Posted for David Cyranoski
A Chinese company is offering a test that can, it claims, reveal a child’s abilities in areas like memory, speed, thinking, comprehension, emotion, adventure, braveness, focus, perseverance, vigour and physical strength. But amid disquiet about the claims, one of the testers has told Nature they are unhappy about the way the tests are marketed.
Shanghai Biochip’s Healthcare division promises the tests will have 99% accuracy, although company representatives quoted by CNN said that the genes will only decide 30%-60% of the child’s future, while the rest is up to upbringing, nutrition, education, and other environmental factors.
The company, which told Nature the test would cost RMB2000, says the tests will help direct children to pursuits that match their natural talents.
One example given is the gene for Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor. Tests differentiate between three varieties with one having been shown to be correlated with superior memory.
While such association studies are common and some do link BDNF to memory, the relationship is not always clear. Even one article claiming a connection, in Science, shies away from claiming clinical relevance: A common single-nucleotide polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene is associated with alterations in brain anatomy and memory, but its relevance to clinical disorders is unclear.
Most scientists are made uncomfortable by marketing with such hyped up claims-even scientists at the company itself. One, a scientist at Shanghai Biosciences which does the testing for the Healthcare division (run by clinical doctors) told Nature the company would never promise a gene test for such “talents”.
Comparing behavioural and skill genetics unfavourably with more established tests like that for the BRCA breast cancer gene, the scientist says that for the breast cancer gene “there is a huge database, many publications, and tests on thousands of people”. Even then the best the test can do is give a percentage susceptibility without saying that you will or will not get the disease.
“For BDNF there is no such body of physical evidence,” says the source. “Doctors might say these things, but scientists never would, they won’t make conclusions without evidence.”