COI at the 'Gattaca' company

A few weeks back, the first tests allowing parents to pick and choose IVF embryos based on a future child’s potential intelligence levels or risk for disease hit the market. Or, as MIT Tech Review put it, “the world’s first Gattaca baby tests are finally here.” The New Jersey company, called Genomic Prediction, claimed that it can use DNA measurements to determine which embryos would be susceptible to diabetes, heart attacks, and five types of cancer. 

But, as writer Antonio Regalado points out on Twitter, the authors of an October Nature Scientific Reports paper failed to disclose their conflicts of interest. The paper was about “genomic prediction of 16 complex diseases” — including many of those offered by Genomic Prediction. The authors failed to indicate that two of them are involved in the eponymous company.