Drawing on submitted abstracts, presentation slides, notes taken during each session by volunteer rapporteurs,5 and the ELSI issues generated by advances in genomic research,6 we identify three pivotal factors currently shaping genomic research, its clinical translation, and its societal implications — each of which, in addition, represents contested concepts in research ethics generally, and lessons for contemporary issues in research ethics. These factors are: (1) the increasingly blurred boundary between research and treatment; (2) uncertainty — that is, the indefinite, indeterminate, and incomplete nature of much genomic information and the challenges that arise from making meaning and use of it; and (3) the role of negotiations between multiple scientific and non-scientific stakeholders in setting the priorities for and direction of biomedical research, as it is increasingly conducted “in the public square.” In our discussion, we refer to individual and panel presentations from the Congress with letters and numbers corresponding to the listing in the Appendix, and the names of first authors when individual presentations in a session are cited. Additional information about Congress presentations is available upon request.
