Humans of Purpose 418 Paul Lacaze and Jane Tiller: The Future of Preventive DNA Screening
My guests this week are Professor Paul Lacaze and Jane Tiller - two leading voices shaping the future of public health genetics in Australia.
Professor Lacaze is a Professor of Genetics and part of the team behind DNA Screen, a major initiative exploring how preventive DNA testing could help identify people at high genetic risk of cancer and heart disease while they’re still young and healthy. Jane Tiller is a lawyer and genetic counsellor with deep expertise in the policy and ethical frameworks needed to make genomic screening safe, trusted, and accessible at scale.
Best known for their work on the DNA Screen pilot study, Paul and Jane are helping drive a shift from reactive healthcare, where genetic testing often happens after disease appears to anticipatory healthcare that uses genetics as a preventive screening tool, alongside existing public health programs like mammograms and bowel cancer screening.
In this episode of Humans of Purpose, we explore what preventive DNA screening could mean for Australia, including:
- what the DNA Screen pilot found (including the number of young adults carrying high-risk, actionable genetic variants)
- why early screening gives people time to make informed decisions about surveillance, prevention, and family planning
- what “actionable” genes really means (and why lifestyle changes alone can’t remove certain risks
- the importance of protecting Australians from genetic discrimination
- and why data governance, privacy, transparency and participant choice are essential if a program like this is to earn public trust.
Tune in to hear how Paul and Jane are working to mainstream genomic risk management into the health system and what it could take to move from pilot to national scale.
🔗 Explore more from Paul and Jane’s work here:
https://dnascreen.monash.edu/our-team.html
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CREDITS
Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.