

23andme for only $99 today only - grandalf
https://www.23andme.com/store/

======
anurag
Detailed 23andme review by HN'er PStamatiou who tried it out recently:

[http://paulstamatiou.com/review-23andme-dna-testing-for-
heal...](http://paulstamatiou.com/review-23andme-dna-testing-for-health-
disease-ancestry)

Comments thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1170074>

------
biotech
For those who are concerned about privacy, you could request that they delete
your information after you have received the product. It says in their refund
policy:

 _You can, however, request deletion of your genetic data by providing us with
written notice to help@23andme.com. We will delete your genetic data from our
records within 30 days of receipt of such notice._

~~~
infinite8s
Except their product can only be accessed through their website as a webapp.

~~~
teye
Pretty sure you're able to download your raw data.

(Just bought this a couple weeks ago... waiting for my analysis.)

~~~
dejb
Yes you can download it and then you can use a tool like Promethease to link
provide a report on how your SNPs match up with various research on SNPedia.
It's a bit rough but it certainly has lots more info than the reports from
23andme.

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mbreese
It's still available...

You have to go to the front page (<https://www.23andme.com/>). From there, you
can still see the deal. When you click "Buy" your cart has the $499 price,
with a $400 discount.

~~~
gabeiscoding
Awesome, just bought one for myself, my wife and my unborn son. Now I wonder
if I can stall on returning his DNA until he's born in June...

~~~
billpaetzke
You have 12 months to return your sample for processing.

~~~
gabeiscoding
Yea, that's great. I just saw that in the info email they sent me. It was
worth taking a chance at this price even before knowing.

Also nice is with the complete package you can download your data. Maybe not
useful to a lot of people, but I build genetic analysis software for a living
(mostly focused on academic research - goldenhelix.com), so it will be quite
fun to pull in my data and play around with it.

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ghshephard
I Just bought six of these. I'm stoked - this is precisely what I've been
waiting for for my family. I actually discovered I was lactose intolerant
(after 30+ years) through 23andme - somehow that little detail got by me...
:-)

~~~
kyro
So you discovered you were lactose intolerant after 30 years, and throughout
those years, you've presumably been drinking milk. Don't you think you
would've been just as fine growing old without knowing you couldn't break down
lactose?

~~~
starkfist
Lactose intolerance is not life threatening but knowing you have it can really
increase your quality of life.

It manifests itself as feeling bloated, having bad gas, and diarrhea. People
who don't know they have it often assume that having the farts and feeling
gross all the time is just a normal state of being. Women who have it often
guess that it related to PMS. (My girlfriend was diagnosed with lactose
intolerance in her late 20s)

When they figure out it's the milk and cheese and avoiding it makes the lower
GI stuff goes away it can really make them much happier.

~~~
ebiester
The same thing happened to me. Now, luckily I can handle small amounts of
cheese, but I overload my body's buffers more quickly than most.

That's one of the things I'm most curious about -- am I genetically
intolerant, or was I just drinking too much?

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infinite8s
This is a great deal, although I'm torn. We are about to add a new member to
our family, so this would make an awesome 0th birthday gift, but the prospects
of knowing all the health information up front is rather scary (and who knows
who might be able to access it in the future - it needs some sort of secure
swiss bank setup).

Welcome to Gattaca!

~~~
jacquesm
> and who knows who might be able to access it in the future - it needs some
> sort of secure swiss bank setup

That's exactly my problem with this.

And no amount of anonymization will help here, after all, not even your finger
prints identify you as solidly as your full genome does.

~~~
mechanical_fish
If you're gonna be paranoid about _Gattaca_ you need to go all the way. DNA
sequencing is going to be so cheap that it will be more cost-effective to
sequence your ambient DNA from an elevator button or a used tissue than to
look up your obsolete sequence data from some old 20th-century corporate
database.

The problem of misuse of DNA sequence information may be very real, but
whether or not you do business with 23andme is probably an insignificant blip.
We need legal safeguards, not minor-league personal boycotts.

~~~
jacquesm
Minor league personal boycotts can raise the awareness and lead to better
legal safeguards.

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Tawheed
Sending some company my DNA freaks me out more than Facebook's like-strategy
to take over the Internet.

~~~
huhtenberg
They require no verifiable personal information. You can send your spit in as
John Doe.

~~~
Tawheed
False. Unless they are taking my order over the phone which I block through
caller id and take my payment in CASH and send my results to a random drop
location, it is not anonymous at all.

~~~
huhtenberg
You can be buying the kit as a gift, and the person ending up using the kit
can specify whatever name when "claiming" the kit on their website. There are
no requirements for this name to be authentic and valid.

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jacquesm
Think twice before you give away your DNA and pay for the privilege.

