Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

fiercebiotech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 228 posts

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#211

Post by aaavl2821 »

cncrnd wrote: post #179
fapjacks wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've purchased a handful of Dante Labs 30x WGS kits on Amazon over the last couple of days. You didn't hear it from me, but the kits are still on sale on Amazon for $349... ... And an additional secret $100 discount during checkout. This is $250 WGS at 30x coverage. It should be front-page news.

Are the results of WGS + analysis with promethease more insightful than the results of 23andMe?

23andme measures presence / absence of ~1M specific single-nucleotide polymorphism mutations (a SNP is a change in one "letter" of DNA), out of 10M+ total mutations known SNP mutations. Whole genome sequencing reads basically your entire genome, which consists of approximately 3 billion base pairs

so 23andme is like a unit test, and WGS is like the source code for the whole system

that said, we don't really know how to interpret most of the source code, so for a lot of cases (esp those that don't relate to medical treatment or research), 23andme is probably fine

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#212

Post by aaavl2821 »

beaugunderson wrote: post #122
breck wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there are services that will do whole genome seq for you for under $10k(and I assume won’t keep your data). You could then use Promethease for analysis. I’m unaware of any way you could do self-DNA testing at home unless you wanted to spend $100k+ on equipment, reagents, etc. The Nanopore might be relevant but I haven’t looked into it much.

Full Genomes Corporation[1] will do WGS at 30x for $1295, WGS at 20x for $900, and Long Read WGS (newer technology) for $2900. For Prime Day, Dante Labs[2] had a sale on a 30x WGS for $349; it's still on sale for $499. Once you have a WGS you might consider donating it to the Harvard Personal Genomes Project[3], Open Humans[4], or putting it on GitHub[5]. [1]: https://www.fullgenomes.com/whole-genome-sequencing/ [2]:…

What's in it for these companies? Seems like there must be a catch

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#213

Post by OkGoDoIt »

dayvid wrote: post #24

I asked 23andMe if there was any way to delete my genetic data from their site after the Equifax hack news. From their response: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain Genetic Information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional…

I just fudged most of my data when I signed up. Things like gender and race I put in correctly since I assume it could affect the results, but birthday slightly off, and any contact information completely off (throwaway email address, fake name, etc).

No way in hell I trust any company in the US with my genetic data if it can be tied to me. Only reason I did the kit in the first place was at my girlfriend’s insistence.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#214

Post by jnurmine »

mcculley wrote: post #187
jnurmine wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the insurance company will not give you an insurance at all if you are deemed a high enough genetic risk. Perhaps, while the main disease works its way, you will not be covered for the side effects (like pneumonia) either, as you have no insurance. This might or might not be an issue now (regardless of the place of residence), but laws can always be changed. And societies can always develop to be more totalit…

How long do you think you will be able to keep your genome private?

Given that it is immaterial property which belongs to me, I should be able to hold on to it as long as I want?

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#215

Post by cloverich »

ralston wrote: post #205
guiambros wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. As someone who has his genetic profile with 23andme (as well as my kids, wife, parents, etc), I'm actually looking forward to someone like GSK to come in and use my genetic data to accelerate the discovery of new drugs. It's shocking that so much genetic data is available, and we're barely scratching the surface, and using for fancy graphs and genealogy trees. We could be finding the cure for rea…

> As someone who has his genetic profile with 23andme (as well as my kids, wife, parents, etc) Well there it is. You couldn't have an objective discussion about this, even if you wanted to. You (and your family) have already gone through the process. So of course you're extremely hopeful/optimistic that this works out with no problems ;)

Vested interest doesn't preclude objective discussion, it just makes it more difficult and more likely to be one-sided. In this case OP argues that the companies most financially lucrative position is to use the data in a way that benefits both the company and society. That stands as a strong argument against the parent comments, regardless of the underlying motivations.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#216

Post by CamelCaseName »

ironjunkie wrote: post #67

I don't want to spread FUD but why would ANYONE in their right mind give their DNA to a company in Silicon Valley that is explicitely using Google as a model for Data privacy ? (The founder of 23AndMe is the ex-wife of Google founder). Even worse, people are actually PAYING quite a lot to get the privilege of having that company playing with your most private data. This field needs to be heavily regulated. In 20 year…

>why would ANYONE in their right mind give their DNA...

I've been thinking about this a lot since you posted yesterday and I think you're doing yourself, your relatives, and your whole ethnicity a favor IF your data is used to build better drugs.

There's a huge issue with drug testing skewing against certain ethnicities, which is why some drugs are not effective for certain people. This seems like a good solution.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#217

Post by CamelCaseName »

Severian wrote: post #59
dayvid wrote: post #24

I asked 23andMe if there was any way to delete my genetic data from their site after the Equifax hack news. From their response: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain Genetic Information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional…

Other than your DOB and sex, can you just provide a fake name/email and go from there? Only people I want to share my genetic info with is my family, and they know how to contact me.

Even if you don't give out your peers information, they only need a few data points from your relatives (who may not even know they have given it their information) to figure out who you are.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#218

Post by cncrnd »

berberous wrote: post #190
cncrnd wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the results of WGS + analysis with promethease more insightful than the results of 23andMe?

Not for me. You obviously have more data, but like 23andme,I found very little of it to be actionable or useful. YMMV

What'd you use to analyze your genome, promethease?

I think that increased risks of x,y,z would be good to be aware of.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#219

Post by renaudg »

this_user wrote: post #56
dayvid wrote: post #24

I asked 23andMe if there was any way to delete my genetic data from their site after the Equifax hack news. From their response: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain Genetic Information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional…

You could use a EU-based competitor and then force them to delete the data through a GDPR request. Should work in theory, although I haven't tried it.

No need to use a competitor : GDPR applies to all EU-based customers, regardless of where the service provider is.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#220

Post by berberous »

cncrnd wrote: post #218
berberous wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for me. You obviously have more data, but like 23andme,I found very little of it to be actionable or useful. YMMV

What'd you use to analyze your genome, promethease? I think that increased risks of x,y,z would be good to be aware of.

Yes, promethease. Have you done 23andme? It also gives you increased risks, but usually none that are helpful. For example, if it says that you have some Snaps that increase your risks of prostate cancer from 1 in 100 to 2in 100, what do you do with that? 2 in 100 is still so low (even though double baseline population risk), that it's not going to effect my decisions. That's also assuming it's accurate -- other SNPs may lower your risk.
Post reply on HN