The Guardian has an interesting, and rather damning article on the rise of personal DNA testing companies like 23andMe (tagline: “Genetics Just Got Personal”).
The service is likely to provoke controversy in the UK, where authorities have warned that genetic tests are often meaningless yet can provoke needless anxiety among those who take them. Last month the Human Genetics Commission condemned them as a dangerous waste of money and called for regulations to control their marketing
I’d be very interested in hearing what my fellow DNA-Network bloggers think of this (especially those affiliated with 23andMe!)
It certainly is one of the most negative depictions of 23AndMe I’ve seen in the media so far – perhaps a sign that the traditionally gene-conservative UK market will be a far tougher nut to crack than the US for early personal genomics companies.
As I say on my own blog, I thought the response of the 23AndMe founders was pretty reasonable:
IMO, 23AndMe seem to be doing a better job than many DTC genetics companies at presenting their results in an even-handed fashion. This may be because their target audience is generally a pretty savvy bunch unlikely to fall for hype and exaggerated claims.
Thanks for the comment, Daniel.
I’m generally about 50/50 on this issue – I do think it plays into this sort of simplistic view that many have of a “gene-for-x” which can cause unnecessary over-reactions. Just because you have some allele, does not mean you will get (say) cancer. There’s been a lot of hype about this sort of detection in articles about these services.
On the other hand, many alleles ARE linked to things that would be good to know about – predisposition to things like breast cancer, diabetes, alzheimers would be very useful to be aware of.
And yes, people are adults and having information is a good thing.
–Simon
I think they are currently still in infancy and should be taken with a grain of salt.
But I had suspected some slavic ancestry in my
family line for years and years but had no paperwork whatsoever to back it up or any other means of proof after many years of searching.Sure enough an autosomal test picked up very strong slavic ancestry.