23andMe
dgmacarthur | March 23, 2009This casual aside on a recent post on personal genomics company 23andMe's corporate blog caught my eye:
Mutations in several other genes have also been associated with
Parkinson's disease, but these are extremely rare. Many have been found
only in one or two families. While these mutations are so rare that
they are not covered by 23andMe (to date we have found no customers
with any of them), studying them could help scientists better
understand the mechanisms of Parkinson's generally... [my emphasis]
In other words, the company already has probes on its custom chip targeting these variants,…
dgmacarthur | March 23, 2009Drew Yates at ThinkGene has a delightfully cynical take on the personal genomics industry:
I know 23andMe's game, it's the "break the mean with variance" game,
and it's the same Silicon Valley game that's been played by internet
media companies for the last decade. How to play: a network of superior
talent and funding backs a group of startups that executes something
outrageous and otherwise unobtainable by contractual or legal
permission (like YouTube, Napster, Google itself... have we forgotten the
shear audacity of copying all the information in the world without
permission?) Then, that…
dgmacarthur | March 12, 2009Over at the 23andMe blog The Spittoon, company co-founder Linda Avey expands on her vision for a novel model of genomic research, in which personal genomics customers contribute their genetic and health data to fuel research into the inherited and environmental triggers for disease.
This is a model that 23andMe has been building towards for a long time. In May last year the company launched 23andWe, a cutely-named effort to obtain detailed health and trait data from their existing customers through online surveys which could then be combined with genetic data to find novel gene-trait…
dgmacarthur | March 12, 2009Genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger explores the results of his ancestry testing from 23andMe, and compares it to previous results from a much lower-resolution test.
The main message: the hundreds of thousands of genetic markers used by 23andMe (and other personal genomics companies, e.g. deCODEme) to infer genetic ancestry provide a much more detailed and accurate picture of the geographical origins of your genome.
No surprises here. The power of the type of genome-wide genotype data generated by 23andMe for ancestry prediction has been compellingly illustrated by a series of recent…
dgmacarthur | March 4, 2009I received an email a while back from a reader wondering why his friend has had to submit multiple saliva samples to personal genomics company 23andMe without getting a result back. Customers in a similar position may be reassured by a lengthy explanation posted yesterday on 23andMe's blog about their sample processing protocol, penned by the company's Director of Operations.
(Other potential customers may also be reassured to hear that this type of failure is apparently "quite rare", although 23andMe haven't responded yet to my queries regarding the frequency of sample failures; and that…
dgmacarthur | February 20, 2009I'm struggling to figure out what is more disturbing about this post - the fact that 23andMe are actually trying to say that BRCA gene testing is not "medical genetic testing", or Steve Murphy talking about his "man parts".
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dgmacarthur | February 15, 2009Steve Murphy is up in arms about a recent email from 23andMe to its customers advertising the use of genetic variants on its V2 chip to predict individual risk of statin-induced myopathy and breast cancer.
Of course, Steve does have a strong financial interest in 23andMe staying as far away as possible from the area of clinical diagnostics, but I share his unease here.
So far personal genomics companies have by and large done their best to steer clear of being seen as "doing medicine", but this move would seem to put 23andMe explicitly over that line. In the case of the breast cancer…
dgmacarthur | January 27, 2009Misha Angrist passes on a call from Case Western University for personal genomics customers to participate in a study of the experience of getting your genome scanned. If you've paid money to 23andMe, deCODEme or Navigenics, consider getting involved - Misha assures us that the process was relatively painless.
By the way, if you happen to be that most elusive of creatures - a happy customer of Navigenics - Drew Yates has been waiting to hear from you for a long time.
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dgmacarthur | January 13, 2009Following the dramatic appearance of the field of personal genomics just over a year ago the major players in the field have worked hard to distinguish themselves from their competition: 23andMe has emphasised the intellectual joy of learning about genetics, and also attempted to actively engage its customers in the company's research projects; deCODEme has leaned heavily on the impressive academic credentials of its parent company, deCODE Genetics; Navigenics has committed itself utterly to an image of sober, responsible reflection on the medical information present in its customers' genomes…
dgmacarthur | December 18, 2008Nature has a list of the top news stories of 2008, and "Personal genomics goes mainstream" comes up second:
In January, an international consortium announced the launch of the 1,000 Genomes Project, which aims to provide a catalogue of human genetic variation. In October, the Personal Genome Project, which hopes to sequence and publish the genomes of as many people as possible, released initial data for ten participants. Meanwhile, as researchers wondered what they could glean from the results coming from personal-genomics companies, the prices of such services dropped. The firm 23andMe,…
dgmacarthur | December 8, 2008Personal genomics company 23andMe is now offering a discount of $200 for customers who buy three or more kits before December 31st.
In a press release the company explains the reasoning behind the price cut:
By offering this discount, 23andMe hopes to encourage families, in particular, to explore the unique features of the 23andMe Personal Genome Service⢠that are of special interest to people who are related. These features allow family members to learn how genetically similar they are and how genes were passed down from grandparents to grandchildren.
Still unconvinced? Just imagine the…
dgmacarthur | November 2, 2008Dienekes takes a critical look at 23andMe's new "global similarity" tool (requires a 23andMe login or a demo account to view), which allows you to visually place your own genetic data in the context of genome-wide SNP data from over 1,000 individuals from around the world. The take-home message: the feature is an improvement over previous versions of 23andMe's genetic ancestry tool, but it still needs plenty of work.
dgmacarthur | October 30, 2008Retail DNA tests - personified by personal genomics company 23andMe - have been named Time magazine's Invention of the Year. The fairly lengthy citation notes that "[a]lthough 23andMe isn't the only company selling DNA tests to the public, it does the best job of making them accessible and affordable."
It's yet more public exposure for the personal genomics industry, pushing recreational genetic testing closer towards becoming a mainstream pursuit.
I note that 23andMe has wasted no time giving the award a central position on their home page and their corporate blog.
HT: the ever-readable…
dgmacarthur | October 30, 2008One of the ethical quandaries raised by direct-to-consumer genetic testing is the possibility that customers may send in DNA samples for analysis from other people who haven't provided informed consent - prospective spouses, for instance, a la Gattaca - and then use that genetic information for nefarious purposes. In the past, personal genomics company 23andMe has responded to this possibility by arguing that it's not really the company's responsibility to prevent its customers from performing illegal acts; they have also (quite convincingly) pointed out the difficulties of extracting 2 mL of…
dgmacarthur | September 9, 200823andMe is one of three companies currently providing chip-based personal genomics assays, which provide information about up to a million sites of common variation throughout the human genome. These companies provide insight into a limited but informative slice of your genetic diversity, as I discussed yesterday, giving you information about variants contributing to the risk of a number of common diseases and other traits.
Since their launch earlier this year, 23andMe and competitor deCODEme have offered their genome scan services for a fraction under $1,000. Now 23andMe has announced a…
sporte | June 21, 2008Are you curious about Second Life?
Next week you can satisfy your curiosity and learn about the personal genomics frontier at the same time.
Bertalan Meskó announced that Erin Davis (science writer) and Joyce Tung (human geneticist) from 23andMe will be giving a presentation next week in Second Life on personalized genetics.
As travel costs rise and traveling becomes harder, I think we'll see many more things happening in alternative places like Second Life. Virtual environments like this can make on-line communication entertaining in ways that conference calls and webinars can't. I may…