23andme genome analysis - $99 today only

I suspect this might interest some people here: for today only, 23andme is offering their full-package DNA testing for only 99 dollars (the normal price is $499).

23andme uses a genotyping process, which differs from a full gene-sequencing. From their website:

The DNA chip that we use genotypes hundreds of thousands of SNPs at one time. It actually reads 550,000 SNPs that are spread across your entire genome. Although this is still only a fraction of the 10 million SNPs that are estimated to be in the human genome, these 550,000 SNPs are specially selected "tag SNPs." Because many SNPs are linked to one another, we can often learn about the genotype at many SNPs at a time just by looking at one SNP that "tags" its group. This maximizes the information we can get from every SNP we analyze, while keeping the cost low.

In addition, we have hand-picked tens of thousands of additional SNPs of particular interest from the scientific literature and added their corresponding probes to the DNA chip. As a result, we can provide you personal genetic information available only through 23andMe.

I don't have any experience with 23andme (though I seem to recall them having some financial difficulties), but the price was low enough for me to order a test.

An article by Steven Pinker discussing his experience getting tested can be found here. This has also been linked on Hacker News.

I suspect this might interest some people here: for today only, 23andme is offering their full-package DNA testing for only 99 dollars (the normal price is $499).

23andme uses a genotyping process, which differs from a full gene-sequencing. From their website:

The DNA chip that we use genotypes hundreds of thousands of SNPs at one time. It actually reads 550,000 SNPs that are spread across your entire genome. Although this is still only a fraction of the 10 million SNPs that are estimated to be in the human genome, these 550,000 SNPs are specially selected "tag SNPs." Because many SNPs are linked to one another, we can often learn about the genotype at many SNPs at a time just by looking at one SNP that "tags" its group. This maximizes the information we can get from every SNP we analyze, while keeping the cost low.

In addition, we have hand-picked tens of thousands of additional SNPs of particular interest from the scientific literature and added their corresponding probes to the DNA chip. As a result, we can provide you personal genetic information available only through 23andMe.

I don't have any experience with 23andme (though I seem to recall them having some financial difficulties), but the price was low enough for me to order a test.

An article by Steven Pinker discussing his experience getting tested can be found here. This has also been linked on Hacker News.

I wouldn't buy this for $500, but at $100, the possibility of learning something important is well worth it. I've ordered mine. Thanks for posting this - I would've missed the opportunity otherwise.

What do you think you might learn? I haven't seen very many practical results (as opposed to idle curiosity), except for a few things like lactose intolerance.

EDIT: I've since seen a number of interesting examples - warfarin sensitivity and how well modafinil works come to mind. The latter, since modafinil is pretty expensive, might justify testing at $100 or $200 all on its own.