Genetics-based products stir concerns

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Boston Globe

Whether it is a new skin care product that promises to "reactivate" the youth in your genes or tests that offer nutrition advice tailored to your DNA, the age of consumer genetics is here.

Lancome is selling "Genifique," a skin serum developed by identifying genes more active in young skin. Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer products company, has been investigating the genetics of everything from dandruff to the common cold. Startups are offering consumers full-genome scans and more targeted genetic tests to customize advice on weight loss or heart health.

But as genetics spreads beyond the lab, scientists worry that companies are making overblown promises before the science is mature enough to meet public expectations - and that this could spark a backlash. It is one thing, they say, for scientists to study the role of genes in illness or aging. But it is another to give directly to consumers information about genes that might raise risk for a disease in poorly-understood ways, or to offer an effective product that makes genetic claims.

"What has happened is some of these companies have cribbed from our sheets about where we hope to be going, and they've turned that into their business plans for where we are now," said Dr. Isaac Kohane, a Harvard Medical School professor. "It does hurt us. . . . All you need is sufficient disappointing, if not dangerous, outcomes or horrible outcomes for enthusiasm for funding . . . to decrease."


Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/27/genetics_based_products_stir_concerns/