Dan MacArthur has a post up where he discusses 23andMe's outreach to "mommy bloggers." This makes economic sense for any firm in this field. There's only so much money to be made out of telling blue eyed nerds that they carry the gene for blue eyes. To use a computer analogy the way you can get the Apple II of personal genomics would be to convince millions of pregnant women of the utility of your tools.
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Personal genomics company 23andMe has just launched an online community of "mommy bloggers" - a move I can only describe as sheer marketing genius.
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I was waiting for Dan MacArthur to comment on the "ACTN3 sports gene" story because I knew he had done research on this very locus. As usual, he's rather diplomatic, with a post titled The ACTN3 sports gene test: what can it really tell you?. He says:
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Yesterday I discussed the decision of personal genomics company 23andMe to slash its price for a genome scan by 60%, to under $400.
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I mentioned last week on Genetic Future that a reporter with the Washington Post, Rob Stein, had emailed the National Society of Genetic Counsellors to search specifically for people with negative experiences of personal genomics for an upcoming article on the industry. At the time I called for…
I think the most interesting stuff being done by amateurs with 23andMe is in the genetic genealogy community. They've nailed down where several important SNPs fit into the Y-chromosome tree, for instance, and are beginning to move into the X and autosomal stuff.
Neziha - yep, genetic genealogy is where it's at. It's a monstrously large market that still hasn't been anywhere close to saturated, and the autosomal data that 23andMe et al. have access to is much more powerful than the traditional Y/mtDNA stuff.
Health genetics will have its day eventually, but right now genetic ancestry is where the real utility of personal genomics lies.