DNA tests can be easily fooled and different tests may draw wildly different conclusions about the supposed heritage of participants. One thing the current rash of these startups have in common, however, is how their saliva testing kits are not supposed to come with spit already included.
On Tuesday, a 13-year-old boy from New Jersey was at the center of medical history as he became the first person in the US to receive an FDA-approved gene therapy for an inherited disease. The event marks the beginning of a new era of medicine, one in which devastating genetic conditions that we are born with can be…
Earlier this month, when consumer genetic testing giant 23andMe announced plans to roll out the first consumer test for breast cancer risk, the news attracted some hefty criticism from the medical community. Sure, consumer DNA tests allow people to find out information about their health without a potentially pricey…
The destructive shadow sometimes cast by our genes extends even longer than we assumed, a new study published recently in Science suggests. Rare, undetected gene mutations may help explain some people’s common conditions like kidney damage, heart failure, and infertility.
It’s amazing how much information there is hiding in one tiny globule of spit.
In Saudi Arabia, if you’re planning to tie the knot, there’s a step you must go through that doesn’t happen anywhere else: You have to get a test for genetic disease. Hereditary blood diseases like sickle cell and beta thalassemia are prevalent in this part of the world, where marriage between cousins is common. A new…
Online dating is largely a succession of misery and humiliation, which is why so many of us are willing to pay an algorithm to find us the perfect match. The newest entré to the arena of apps that promise to help you find love: Pheramor, a Houston-based startup that claims to use DNA as the basis for its matchmaking…
The science of how our genes affect our health, our looks and our personality is still pretty mysterious. Even more mysterious: What happens to your DNA after you spit in a test tube and send it to 23andMe or Ancestry to decode your DNA for a not-insignificant fee.
You probably wouldn’t hand out your social security number without having a pretty good idea of how that information was going to be used, right? That would be dumb. It’s extremely sensitive information. And yet, the consumer genetic testing market is booming thanks to people readily giving up another piece of their…
Every aspiring parent spends some time fantasizing about what their hypothetical future child might look like. Now one startup claims it can actually tell you what your unborn future children will look like, based on DNA.
You may have never wondered what’s in the DNA of a football fan, but the Baltimore Ravens planned to find out. As part of a bizarre game-day promotion on Sunday, the Ravens partnered with consumer genetic testing company Orig3n to give away free DNA test kits to 55,000 fans as they entered the stadium. But the plan…
As fun as it is to find out where your great-great-great grandparents came from, the real promise of genetic testing is in the realm of disease. By screening for the genetic markers associated with hereditary disease, people can make proactive, potentially even life-saving decisions about their health. That is, as…
Since launching a decade ago, the consumer genetic testing company 23andMe has sold people more than two million DNA tests revealing information about their health and ancestry. Mail-in spit tests, though, aren’t the company’s long-term plan for striking it rich. On Tuesday, we got a peek at what is: Turning the …
As a young child, every morning at sunrise I would wake up to tap dance on the patio outside my mom’s bedroom door, much to my poor mom’s chagrin. These sunrise salutations became an enduring family story, as did my habit of getting up with the sun. Imagine my surprise, then, when a DNA test recently suggested that I…
Today in America, if you are poor, you are also more likely to suffer from poor health. Low socioeconomic status—and the lack of access to healthcare that often accompanies it—has been tied to mental illness, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, to name just a few.
The premise behind Yes or No Genomics is simple: Genetic disease is typically caused by a variation in at least one of the many thousands of genes in the human genome, so knowing whether your DNA code contains variants could suggest whether your health is at risk. And for just $199, the scientists at Yes or No…
23andMe quickly gained notoriety by providing private customers with health and ancestry information directly from their sequenced DNA, then, in 2013, it was stopped from providing health details by the FDA. Now it’s got the green light to resume.
23andMe made a name for itself selling DNA test kits, but today it announced a radical new direction: The company will start mining its huge database of DNA sequences to create new drugs. The science of how they could do that is fascinating—but it raises a lot of futuristic ethical questions too.
Genetic testing has taken off in recent years. Companies like 23andMe and Medcan are finally allowing people to get their DNA tested so that they can better understand their genetic lineage and determine if they're prone to certain diseases. Now all this sounds good in theory — but what if your genetic tests yielded…
Walgreens plans to sell genetic testing kits for the first time in brick and mortar stores, but the FDA thinks this shift from labs/internet to pharmacy may be too much too fast.