23AndMe

Indestructable

I see 23AndMe are back in a fairly big way in the UK, aggressively advertising their services in both the UK and Ireland.

They are offering both the health and ancestry information from the UK whereas in the US they are tied to providing only ancestry information (Due to a major dispute with the FDA)

I was considering getting screened, it looks very interesting! Has anyone here got it done? My roommate said she'd never do it as she doesn't want to know what potential illnesses she is predisposed. I suppose there is ethical questions involved, would these bother you?

(I posted in AH as it has a large following and broad user base, mods feel free to move if you think the thread may do better elsewhere)

diomed

I recently saw the film "The Imitation Game". The German Enigma code was cracked more easily that your opening post.

biko

I don't know what this 23andme is, nor do I wish to know.

osarusan

23AndMe is an organisation that takes a sample of your saliva, identifies your DNA, and then tells you about your ancestry and so on.

Also, in the UK, they will tell you what your genes say about health risks.

KaaaaaaPOW

osarusan wrote: »

Also, in the UK, they will tell you what your genes say about health risks.

With no guarantee of accuracy.


23andMe Is Terrifying, but Not for the Reasons the FDA Thinks

scientificamerican.com/article/23andme-is-terrifying-but-not-for-reasons-fda/

Sunnyisland

Is there 53andme around ?

Indestructable

diomed wrote: »

I recently saw the film "The Imitation Game". The German Enigma code was cracked more easily that your opening post.

Haha okay AH was a bad choice!

Indestructable

realies wrote: »

Is there 53andme around ?

Not unless you've 20 extra pairs of chromosomes lol!!

Indestructable

KaaaaaaPOW wrote: »

With no guarantee of accuracy.


23andMe Is Terrifying, but Not for the Reasons the FDA Thinks

scientificamerican.com/article/23andme-is-terrifying-but-not-for-reasons-fda/

That article doesn't really debate the accuracy at all more the gathering of personal data, I wouldn't be too concerned with that.

The accuracy would be quite high IMO, SNPs are hard to fake!!

The likes of Google and Facebook have been gathering data for years and I still use those, massive companies collecting a huge amount of user data is a sad reality in the modern world.

Wibbs

Indestructable wrote: »

The likes of Google and Facebook have been gathering data for years and I still use those, massive companies collecting a huge amount of user data is a sad reality in the modern world.

And that's a bloody scary scenario looking forward. Now people are queuing up to give them their genetic code and paying for the privilege? Ehhh... The idea of a small bunch of hyper rich linear thinking aspies with that level of power scares the bejesus outa me TBH.

The_Valeyard

Is it related to '23inMe' The orgy website?

kneemos

Wibbs wrote: »

And that's a bloody scary scenario looking forward. Now people are queuing up to give them their genetic code and paying for the privilege? Ehhh... The idea of a small bunch of hyper rich linear thinking aspies with that level of power scares the bejesus outa me TBH.

Not sure there's much "they" can do with your genetic code.

JuliusCaesar

Indestructable wrote: »

My roommate said

Is this someone you share a bed with, or just a bedroom with?




Just wondering, like.

steddyeddy

diomed wrote: »

I recently saw the film "The Imitation Game". The German Enigma code was cracked more easily that your opening post.

It's a fairly straightforward question

ScumLord

Wibbs wrote: »

And that's a bloody scary scenario looking forward. Now people are queuing up to give them their genetic code and paying for the privilege? Ehhh... The idea of a small bunch of hyper rich linear thinking aspies with that level of power scares the bejesus outa me TBH.

I don't know, I don't see it as a big evil. The fact is this kind of data probably would be useful to the medical industry. If 23andme can create a large database that data would have to have some very useful statistical information in it.

The fact a company has found a novel way of getting paid to create that database isn't that alarming to me. As long as they can hide individual data I don't see a problem.

Jen Pigs Fly

The clone wars wil be starting in a few years, they just need more dna samples to clone.

Badly Drunk Boy

My brother is mad into this, and sent off his spit a few years ago. When he sent it off, he was told he'd have to put a bio-hazard sticker on the package, although I don't think he's that bio-hazardous. More recently, he convinced our parents to do it, probably for comparison and to see which one was to blame for leaving him susceptible for which disease.

KaaaaaaPOW

Indestructable wrote: »

That article doesn't really debate the accuracy at all more the gathering of personal data, I wouldn't be too concerned with that.

The accuracy would be quite high IMO, SNPs are hard to fake!!

The likes of Google and Facebook have been gathering data for years and I still use those, massive companies collecting a huge amount of user data is a sad reality in the modern world.

