

23andMe makes personalized genetics more affordable - russ
http://www.23andme.com/

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gleb
I hate to be negative about a startup that way, but it's important to realize
that "direct-to-consumer genomics" is a scam. I went to a presentation by a
founder of one the competitors (there are 3-4 high-flying competitors in the
business), and I had the highest expectations. But then throughout the
presentation I couldn't quite figure out what the company actually does. So I
asked. And the answer is marketing and litigation.

* these companies don't do any research

* they don't even own sequencing equipment

* all they do is send a sample of your spit to the lab, and send you a pretty writeup

* consider why is there no "direct-to-consumer blood tests" even though that information is far more actionable

I wouldn't even have a problem with this if it was a proper scam, like XanGo
MLM, a nice nutritional supplement scheme, make-money-fast setup, etc. With
these you know upfront what you are getting into. But these guys look so
clean, and go out of their way to skate the narrow line next to the true
medical advice. Needless to say the legal budgets must be non-trivial.

I ran this by my cousin who is in nursing school. And she goes "Oh yuh, they
are teaching us how to talk to people about all the nonsense results people
[in increasing numbers] will get through these outfits."

Some more reading: [http://microarray.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/deadline-today-
fo...](http://microarray.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/deadline-today-for-personal-
genomics-companies/)

~~~
russ
Not sure all personalized genetics companies are created equal. You seem to be
pretty misinformed about what we do.

* We indeed do conduct our own research and are currently collaborating with some prominent research institutions (Parkinson's institute).

* Why do we have to own sequencing equipment to be useful and/or legit? Does Google own the webpages they index?

* We give you much more than a "pretty writeup". This includes crowd-sourced research initiatives, ancestry and health communities, and many interactive ways of analyzing your own data. A ton more things coming in the future.

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huhtenberg
Just to clarify, is this you - <https://www.23andme.com/about/advisors> ?
Thanks.

~~~
russ
Heh, no. I'm an SE @ 23andMe. <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/016/160>

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chaostheory
Great news =)

Good but here are things that will help me bite:

\- $299-199

\- a better database for people with Asian heritage. I could be wrong but I
think no company in the West has this yet - well a company in Greenland is
working on a partnership with a Hong Kong company

\- something like HIPAA or some privacy clause. I don't want my insurance
companies to know I'm genetically prone to X

\- I'm not keen on someone trying to patent my genes either (don't know if you
guys will or not though)

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russ
To address some of the things you mentioned:

\- as we add more people to our database (including Asians), we can make new
discoveries relevant to particular genetic groups

\- GINA prohibits employers/insurers from discriminating against you based on
your genetic info

\- we will not patent genes. we want to empower people by giving them the
ability to access and interact with their genetic information

~~~
natch
>GINA prohibits employers/insurers from discriminating against you based on
your genetic info

Laws change. And the value of words like "discriminating" also changes with
various interpretations.

There are right and wrong ways to protect the privacy of customers. Relying on
laws is one of the wrong ways.

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mechanical_fish
Still a little expensive, but downright fascinating. Someone has put a heck of
a lot of time into this.

It looks like they give you your own raw genomics data! Fun fun fun!

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sungam
The problem with SNP-based association is that, for the vast majority of
disease-associated SNPs, the relative risk is only increased on the order of a
few percent at most. When it comes to predicting the risk of an individual (as
opposed to a population) developing a particular disease this is virtually
meaningless. No doubt the current technology will appeal to some out of
curiosity. However I do think that the vast quantities of sequence that will
be generated by next generation platforms over the next few years will lead to
the ability to usefully predict disease susceptibility of an individual basis.

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vaksel
so I guess this means the injunction was lifted?

~~~
russ
We are officially licensed in California, NY is still pending.

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brfox
Let me know when you've got a 454 or Solexa, then I'll sign up... :)

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rflrob
Why do you want a 454? I mean, as awesome as it would be to know your own
genetic code, it would be of no practical use to you, even if you had a full
featured tool to explore it.

And don't even get me started on personal epigenome or miRNA-omes.

~~~
brfox
Well, mostly I was just trying to see if they were headed in that direction...
but there might be some logic in that SNPs do not always represent the
functional differences in genes - they generally have their power because they
are correlated with the nearby functional difference. The full set of DNA
changes might be more precise in terms of really really pinpointing the right
genes. But, I guess the true power comes with correlating everybody and their
phenotypes together, in which case it doesn't matter if you're looking at
unexplainable SNPs or not.

