DNA in the News

Navigenics – A Personal Genomics Start-Up

Blaine Bettinger 7 Comments

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Last week, the genomic start-up company Navigenics issued a press release introducing their team of advisors and investors, and announcing $25 million in financing. There was an accompanying story in the Wall Street Journal, “Is There a Heart Attack in Your Future?” According to the article, the tests that will eventually be offered by Navigenics have already been tested by at least one of the company’s co-founders:

“David Agus, a cancer researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles who is a co-founder of the company, says he took the test and found he had a 68% risk of having a heart attack in his lifetime, compared with about 40% in the general population. His kids, he says, now help him stay away from French fries. “I’m a believer in empowerment,” he says.” ... Click to read more!

Links From The Genetic Genealogist – October 31, 2007

Blaine Bettinger 1 Comment

In order to clean out posts I’ve been saving in Google Reader (does anyone else keep posts in Reader until you’ve blogged about them?), I decided to have a potpourri day. The following are links to interesting articles around the blogosphere. And Happy Halloween!

Pedro at Public Rambling has The Fortune Cookie Genome, a ‘science fiction’ post about picking up the results of his whole genome scan from his genetic advisor. Of course, it’s only science ‘fiction’ until it’s science ‘reality’!

The Women’s Bioethic Project has an article about DNA Testing Without Consent, which asks whether there should be a ‘reverse’ statute of limitations for testing DNA from famous dead people. The article was written in response to a recent story in Parade. I talked about this briefly back in August (see “DNA From the Dead“), and I’m working on a post about “Discarded DNA and the Constitution”, so stick around. HT: Eye on DNA. ... Click to read more!

Navigenics and 23andMe From VentureBeat: Life Sciences

Blaine Bettinger 2 Comments

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David Hamilton at VentureBeat: Life Sciences recently wrote about the potential business plans of two popular genomic companies – Navigenics and 23andMe. It appears that the post was motivated by the recent article in Portfolio. David writes:

“Over the last few months, startups like 23andMe and Navigenics have attracted a fair bit of attention for promising to let ordinary people search through their own genomes to better understand their disease risk, genealogy and ancestry. One of the first major efforts to figure them out, however — courtesy of the November issue of Portfolio — left me with the distinct impression that these companies may not actually be anywhere near as revolutionary as they seem.”

There’s some discussion in the comment section, and David presents a number of links to the many previous articles he’s written about 23andMe and Navigenics. ... Click to read more!

Should We All Be Testing Our DNA?

Blaine Bettinger

That’s the title of an article at BBC News yesterday. The article’s header states that:

“More and more people in the UK are following America’s lead in spending hundreds of pounds on private genetic tests.”

The article is about genetic testing for health concerns, not for genealogical purposes. Although the article is very short, the author does manage to highlight a few of the potential benefits and downfalls of genetic testing.

Genetic Genealogy in Newsweek and The Courier-Journal (Kentucky)

Blaine Bettinger 2 Comments

Last week there were a couple of other articles in the news about genetic genealogy:

1. Newsweek.com – “Shaking the Family Tree with Recreational Genetics.” The article is largely in response to last week’s article in Science (see my previous coverage). There are a number of interesting comments following the Newsweek article – I would recommend browsing through them if you have the time.

2. The Courier-Journal – “DNA Discovery.” The article is mostly about Oxford Ancestors.

The Genetic Genealogy Community Responds to Last Week’s Article in Science

Blaine Bettinger 4 Comments

 

Last week I provided an analysis of the article in Science, “The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry Testing“, which examined the benefits and pitfalls of genetic genealogy.

There’s been considerable discussion of the article and the author’s conclusions at the Genealogy-DNA mailing list. One of the most interesting posts was by Kim Tallbear, a long-time member of the list and co-author of the Science article. The post, “Response to Genetic Genealogists From Authors of Oct. 19th Science Article“, is important reading for anyone who is following the development of this story. The following is a quote from Dr. Tallbear’s post:

“We orginally had language in the article that noted the expertise of genetic genealogists such as some of you on this list. (My interactions on this listserv taught me well that there is a good deal of expertise here.) But with space constraints the editors cut that language.)” ... Click to read more!

DNAPrint and Bioserve – 600,000 Genetic Genealogy Tests

Blaine Bettinger 5 Comments

Genome Technology Online mentioned the new partnership between DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. and BioServe, a company that offers “the Global Repository®, a growing library of over 600,000 human DNA, tissue and serum samples linked to detailed clinical and demographic data from 140,000 consented and anonymized patients from four continents.”

As part of the partnership, DNAPrint will analyze the 600,000 human samples in the Global Repository using the ANCESTRYbyDNA test.According to Richard Gabriel, the CEO and President of DNAPrint Genomics:

“By removing the question of ancestry from a clinical sample researchers can more readily evaluate which medicines will produce side effects within certain ethnic groups, and which medicines will work for the widest spectrum of a population.” ... Click to read more!

To Sequence or Not to Sequence – That is the Question

Blaine Bettinger 8 Comments

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An article appearing Sunday at Bloomberg.com, “Cheap, Detailed Genetic Testing Might Soon Be Ready for Market“, highlights some of the recent developments in DNA sequencing. The article is a response to three studies published yesterday at Nature Methods (available here, here, and here) which reportedly “explore cheap technologies to decipher and analyze individual patients’ DNA by allowing researchers to quickly find the small portions of the human genome that make protein and describe them, while discarding irrelevant data.”

According to the author of the Bloomberg article, “complete” DNA sequencing for as little as $300 could be ready within months. Although it is unclear what the author means by “complete”, it is entirely foreseeable that SNP testing will soon be available for a reasonable price. ... Click to read more!

More Genetic Genealogy in the News!

Blaine Bettinger

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I was being completely serious yesterday. I can barely keep up with all the genetic genealogy in the news, so here’s yet another round-up of the all the latest:

Sorenson Genomics is everywhere in the news. For example, a recent article in the Daily Herald discusses Scott Woodward’s love of genetics. Woodward is the Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. Megan Smolenyak wrote about this article at Megan’s Roots World. Sorenson also announced that it will merge the Identigene and GeneTree DNA testing units (HT: Genome Technology Online).

Jasia at Creative Gene discusses some of the financial costs associated with genetic genealogy. It appears that this will be a series of posts, and I’m very interested to see how the costs compare to traditional genealogical research. Note that Creative Gene is a member of The Genealogists, a Feedburner Network of some of today’s best genealogical blogs. ... Click to read more!