~~~
enomar
I'd like to hear from those that wouldn't do this. What are your reasons for
not trusting this site?

~~~
jacquesm
Well, today they're 23andme, arguably in fairly rough waters (which is
probably the reason for this promotion in the first place).

Tomorrow they could be sold to the highest bidder, who might not feel they
were bound to the terms of service of their predecessor. It could be an
insurance company, for instance. And based on your name, your genetic data and
a whole bunch of other factors they might decide to deny you or one of your
descendants coverage.

That's just one scenario, I'm sure there are plenty of others with various
degrees of chance of becoming reality.

~~~
troystribling
For an insurer to deny coverage based on genetic information has been against
the law in the US for almost 2 years <http://www.genome.gov/10002077>.

Also, there are health benefits to sharing your genetic information and
comparing it with others since the extent of genetic variation within the
general population is not currently well understood becuase of limited data.
Over time it is also likely that knowledge of your genetic information will
become directly more relevant to your health, though, this is not currently
the case. I agree that some form anonymizing procedure should be in place.

~~~
Tichy
How do you know why an insurer denies you coverage?

~~~
troystribling
The way you prove any corporate crime. Evidence would have to be obtained that
the insurer acquired genetic information and then terminated coverage for
individuals it perceived as high risk. This would likely involve many people
from within the company. You would have to count on one of them to provide the
evidence.

------
jamesbkel
Not to add to the noise, but was this deal based on GMT? Just went to order a
4-pack for the family and it seems gone again....

~~~
DrewHintz
Yes, the deal is finished: <http://twitter.com/23andMe/status/12732636102>

It ended at midnight GMT which is also 5pm PDT, perhaps for the business day.

~~~
jamesbkel
Certainly can't blame them for placing a limit, it's quite the deal.

However, it was frustrating when I already had the $99 deal in my cart, then
lost it because I didn't check out before 0 GMT.

~~~
lionhearted
Email them graciously, tell them you think they have a lovely service and that
the deal is a steal, tell them you lost it right at checkout, and ask if they
can take care of you. I'd bet they will, they seem like they're run by nice
and smart people.

~~~
wanderr
I sure hope so, because that's exactly what I did. I got an automated response
that they have a massive backlog of support requests (suprise!) And it'll be 3
or so business days, so we'll see...

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ovi256
I wish it was true, because I see it starting at $399. Could you clarify
grandalf ?

~~~
Mc_Big_G
Looks like they took it down.

Google cache:

[http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:kcsPmk5S0B4J:https://ww...](http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:kcsPmk5S0B4J:https://www.23andme.com/+23andme+%2499&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)

I would have bought at least 5.

~~~
jaybol
It is back up

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mikebo
How long before 23andme gets a 'share your dna on Facebook' button?

~~~
fbailey
I'm going to do just that

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mdolon
I wish I had an identical twin so we could split the costs.

~~~
timcederman
I was going to make a facetious comment about this earlier, but instead I did
actually email my twin and we went halves on a kit.

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wesley
Can anyone tell me if this comparison is pretty accurate?

<http://www.decodeme.com/product-comparison>

Seems like the snp coverage is a lot lower (green = 23andme).

~~~
aheilbut
I don't doubt it, but $99 << $2000. The technologies are going to continue to
improve over the next few years until we all get cheap whole-genome
sequencing, so just expect to re-do your analysis a few times as the cost
drops and coverage improves.

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sunchild
What's the deal with the freaky message about not being able to send spit
tests from NY State? Can anyone explain that issue to me?

~~~
BioGeek
The health department of the stae of New York considers 23andMe’s genome scan
to be a medical test that must be approved by regulators and ordered by a
doctor.

A competing company, Navigenics, successfully applied to have its test
licensed in New York. It has essentially put aside marketing to consumers,
aiming instead at doctors. It is also courting corporations that might use the
test as part of their employee wellness programs.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/business/20consumergenebar...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/business/20consumergenebar.html)

------
ComputerGuru
I'm surprised I'm the first to mention this here, am I really the only one
that feels this way?

I don't _want_ to know what diseases I could have. I'm happy living my life by
the day and planning for a future that I'd love to have. I'd hate to discover
I'm susceptible to x, y, and z; and that if I were to have a kid it would
likely have a, b, c....

I'd rather jus live and let live. No need to worry about stuff that may not
come to pass, and no need to brood about something even if it is, in the end,
inevitable.

~~~
falien
Almost nothing is inevitable, and even things that are can be planned for to
optimize your situation. I suppose it depends on your personality though, how
you would end up dealing with the knowledge.

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QNguyen
The dangerous thing about these tests is that they only show if you have a
marker for a particular diseases/affliction . This doesn't mean that you'll
get the disease - we're still amateurs at this technology and I don't know if
I want to live my life perpetually fearful of a disease that I have a marker
for, but no relevant data on what the chance that I'll actually get that
disease.

