Personal Genetics Just Got A Whole Lot More Exciting, And Affordable

The realm of personal genetics just changed in a dramatic way: it's becoming affordable.

23andMe.com, a personal genetics company dedicated to helping individuals understand their own genetic information through DNA analysis technologies and web-based interactive tools, announced this week (press release here) that it has reduced the amount of it's services from $1000 to $399.  Considering you can use this service to find out the latest research on how your genes may affect risk for 80 plus common diseases and conditions such as heart attack, arthritis and cancers, this seems like a small price to pay.

(As an aside, I have not had the chance to get my "Spit Kit" yet, but I plan to soon.  It may sound ridiculous, but I must admit I am a little nervous about finding out too much information about my health.  On the other hand, to have this level of scientific research and information personalized to my health will enable me to focus much more on wellness and prevention as I manage my health.)

My partner Steven Krein and I did attend the 23andMe.com "Spit Party" on Tuesday night where, in addition to getting to hob-nob with all sorts of famous "spitters" like Sergey Brin, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Rupert Murdoch, Harvey Weinstein, and Barry Diller, we learned a lot more about the technology which is truly amazing. In fact, Moore's Law seems to be applicable to the genetics research field now and it's incredible how quickly the technology is advancing which is impacting cost and accessibility in a big way. It's likely that in a year or two, this type of service will be less than $100 and your personalized genetics research will map to hundreds or thousands of traits, diseases and conditions.

Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe said when they announced their plans to reduce the cost of the service, “By taking advantage of continuing innovation we are able to introduce a new chip that will give people more relevant data at a lower price. We are excited that we are opening doors for more people to learn about their health and ancestry and for more people to be able to participate in advancing research. It is important to democratize personal genetics and make it more accessible.”

More Personalized Health Information, Now What?
Now that more people have access to their genetic profiles they are beginning to search for very specific information about diseases and treatments and SNP Codes (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism).  It can be difficult to find this type of information online and often it doesn't exist so we've had our team of health guides working on hundreds of genetic WisdomCards to make it easier for people to find the best information available. 

View the OrganizedWisdom collection of Genetic WisdomCards here.

Note: we'll be posting more about this topic shortly when we share the transcripts from a recent conversation we had with Esther Dyson about Health 2.0, technology and innovation. Esther is on the board of 23andMe and also is an investor in OrganizedWisdom and on our advisory board.