$999 For a Complete DNA Scan, Worth it? 451
DoroSurfer writes "ZDNet is reporting that 23andme.com will open its doors on Monday, allowing you to send them a cheek swab and have your DNA analyzed for $999 (plus shipping, of course... ;)). So what's a thousand bucks buy you? They can tell you your ancient ancestry, They can tell you what diseases you're predisposed to, They give you a "Gene Explorer" that allows you to do a search in your genome to find out if you have a certain gene (e.g., you just heard on the news that Gene XYZ has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease)."
Beware early adopters (Score:5, Interesting)
After that, I'm all for it. Not even a needle prick is needed.
And then sell it to who? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also given that the CEO is Sergey Brins wife, I wonder whether Google will get involved at one point?
Cost of early adoption (Score:3, Interesting)
That's a lot of money for a relatively new technology. While I think the idea is cool, I'd rather wait a few years when it's cheaper, works better, and there's more competition in the field. Let the early adopters pay the high fee and the rest of us can reap the benefits when the costs come down.
And of course, every year we'll have a better idea of what the results actually mean.
Maybe one day it will be as simple as a home blood-sugar test - "use this combination finger pricker/USB drive to get an instant scan of your DNA!"
Beware health insurance implications (Score:5, Interesting)
good news for bio grads (Score:4, Interesting)
My hope is that services like this will start to provide jobs for our current Bio grads, pushing the salaries up to a level that makes the choice of a Biology major much more desirable. Only then will the genetic revolution really start to take off.
In Other News (Score:3, Interesting)
Citizens, including juveniles who have been arrested for a crime(but not convicted) are being added to the governments DNA database.
Relations between Google and 23andme (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't find who the CEO of 23andme is (after only 30 sec of research), but Anne Wojcicki is indeed at least co-founder of the company and member of the Board of Directors: https://www.23andmeobjects.com/res/1570/pdf/factsheet.pdf [23andmeobjects.com]
Oh and Google is already involved in this company, they are an investor: https://www.23andme.com/about/corporate [23andme.com]
Caveat Emptor (Score:2, Interesting)
How do they know it's my DNA? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Recommended viewing (Score:4, Interesting)
After that...I wonder how long before the various branches of government will require this DNA data be turned over for the US Homeland security national DNA database?? Of course, we won't know about it...this will be required with a national security letter, which will gag the company from even mentioning the requirement.
More and more I find that Python wasn't just being funny with the skit "The Importance of not being Seen", they were prophetical.....
Gets you out of CSS (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Only if... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How do they know it's my DNA? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sick of the genetic fraud being perpetrated by these gold-diggers, I want to know up-front if my kids will be hit by the ugly stick on their way out of the womb.
Re:In Other News (Score:4, Interesting)
In addition to the fee they collect from you this company might be recieving your tax money through an outsourcing program to the help populate the government database or they may strictly maintain client confidentiality until they receive a national security letter [wikipedia.org] from the department of homeland surveillance, but the end result is the same.
In my previous post I linked to a 4 year old cnn article to show that the government has been using questionable means to populate codis [wikipedia.org] for quite some time now and I doubt that this government intrusion into personal privacy will be exposed until it is too late and the entire population is effectively mapped.
Re:Recommended viewing (Score:3, Interesting)
One way would look like this. The customer buys a package which has the sample kit, a pair of postage guaranteed mailers with no return address, a ten sided die, and a sample container with a universally unique, random identifier. The customer takes the sample and places it in the container. He then rolls the ten sided die to generate a fifteen digit PIN, which he records on a two ply form. He puts the identified sample in one mailer, along with the list of tests to be performed. The sample ID and PIN pairing go in a separate mailer, and he can mail them from a different place if need be.
When the sample/sample id and sample id/pin arrive, they are treated in a way that precludes reconstructing any PII without collusion between parties. Probably each of these goes to a different place, which is different from the test lab. The customer receives his PIN encrypted data by one time download from an Internet site.
Of course if you're a Nepali-Apache-Basque albino, you're probably at a disadvantage on the genetic privacy front, so you make sure you don't order any health tests and ancestry tests on the same sample. In fact, this might be a good policy in general: no sample should be screened for more than one kind of data: you either screen a sample for a disease, or for ancestry information but not both. Customers desiring both services have to submit two samples.
I'd consider using the service if it were as secure as the one I describe. Anything less I'd be very concerned with. Associating genetic information with PII is a very, very bad idea; associating genetic samples with PII is just as bad, unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
humor (or so i hope) (Score:1, Interesting)