23andMe.com - Making DNA interesting

By Aditya Mhatre at 29 December, 2008, 3:52 am

I first heard about 23andme.com, a super intelligent web service, on Diggnation and it was hard not to get instantly sucked into the whole concept. I don’t know if it’s the geek in me that makes the concept so fascinating but I think it deserve to be talked about. The site and business has been co-founded by a highly educated (no college drop-outs here) and experienced ladies team including Google’s Sergey Brin’s wife, Anne Wojcicki.

I haven’t tried it but here is how it works. It is a completely paid service and costs $399 which includes a DNA test kit. The kit contains a test tube and container in which you have to deposit your saliva and FedEx it to 23andme. 23andme takes about 2 weeks to run tests and analysis and once done the results are uploaded to their secure website and then the fun begins. It is amazing how much information can be extracted from DNA. The tests can not only tell you about the disease risks that you face but also other very interesting personal traits like Alcohol flush reaction (basically, how easily do you get drunk) and my favorite one - Ear wax type. Apparently, ear wax can be of two types, wet (sticky, honey colored) or dry (flaky, grayish-yellow)!

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I think the real value of 23andme is in knowing how prone you are to certain life threatening diseases so that you could get yourself diagnosed for the same at regular intervals. The site also publishes regular research updates related to the diseases that you might be prone to.

There is nothing new about the data being extracted from the DNA test, but it’s the integration and presentation of your data and matching it to research database that makes the site so interesting. That’s where the social networking steps in but not in a Facebook sort of a way! If you wish, you can share genes with your family and friend and see how much you have in common with them. So theoretically, if everyone in this world could take this test, we could build a family tree of the entire world! The service is currently unavailable in India else I would have loved to get myself graphed on 23andme.com.

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