Game changer in DNA

pedroeibar1

Last Thursday a $300 million deal took place that highlights what is happening in DNA research.

The big pharma company Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) signed a wide-ranging partnership deal with 23andMe (23). The core of the four-year exclusive deal centres on drug discovery, with GSK investing $300 million in 23. What makes this extra interesting from a DNA perspective is that the venture is being run by GSK’s chief scientist who has said that the emphasis will be on identifying new drugs via three approaches – researching the human immune system, analysing genetic data from 23 (and other sources such as UK Biobank) and applying artificial intelligence to the discovery research process. GSK has said that the data they hold will be ‘de-identified’ to safeguard individual privacy. Some figures in the ‘blurb’ show that 23 has a customer base of more than 5 million people, and 4 million of them have given permission for their genetic data to be used in research.

IMO the deal also provokes a moral dilemma for 23 customers – refuse to share your deepest personal data, or allow its use free of charge to possibly enable the discovery of new life-saving drugs.

pinkypinky

I've never had any dealings with 23&me. Is it right that they no longer providing matching? If so, why would anyone now test with them outside the medical info they offer, which, rightly or wrongly, I think is a secondary purpose for most people interested in DNA testing.

pedroeibar1

AFAIK the 23 results can be uploaded free to Gedmatch, so the route for genealogy remains open. That should not put off any people using it for genealogy - the medical info is a bonus not offered by other test companies. More importantly, genetic genealogy is misunderstood by the vast majority of its users. Compounding that ignorance the kit vendors are more interested in selling kit upgrades than in explaining what the results actually mean. I’m appalled by the obfuscated language used in communication by all DNA test suppliers and their total inability to clearly state what a kit can/cannot do and what the results mean. 23andMe got into hot water with the FDA in the USA some years back over how it marketed results but they now are compliant.

The 23andMe customers probably are, as you say, ‘skewed’ towards those with a particular interest in health matters – e.g. if there is a history of Parkinson’s Disease in your family you might like to know if you are in the 15% that might inherit one of those mutant genes that is a cause (one gene is called PINK1:eek:). Same applies to breast cancer, Alzheimer’s and a few more. However, the real benefit medically for GSK is targeted testing in genetics, where instead of a ‘shotgun’ a rifle approach of specific modifications, can be made to genomic sequences with a specifically adapted drug. If they link a sequence with a disease and they have 3,000 customers with that sequence, they have a ready-made trial that can be accurately measured. It's a bit 'Big Brother' (and 23's main shareholder is Mrs. Google).

pinkypinky

It's only the beta version of Gedmatch (Genesis) that can take 23&me post August 2017's change in chipset, apparently. Genesis has a lot fewer people in the bank but the plan is to merge it with the normal database at some stage.

VicWynne

Ive tested with them around 2015/2016... I have 3 kits there.

My matches are still showing up and I have new ones that seem to be recent - though they don't have a 'sort by date' facility, only newest matches - so I can only tell that the names are new, not how new.

Two of my kits tested with 23&Me only, as they were interested in the medical side of things, with little interest in the genealogy. One kit was successfully uploaded to FTDNA as they understood that it was helpful to me as their matching is better - though there is limited matching in 23. The other kit opted out of the 'relative matching' in 23&Me. All kits are in GEDMATCH.com - with full permissions and I explained how it works....

All of the testers are ok with the data being used for medical research - but that was established before they tested in case this type of thing arose.

If I was doing it now (with a requirement for medical info), I'd suggest testing with FTDNA and then running Promethase, though there are different things tested in both - with a lot of overlap.