Their inability to prove its accuracy is the reason it was banned. And why they have a big class action suit against them aswell in the US.

washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/06/bowing-again-to-the-fda-23andme-stops-issuing-health-related-genetic-reports/

forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2013/12/02/class-action-law-suit-filed-against-23andme/


Here's a story where they got it wrong, told someone he was gonna die a horrible death, after alot of research he told how they were wrong.

What would you have done? Become an alco and jump off a bridge?

Maybe not.

qz.com/151311/why-23andme-might-have-the-fda-worried-it-gave-me-a-false-result/


The database has huge potential abuses. Their own T&Cs say their results can be used in not health insurance (yet) but life and disability insurance.

They are/will sell, and its been shown time and time again that tagging a name onto "anonymised" data is trivial.

Plus they'll patent disease from all these results, it was done with the breast cancer gene for decades, if you wanted to get tested it cost thousands. Test itself cost a few euro.

If enough of your dumbo family pay for these tests then they already have yours.

Wibbs

kneemos wrote: »

Not sure there's much "they" can do with your genetic code.

Affect your insurance premiums for a start. Down the line> The field is wide open. As it is some companies check an job applicants web footprint, adding in genetic data would be easy enough. You could have someone who has the gene for addiction, but who is as clean as a whistle get turned down. God knows what more could come in down the line. If ten years ago I suggested that your physical location, history of same, buying stats, even political affiliations could be tracked you'd have thought me paranoid, yet we have that today. You are an "online" and increasingly offline entity that is measured and tracked all the time. The ubiquitous smartphone is the greatest personal identity tracker in history.

ScumLord wrote: »

As long as they can hide individual data I don't see a problem.

Indeed. The troubling part is "as long as". These companies have previous with being lax with personal data. The more power they build, the more lax they'll get.

Never mind that we're only scratching the surface of genetics. Don't believe the hype, there is shedloads we still have little or no clue about, but you'd swear that genetic research and conclusions from same were written in stone.

steddyeddy

As Wibbs says we're only understanding genetics. We recently found out genetic changes can be inherited. I.E an environmental exposure your grandmother experienced could cause an alteration on how her genes are expressed. That was common knowledge but what they didn't know is that those changes can be passed on to her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

That's only one of the many things they just found out about.

ScumLord

Wibbs wrote: »

Indeed. The troubling part is "as long as". These companies have previous with being lax with personal data. The more power they build, the more lax they'll get.

Never mind that we're only scratching the surface of genetics. Don't believe the hype, there is shedloads we still have little or no clue about, but you'd swear that genetic research and conclusions from same were written in stone.

The problem is this kind of thing is going to happen. If these guys don't do it someone less will. I think the technology is going to get to a stage where this kind of data gathering will almost become unavoidable.

We need to develop ways of dealing with the fact we now have this data, not whether or not we collect it. Even though we don't have it all it's going to keep coming.

steddyeddy

ScumLord wrote: »

The problem is this kind of thing is going to happen. If these guys don't do it someone less will. I think the technology is going to get to a stage where this kind of data gathering will almost become unavoidable.

We need to develop ways of dealing with the fact we now have this data, not whether or not we collect it. Even though we don't have it all it's going to keep coming.

The worst thing would be for companies to act on this data before we know how reliable it was. You might have a gene that increases your likelihood of developing cancer. Someone else might not have that gene but the environmental conditions they expose themselves to make them 5 times more likely to get cancer! It's not clean cut.

ScumLord

steddyeddy wrote: »

The worst thing would be for companies to act on this data before we know how reliable it was.

Companies will act on this data to find out if it's reliable. They can't ignore the chance to save money.

It's not clean cut.

It's not, but we'll keep stabbing at it until we figure out how to do a clean cut. There are going to be benefits to this too. We don't know that insurance companies won't be able to find a way of managing their risk so they can insure people with chronic illnesses. If they can turn them into customers without losing their shirts I'm sure they'd have no problem insuring them and making extra money.

steddyeddy

ScumLord wrote: »

Companies will act on this data to find out if it's reliable. They can't ignore the chance to save money.

It's not, but we'll keep stabbing at it until we figure out how to do a clean cut. There are going to be benefits to this too. We don't know that insurance companies won't be able to find a way of managing their risk so they can insure people with chronic illnesses. If they can turn them into customers without losing their shirts I'm sure they'd have no problem insuring them and making extra money.

It won't be insurance companies that find out it's reliable it will be the geneticists. There are too many variables going on in a person's life to pin something exclusively on a gene.

ScumLord

steddyeddy wrote: »

It won't be insurance companies that find out it's reliable it will be the geneticists. There are too many variables going on in a person's life to pin something exclusively on a gene.

Of course, but I doubt the insurance companies will be gambling everything on genetics just yet. It will become another tool in their arsenal though. My point is the data could have all sorts of implications that we don't know about. There's bound to be some bad, but bound to be some good. But we're going to have the data and we're going to act on it. There's no stopping that now. It's just a matter of how it's controlled or if it can be controlled at all.

barry181091

I might actually go for this! I have always wanted to do one of these.

