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Honest question: Why would you need newer tests? Isn't your genetic code fixed along with all the risks it implies?
by tejaswiy 14y ago
Honest question: Why would you need newer tests? Isn't your genetic code fixed along with all the risks it implies?
- travisp 14y ago23andMe works by testing only a subset of all genetic SNPs ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism ). It's not full DNA sequencing. The newer DNA microarrays contain a greater number of SNPs that they test for.
- mhb 14y agoThey aren't giving you the results of a complete sequence ($$$). They are looking for genetic variants. So newer tests will look for additional variants. See: https://customercare.23andme.com/entries/21262606 https://customercare.23andme.com/entries/21262606
- khomenko 14y agoThey ran an exome sequencing pilot recently, so sequencing is certainly coming.
- timdorr 14y agoThey are not mapping your full genome each time. They are looking at specific genes that are known to be linked to certain conditions or attributes. When they release a new test, they are sampling more genes and therefore can find more potential conditions or attributes about you.
- khomenko 14y agoThey ran an exome sequencing pilot recently, so sequencing is certainly coming.
- gwern 14y agoIt isn't entirely fixed, but what's changing are 23andme's tests: both genotyping and sequencing prices keep falling, so periodically they can upgrade the chips they use to ones which either cover more SNPs or improve the error rate (>99.9% accuracy still means a lot of errors on scores of thousands of SNPs) or both.
- cma 14y agoThey do genetic testing, not genetic sequencing. They don't have your whole code.