor Malinowski, who joined the LSU Law faculty in 2002. “The American Book Fest Best Book Awards (BBA) provides me with some assurance that ‘Personal Genome Medicine’ is both readable and accessible to a potentially broad audience.”
The American Book Fest’s annual BBA is one of the world’s largest international book award programs for mainstream, indie, and self-published titles. Professor Malinowski and the approximately 60 winners of this year’s awards join a prestigious group of past laureates, including Pope Francis, Amy Tan, Anne Lamott, George Sanders, Julie Andrews, Clive Barker, Vanessa Williams, Shark Tank’s Daymon John, Brad Thor, Kitty Kelley, and many others.
Professor Malinowski initially began writing “Personal Genome Medicine” as a law journal article to address the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2017 market approval of 23andMe’s direct-to-consumer genetic health risk testing with optional medical professional involvement. He soon realized a multidisciplinary, scholarly book was needed instead to address the rapidly emerging molecular-medicine future of U.S. medicine.
“I had to draw from U.S. medicine’s foundational twentieth century past and much more complicated present—an overwhelming research undertaking,” said Professor Malinowski, who notes the book represents the culmination of 30 years of his research and scholarship.
In “Personal Genome Medicine,” Professor Malinowski applies law, policy, public and private sector practices, and governing norms to analyze the commercialization of personal genome sequencing and testing sectors, as well as to assess their impact on the future of U.S. medicine. He also proposes regulatory reforms for government and medical professionals that he believes will enable technological advancements while maintaining personal and public health standards.
McGill University Professor Bartha Maria Knoppers, who has held the Canada Research Chair in Law and Medicine since 2001 and is a leading expert in the field of genetics and ethics, has described “Personal Genome Medicine” as a “tour de force.”
“A critical analysis of the last century of informed consent, of current recreational genetics, and of the future of personalized genomic medicine. A meticulous and critical understanding of the novel ethical and legal issues,” said Knoppers, who was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002 in recognition of being “a world authority on the ethical aspects of genetics, genomics, and biotechnology.”
Professor Malinowski holds the Ernest R. and Iris M. Eldred Professorship, and Lawrence B. Sandoz, Jr. Endowed Professorship at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where his core courses include Bioethics Law and Policy, Health Law Survey, Disability Law, and Biotechnology: Law, Business, and Policy. He is the author of several academic books and more than 50 law review articles. His debut children’s book, “Why Am I Me?” which introduces children to the basic concepts of DNA and genetics, was published in 2019.
