Derrick
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US company provides “meaningful” information based on incomplete research
I have always envied those “don’t tell me the odds” type guys. The ones that are so cock- sure, that it doesn’t matter what the odds are, they’ll probably get the job done through sheer arrogance. I on the other hand, like knowing the odds.
A US company called 23andme is making DNA testing commercially viable to normal people. You simply send in a sample of your saliva, along with a cheque for $400. The service then analyses your DNA and sends you information regarding your predispositions to more than “90 traits and conditions, ranging from baldness to blindness”.
My first reaction was “great idea”. But further reading has made me sceptical.
Co-founder Anna Wojcicki, wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, stated that the service can provide important and meaningful information for customers. For example, the analysis discovered that her husband has a gene which gives him between 20% and 80% chance of developing Parkinson’s disease. Now is it just me, or does between 20% and 80% sound just a little bit broad to be considered truly meaningful?
What exactly would you do with that information? Basically the guy either has a really good chance of contracting the disease, or he has a pretty small chance.
Not only is the information relatively vague, but according to Dr. Muin Khoury, director of the National Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the technology is not very reliable at all.
He believes it is wrong to charge people for this data, as it is preliminary and incomplete. He states that “many diseases stem from several different genes and are triggered by environmental factors. Since less than a tenth of our 20,000 genes have been correlated with any condition, it’s impossible to nail down exactly what component is genetic. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” says Dr. Alan Guttmacher of the National Institutes of Health.
That’s right, less than a tenth of our 20 000 genes have been correlated with any condition.
You don’t sell people half built cars, right? Well then 23andme should not be selling people information built on incomplete research.
I have always envied those “don’t tell me the odds” type guys. The ones that are so cock- sure, that it doesn’t matter what the odds are, they’ll probably get the job done through sheer arrogance. I on the other hand, like knowing the odds.
A US company called 23andme is making DNA testing commercially viable to normal people. You simply send in a sample of your saliva, along with a cheque for $400. The service then analyses your DNA and sends you information regarding your predispositions to more than “90 traits and conditions, ranging from baldness to blindness”.
My first reaction was “great idea”. But further reading has made me sceptical.
Co-founder Anna Wojcicki, wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, stated that the service can provide important and meaningful information for customers. For example, the analysis discovered that her husband has a gene which gives him between 20% and 80% chance of developing Parkinson’s disease. Now is it just me, or does between 20% and 80% sound just a little bit broad to be considered truly meaningful?
What exactly would you do with that information? Basically the guy either has a really good chance of contracting the disease, or he has a pretty small chance.
Not only is the information relatively vague, but according to Dr. Muin Khoury, director of the National Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the technology is not very reliable at all.
He believes it is wrong to charge people for this data, as it is preliminary and incomplete. He states that “many diseases stem from several different genes and are triggered by environmental factors. Since less than a tenth of our 20,000 genes have been correlated with any condition, it’s impossible to nail down exactly what component is genetic. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” says Dr. Alan Guttmacher of the National Institutes of Health.
That’s right, less than a tenth of our 20 000 genes have been correlated with any condition.
You don’t sell people half built cars, right? Well then 23andme should not be selling people information built on incomplete research.