It's high time you were shown...

bowiecadmium:

squeetothegee:

jtotheizzoe:

Companies like 23andMe are trying to bring genetic profiling home to the individual customer, providing an analysis of your genetic variation and possible risk factors for only $99 and a cheek swab.

These tests are far from perfect, but they point to the dream of personalized medicine based around one person’s gene variants and unique risk factors. But a genomic database (the large libraries of information collected in order to make these comparisons) is only as good as the information that goes into it. And right now 23andMe is only 1.8% African American. 

That means if you’re not white, your genetic results could be very skewed, and perhaps meaningless, just because they don’t have enough data to compare to. 

Good news! 23andMe is offering free testing kits to 10,000 African Americans to help boost their genetic research. Check out their website if you’re interested.

Hmm… not sure how I feel about this…

Until there are better privacy rules and laws in place and more security when it comes to data no private company is EVER getting a sample of my DNA.  Way too many ways this could all go wrong.  The current political climate in the U.S. is NOT making me feel any better about this either.

I don’t care if it sounds super-conspiracy theory tinfoil hat-esque…

Not.  Gonna.  Happen.

I don’t think it sounds super-conspiracy theory tinfoil hat-esque at all - In the past I’ve considered getting the DNA tests to see if I have the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, because I’m at a high risk for breast cancer, but I won’t because of the current political climate.

(Source: jtotheizzoe)