“We believe that a comprehensive conversation about the potential risks and benefits of firms using PGIs (1) has not occurred, in large part because the idea that firms will use PGIs has not yet been taken seriously. Conventional wisdom in this area instead maintains that PGIs—especially for social and behavioral phenotypes—are simply not informative enough to be profitably used by firms“.

En dépit de la valeur prédictive incertaine des tests génomiques pour les individus, il faut prendre au sérieux la possibilité de leur usage par les entreprises, soutiennent les auteurs d’un article récemment publié dans The American Journal of Human Genetics. Sont cités en exemple deux secteurs d’entreprises pour lesquelles il pourrait être intéressant économiquement de disposer d’informations relatives au patrimoine génomique de leurs clients : le secteur des assurances et le secteur des services financiers aux particuliers.

Que représentent les données génomiques ? “Genetic data are proliferating and becoming increasingly informative about human traits and outcomes. Until recently, the use of genetic data to predict outcomes was largely limited to identifying individuals with differences in single genes that cause rare medical conditions (e.g., Huntington disease, Tay-Sachs disease). However, the vast majority of human phenotypes are influenced by many genes with small individual effects. In such cases, polygenic indexes (PGIs), also called polygenic risk scores, can summarize the weighted correlations between many single-molecule differences in specific locations throughout the genome (known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs) and non-Mendelian or “complex phenotypes.”

1- PGIs, polygenic indexes (PGIs), aussi nommés tests de score polygéniques, cherchent à établir, sur la base de séquençages génétiques, des corrélations entre des variants génétiques repérés et le développement de certains traits, médicaux (cancers du sein, diabète …) et non médicaux (niveau d’études …) chez les individus. 

 Michelle N. Meyer, Nicholas W. Papageorge, Erik Parens, Alan Regenberg, Jeremy Sugarman, Kevin Thom. Potential corporate uses of polygenic indexes: Starting a conversation about the associated ethics and policy issues. The American Journal of Human Genetics. Volume 111, Issue 5. 2024. Pages 833-840. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002929724000831#preview-section-snippet