Direct-to-consumer genetic testing

Post date: Jan 14, 2016 11:42:52 PM

Earlier this week I spit into a tube and sent it to 23andMe for genetic testing. Over the next 6 to 8 weeks, the company will genotype me at "hundreds of thousands of SNPs" (single nucleotide polymorphisms) scattered throughout the human genome, and will deliver a series of reports summarizing some of my data. These reports will include information about my ancestry (for example, how much of my DNA is Neanderthal in origin), as well as generating a profile about how I probably look (for example, probable eye colour and whether I am likely to have freckles), and other interesting data that I won't get into now.

Why did I choose to undergo direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing? Curiosity mostly. I love genetics, and I can't wait to download my personal SNP data. Why did I choose to undergo DTC genetic testing now? Well, I've sort of been planning to do this for awhile, but never got around to ordering the kit. This week, however, I started teaching the undergraduate genetics course, BIOL466, in the Biology Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. One of the labs that I will be teaching later in the semester looks at SNPs in the human genome, and the students have the option of purchasing their own DTC genetic tests so they are able to analyze their own personal data in the lab (or after - no students will be asked to share any of their personal information with anyone else, and all students will be given a fake dataset that they can use in the lab).

To prepare my students for the option of DTC genetic testing, I previously posted a document on the course website explaining what DTC genetic testing was, and some of the things they should consider before undergoing it. Not everyone wants to find out whether they carry a genetic variation that is associated with a particular genetic disorder or disease. Fair enough. On Monday I brought my kit to the first lecture of the semester so the students could take a look at it, and I reiterated some of the points I had made in the course information document. Then I went back to my office, spit in the tube, and mailed it back to 23andMe the next day. I'm not sure what my data will tell me (although I have a pretty good idea of what to expect for some of it), but of all the genetic data that I have analyzed, these will be the first to say something about my own genetic make-up.