Adrian Thorogood

Adrian (B.A.&Sc., B.C.L./LL.B.) is a lawyer and Academic Associate at the Centre of Genomics and Policy (CGP) at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He manages the Regulatory and Ethics Work Stream of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). This international public-private consortium frames policy and establishes technical standards to accelerate the sharing of genomic and health related data and improvements in human health. Adrian manages the development of policies addressing consent, privacy and security, data access, and research oversight that enable responsible data sharing between countries, institutions, and sectors. Adrian’s legal research focuses on how genomic sequencing platforms, information and networking technologies, open science practices, and patient empowerment movements are disrupting biomedical research and health care. He has published numerous articles on the regulation of health research, the duties and liabilities of health professionals, and the privacy of health information. More specifically his research focuses on how law and policy need to adapt in an era of Big Data, precision medicine, and international collaboration. Adrian has presented his research at numerous international conferences. He is a guest lecturer in the McGill Department of Human Genetics, and runs regular workshops for researchers and the public on the privacy, confidentiality, and “ownership” of genomic and health data. Adrian is also a jurist on the research ethics board of Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, and a member of the MSSNG Autism genome database access committee.

Adrian holds a joint common law / civil law degree from McGill University. While at law school, he was editor-in-chief of the McGill Journal of Law and Health. He articled at the Department of Finance Canada, where he advised on the regulation of financial institutions, as well as on constitutional, aboriginal and international trade law. He was called to the Ontario bar in 2015. Before entering law, Adrian obtained a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University with a double major in health economics and biomedical sciences, and worked as an epidemiology researcher and clinical trial coordinator.