Gattaca IRL: Unpublished(?) study shows hiring discrimination towards young APOE-E4 carriers

2/12/2020 Potluck
Mackenzie Hepker

APOE is a gene that is strongly associated with the development of late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Of the three variant alleles -- E2, E3, and E4 -- E2 is associated with 'protection' from Alzheimer's, while each copy of the E4 allele greatly increases an individual's risk. E3 is considered neutral, normal. Of course, even having two copies of the APOE-E4 allele does not guarantee Alzheimer's disease, and there are lifestyle and dietary habits that can effectively mitigate that risk.

It is easy, now, for many to determine their so-called 'APOE status.' 23andMe and many other DNA-testing services offer a 'health' package that includes this gene. Even without the purchasing the upgrade, one can simply run their raw genetic data from such a service (a vast collection of preselected SNPs) through a third party, such as Promethease (recently acquired by MyHeritage), to find out this information and more.

Herein lies the danger. While working at UCSF, I attended a talk given by one of our researchers on a study they had conducted on the likelihood of recruiters and hiring managers to select from a pool of candidates given knowledge of their APOE status (falsified for the purposes of the study, of course). Unfortunately, it seems the study is yet unpublished, but I recall the disturbing results: hiring managers were significantly less likely to hire individuals possessing one or more E4 alleles. The age of the job candidate did not matter -- the implication, of course, is that hiring managers preferred not to risk one of their employees developing Alzheimer's disease, or any cognitive impairment whatsoever, down the line.

The movie Gattaca (1997) predicted a dystopian society where one's career path, romantic prospects, and social status revolved around 'ideal' genetics. The protagonist was able to secure his status in such a society only while hiding his genetic 'deficits' by working to keep himself in peak physical and mental condition, all of which may have been negated by verbalizing his secret. The UCSF study suggests that sharing gene status alone may be enough to affect one's prospects when there would otherwise be no observable reason to discriminate. When you know your genotype for a given SNP, you are the first and last line of defense towards protecting that information, and for cultivating a culture that reduces genetic discrimination.