Science Daily  May 15, 2023 The field of environmental DNA (eDNA) is advancing rapidly, yet human eDNA applications remain underutilized and under considered. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Florida, Spain) showed that deep-sequencing-based eDNA approaches capture genomic information from humans just as readily as that from the intended target species. They called it human genetic bycatch (HGB). The high-quality human eDNA could be intentionally recovered from environmental substrates (water, sand, and air), holding promise for beneficial medical, forensic, and environmental applications. However, this also raises ethical dilemmas, from consent, privacy, and surveillance to data ownership, requiring […]