Molecular nationality: The Human DNA at the mexican press

Desciption

In May of 2009, the National Institute for Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) presented to the then Mexican president Felipe Calderón, the Genome Map of Mexican Populations. This came along with the promise of personalized medicine and a tool to tackle down two of the biggest problems of national public health: obesity and diabetes.

These promises have not been resolved, and, within time, another crisis has demanded the genomics to take action: the crisis of the desaparecidos. To these three narratives (national identity, public health and missing persons) a new one has been taking the headlines in the past months: the illegal sell of genetic data from the State to private industries. This is the social life of DNA in the Mexican media outlets.