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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to even think about this DNA test

10 replies

MN164 · 04/12/2014 20:52

www.23andme.com/uk?

£125 and they test 1,000 DNA markers for health and ancestry. Looks to have real science behind it, but also commerce.

I've asked family and friends and everyone is guiding me away from it. What would I do with info like that? What about life insurance? What if Google sell the data to other people? etc etc

Would you do this test and want to find out what you might die of and that you are/are not related to who you thought you were?

Curiosity killed the cat .... am I too curious for my own good?

OP posts:
ThirdPoliceman · 04/12/2014 21:07

Is this an advert?

professornangnang · 04/12/2014 22:03

Go for it.

cheesecakemom · 04/12/2014 22:09

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

timetoplay · 04/12/2014 22:23

No I wouldn't bother. I don't see that there's much accreditation of the lab. The illumina costs a lot to run even if costs are coming down, I would't trust the quality of the data received- by analysis or throughput- or the QS of the lab itself. What would you do with the information anyway?

What they give you wouldn't be thorough or necessarily useful or correct. I analyse Sanger sequencing and it's really time consuming to do. That's just very basic analysis and it takes a long time to compile and then actually analyse, I can't believe they would give good quality, accurate information in a short time or for that amount of money.

Original poster
MN164 · 04/12/2014 22:45

Timetoplay

You nailed it for me. Not going to bother.

IABU .... Wink

PS - wasn't an ad, but heard about it on the radio this morning.

OP posts:
TooMuchCantBreathe · 04/12/2014 22:52

Doing something like you are talking about for kicks could well completely and irrevocably change your life. If you seriously consider it the only way to make that decision would be to treat it as if you were going to face the worst possible case scenario and act accordingly - including all the psychological support etc that would be involved in making the decision to test. Possibly you'll find nothing, possibly you'll ruin your life.

Hatespiders · 04/12/2014 22:57

Among other things, it does apparently tell you if you're genetically likely to enjoy eating sprouts. Very useful.
I doubt if it's accurate, and as it purports to predict the probability of contracting a whole smorgasbord of diseases, it could be terribly depressing and worrying. I'd give it a miss if I were you.

tigermoll · 04/12/2014 23:19

But I already know if I like sprouts.

Minerves · 05/12/2014 01:00

you can out the data from 23andme nto other programs to get the health info

timetoplay · 05/12/2014 09:28

To accurately analyse sequencing data you need a real programme with trained people using. You can say oh look I have a SNP here on so many reads but you don't know if that an error in the sequencing or a shift or insertion has made the sequencer read it of if it's genuine. And what it means if anything.

If you cant interpret the data then you need an expert who can. Not a programme which won't have clue about sequencing errors or be looking at the raw traces. Testing for cystic fibrosis is easy if you are just looking at the five most common gene but thats for myself. My oh hasn't a clue when he sees my labbook. Most people are tested at birth for that now and if it's in the family then predictive testing is done.

I'd advise people to with things like this.

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