Risky secrets – Blog – Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI).
A nice round-up of the latest issues concerning direct-to-consumer genetic testing. And since it’s on the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative website, it also talks about the problems of using these tests for autism genes. Definitely worth a read.
Some highlights:
A flurry of opinion pieces have come out in high-profile scientific journals — one in the New England Journal of Medicine, another in the Lancet and two in Nature. All of them call for stricter government oversight, in the U.S. and U.K., of the largely unregulated genetic testing industry.
The article also details a report by US government investigators based on a secret investigation of several companies.
The companies — which include the well-known 23andMe, Pathway Genomics and deCODE Genetics — often give conflicting and misleading test results, according to the report. In one particularly egregious case, a Pathway representative encouraged an undercover government investigator, posing as a customer, to send in a saliva sample of her fiancé without his consent — something that’s illegal in 33 states.
[Risky secrets – Blog – Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI)]