In this article in the New York Times, Sabrina Imbler recaps arguments made by alumna Research Group Leader Veronika Lipphardt and colleagues in their recent op-ed in Nature Portfolio. In "Europe’s Roma people are vulnerable to poor practice in genetics,"Lipphardt and her colleagues argue that genetic research on Roma people—the most intensively studied community in Europe in terms of forensic genetic publications—is riddled with ethical difficulties. The researchers therefore call for higher standards in the use and study of genetic information.

Parts of the data presented in the op-ed are based on work conducted by Lipphardt in her Max Planck Research Group "Twentieth Century Histories of Knowledge about Human Variation" (2009–2015).