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When UC Berkeley researchers announced earlier this year they planned to stimulate discussion by asking new students to submit DNA samples, they probably did not have this in mind.
State lawmakers are turning up the heat on the campus, which solicited swabs of cheek cells from 5,500 incoming freshmen and transfer students this summer. The deadline for the optional program is Friday.
The state Assembly's Committee on Higher Education will hold a hearing on the issue Tuesday in Sacramento. Among other things, lawmakers want to know how UC Berkeley plans to protect students' privacy, said Sandy Fried, a consultant for the committee.
"We're trying to find out what the program is and why the university proceeded in the way it did," she said. "It's clearly walking a line" between medical and academic research.
Tuesday's hearing will include public health officials and someone from Stanford University, which is doing a similar experiment. Berkeley researchers have yet to say whether they will attend, Fried said.
The experiment will measure students' tolerance to three everyday substances: folic acid, lactose and alcohol. Researchers sent...