One questions I always had, do they update your health markers when new studies are revealed and are subsequently added to the database?

Tarzana2

Is this the thing that was started by one of the Google guy's wife?

KaaaaaaPOW

barry181091 wrote: »

One questions I always had, do they update your health markers when new studies are revealed and are subsequently added to the database?

Yup.

KaaaaaaPOW

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Is this the thing that was started by one of the Google guy's wife?

Yup. She's one of the founders. Anne Wojcicki.

Married Brin but they're seperated...or not living together anymore though apparently.

Tarzana2

KaaaaaaPOW wrote: »

Yup. She's one of the founders. Anne Wojcicki.

Married Brin but they're seperated...or not living together anymore though apparently.

Yeah, rumoured to have ran off with some young one, emphasis on rumoured. How predictable. :pac::rolleyes:

El_Dangeroso

I got it done, frankly the 'risk' data they give you is complete tosh. The science just is not able to accurately predict the risk of most chronic disease unless it's some very specific genetic disease, which in that case you definitely have it/are a carrier.

You can upload your data into promethease and it will pull back all the studies that have mentioned any polymorphisms in your dna. It's hilariously contradictory, most studies disagree with one another. One thing that was cool is that I'm genetically resistant to the norovirus or winter vomiting bug, which jives with personal experience.

I found the ancestry stuff way more interesting. I'm basically the whitest person ever, my ancestors have been in Europe for over 30K years. I've a substantial % of Neanderthal like a lot of northern europeans and a miniscule % of the yakut tribe of siberia, which was pretty cool! Also have a pretty rare maternal haplogroup.

Overall I'd recommend it as an amusement, but not as anything to base major health decisions on.

mikom

16AndMe for travellers is launching next month.

batistuta9

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

I found the ancestry stuff way more interesting. I'm basically the whitest person ever, my ancestors have been in Europe for over 30K years. I've a substantial % of Neanderthal like a lot of northern europeans and a miniscule % of the yakut tribe of siberia, which was pretty cool! Also have a pretty rare maternal haplogroup.

Overall I'd recommend it as an amusement, but not as anything to base major health decisions on.

will you put up the full ancestry stuff to we have a look at it?

Capt'n Midnight

realies wrote: »

Is there 53andme around ?

Yes, it tells you what you died from and how long ago.

Rhys Essien

I joined this a few years ago.I got a message recently from a person in California who has a close dna link to me from the database.She supplied names and location in Ireland where her ancestors were from.Everything was correct with my side.Our common ancestor had left Ireland during the famine.

IsaacWunder

Rhys Essien wrote: »

I joined this a few years ago.I got a message recently from a person in California who has a close dna link to me from the database.She supplied names and location in Ireland where her ancestors were from.Everything was correct with my side.Our common ancestor had left Ireland during the famine.

That's pretty cool.

HughWotMVIII

My brother got his DNA screened with 23andme in the States. He found out a few interesting things, some of which affirmed stuff he already knew about himself but what was really surprising was that he is 60something percent African descent, 20something percent European descent and whatever percentage is left Asian descent.

Surprising because both my parents are East African as were my grandparents and their grandparents, etc., etc. The first white people to set foot in my country are recorded as having come in in 1894. We can trace our lineage back about 200 years and there's no one of either European or Asian descent on either side.

KaaaaaaPOW

Rhys Essien wrote: »

I joined this a few years ago.I got a message recently from a person in California who has a close dna link to me from the database.She supplied names and location in Ireland where her ancestors were from.Everything was correct with my side.Our common ancestor had left Ireland during the famine.

How did she get your name? Contact Details?

Rhys Essien

KaaaaaaPOW wrote: »

How did she get your name? Contact Details?

Its all done on the website.She sent me a message.A bit like boards,all she had was my name.If you agree,their database of DNA will match you with other close matches.

csallmighty

Is this the best site to use for ancestral information?

Rhys Essien

csallmighty wrote: »

Is this the best site to use for ancestral information?

Ya,its good.It tells you what percentage Neanderthal you are etc.Hopefully less than 100%.:D

Capt'n Midnight

My Great Grand Grandfather, Jacob's test results have just come back showing he was PH1 and the litmus paper has gone bright red. which confirms what we have always expected, my ancestors were Acidic Jews.

steddyeddy

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

My Great Grand Grandfather, Jacob's test results have just come back showing he was PH1 and the litmus paper has gone bright red. which confirms what we have always expected, my ancestors were Acidic Jews.

Ha ha very good.

csallmighty

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Ya,its good.It tells you what percentage Neanderthal you are etc.Hopefully less than 100%.:D

I might give it a go. Sounds interesting