Millions of lives in the developing world, now lost to disease and malnutrition, could easily be saved every year with just a handful of existing and developing biotechnologies, report Peter Singer and colleagues in the October issue of Nature Genetics. Their study highlighting the most promising biotechnologies for improving public health in impoverished countries was undertaken in response to a World Health Organization (WHO) call for regular assessments of the health impacts of genomics in the developing world.

"We want to show scientists a whole different set of benefits that their science could bring to the majority of the people in the world who are living in desperate conditions and in poor health," said Peter Singer, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB) at the University of Toronto.

Singer's group asked some of the leading experts in global health to identify the top 10 genomic and other biotechnologies...

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