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23andme - anyone try it?

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    #2
    pauln
    Registered Users Posts: 366 ✭✭pauln


    Hi,
    I was looking into this also, there are a few more out there too. Another is deCODE genetics deCODEMe service from Iceland. They are more expensive then the 23&me service but I think they are a more experienced company as they do work in drug development and diagnostic testing also.

    A few things would be stopping me doing it right now:
    1. The price. The technology is rapidly becoming more widespread and the next couple of years will see these tests become better and far cheaper.
    2. The current technology. Their current service is not a full reading, a few more years and the technology will have improved.
    3. Security of the information. The standards/procedures for the long-term storage and use of the sequence are not set in stone yet.
    4. The results. At the minute the usefulness of the results is debatable. It will take a lot of sequence results cross referenced with medical records and lifestyle questionnaires to make this a more useful diagnostic test in the future. This really ties in with the technology becoming cheap enough to be widely used but also the the data has to be allowed to be used for research purposes to develop the tests usefulness so the regulations governing the data's use will need to be sorted out.

    All that said I do think this type of testing is going to takeoff big time in the future and has huge potential to improve healthcare.

    Paul.


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    #3
    patto_chan
    Registered Users Posts: 256 ✭✭patto_chan


    Intrigued as well but confidentiality of results would be a concern.
    And, how useful are the results really?
    10 month old article from the Guardian isn't positive.


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    #4
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    well, I signed up and paid over my 399U$

    some results:

    it tells you if you are a carrier of various things such as cystic fibrosis etc, and your disease risk of another 90+ diseases, compared to the average for the european population.
    It also has quite a bit on ancestory, tells you what paternal and maternal haplogroup you have.
    This can lead to more unanswerable questions, my maternal haplogroup, for instance isn't found much in Europe at all, (or anywhere else), but is found in parts of the middle east.

    It also allows you to compare the similarity of your DNA with other people, I've compared DNA with about 85people at this stage, including several other Irish people.(it also allows you to compare all the other people who have agreed to share DNA with you)
    Surprisingly Irish people don't seem to be more closely releated than other groups of Europeans,( so much for the small gene pool), Scandanavians, seem to be more closely related for instance.

    Is it worth the money?, I don't know, but it has great potential.
    I did ask the doc to check me for something for which I have a much higher disease risk for, turned out negative.


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