~~~
baran
I think you have to take these results with a grain of salt. Its better to
know ahead of time so you can begin to take steps to ensure that you dont have
problems in the future. Genetic predispositions are only a factor, environment
and other epigenetic factors also play a major role in determing your
phenotype.

~~~
QNguyen
Agreed, but it's important that companies like 23andme don't market these
tools as a complete tool for knowing what you'll get in the future, since
there's still plenty more research to be done on many of these markers (and
they're definitely not all inclusive of the diseases we face).

------
carbocation
Human genetics research fellow here (well, it's one of my hats). For those of
you who signed up for 23andMe, or who wanted to, can you explain your
rationale to me?

~~~
khafra
I would've bought it for $99, but I didn't seem to have access to that deal. I
hope I know sooner if it comes around again.

The reason is that I have an aunt who's really interested in genealogy.
Genetically tracing her heritage back to Lucy seems like an awesome Christmas
present; and quite a bit of the health-related stuff should be applicable to
me too, if she shared all the data.

~~~
carbocation
They're using one of the 600,000 SNP chips, it seems, so that is plenty
powerful to derive ancestry information. The they explicitly say that their
product should not be used for trying to divine health predictions, and for
most diseases I would agree with them. My guess is that risk prediction for a
substantial set of diseases probably won't be done well until 2020 or so.
We've only just begun to open the spigot.

------
Luc
Thanks for this - I ordered 2 sets. $70 shipping to Europe (which I only got
charged once).

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ErrantX
Sold. This kind of stuff fascinates me and I personally am willing to take the
privacy risk if I can find out a little more about ME :) I was waiting for it
to come under $99 so it's good to see it happen earlier than expected :D

------
wesley
International shipping is pretty expensive: $70 - does that include sending it
back?

~~~
robryan
Sounded like it, the FAQ mentioned it ships with a prepaid return, still it
does feel a little expensive.

~~~
heyitsnick
Seems fairly reasonable to me. $70 for 2 priority international fedex
shipments. Also I'm not sure, but shipping saliva may undergo more costs than
your normal international shipments. The FAQ talks about certain customs forms
that need to be filled in.

I went ahead and purchased. Been intrigued by the service for a while but
found the costs prohibitive; hard to pass up an 80% discount, for me they've
reduced the price down in to "impulse buy" territory.

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crocowhile
Is there a sample of how the result looks like? I want to know what markers
are sequenced. edit: found here <https://www.23andme.com/user/signup/>

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ankeshk
Seems like 23andMe doesn't ship to either India or China. They are leaving out
half the world's population!

(I'm from India and would have loved to buy their $99 special - even if
shipping was $99 more.)

~~~
kwyjibo
Maybe they don't have enough genome research result data for Indian or chinese
people, so it wouldn't make much sense to sell a product without being able to
show results.

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Tichy
Does anybody how it works if you order several kits - can every test person
still get their own account? Looking to share the order with friends to save
shipping costs.

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invisible
Well that is disappointing (it no longer shows up as $99). Maybe they'll add
more quota throughout the day - I sure hope so at that price.

~~~
madh
I just purchased at $99, so the deal is back!

------
icey
Edit - It's back up, see the response below. I was complaining that people
were upvoting when the deal appeared to be down.

~~~
grandalf
I just bought one, not sure what you're talking about.

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spoiledtechie
Thanks to whom posted this. I just bought one, but wish I could have bought
one for my entire family...

~~~
dantheman
You can buy 10.

------
japanesejay
Nice!! Thanks! I learned about this site and service at TEDxB. I am very
excited to try this out!

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eande
Just bought 2 kits at 10:02AM PST, so offer is still there.

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friendstock
I think the sale is over.... unless there is a link to it?

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baran
Back online

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zackattack
Google already has too much information on me. No thanks!

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c00p3r
Yeah. We're now collecting your data (DNA) to resell it in the future. The
storage and processing power are really cheap and will become even cheaper,
while demand for a DNA information in digital form will rise. Add to this the
launch fast and evolve mantra, plus being backed by google's money and
(probably) technology and you got a very promising business. Data is money.
There is why facebook is still alive.

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lisp123
I'm going to collect samples from potential mates and send them in to see what
they're hiding from me.

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bsergean
I just had a daughter and it freaks me out to know this kind of datas ...

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bradfordw
Send your $99 to me. I'll pick a disease at random and you likely have a
better, if not, as good a chance at getting it based on how they calculate
risks. Today only, I'll do it for $9.

~~~
Aron
This is only upvote worthy if it's premise is true. For that, we need
evidence.

~~~
infinite8s
For free, I'll tell you that you are fairly likely to get some kind of cancer.

~~~
gwern
> "What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously. "I respond to three
> questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in
> clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which
> occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must
> interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue."

