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23andMe UK

23andme.com

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Re: 23andMe UK

#31

Post by ceejayoz »

ctz wrote: post #8
iamben wrote: post #4

I absolutely love the idea of this. I just think that I'll end up in a database that, despite any promise to the contrary now, will probably end up being used against me at some point in the future (targeted marking / denying of health insurance / whatever else). Which I really don't love. And I hate to be cynical, but it strikes me that becoming the Google of genomes is ultimately going to make far, far more cash th…

> denying of health insurance All the health insurance I've ever had has had cover for pre-existing conditions, required no medical details or medical examination. As far as I can tell, insurance companies have surprisingly little interest in my health, past my age and sex. I can't see that changing so far that they pay third parties for a genetic screen in the near future.

> As far as I can tell, insurance companies have surprisingly little interest in my health, past my age and sex.

Until you file a big claim.

Re: 23andMe UK

#32

Post by shaurz »

I really would like to get my DNA anaylsed out of pure curiosity, but I'm also afraid I might discover something I would have been better not knowing.

Re: 23andMe UK

#34

Post by pkrumins »

The pricing doesn't make much sense. It's $99 in the US, and $195 in the UK (125 pounds). It's cheaper to order the US version to the UK.

Re: 23andMe UK

#35

Post by danpalmer »

pkrumins wrote: post #34

The pricing doesn't make much sense. It's $99 in the US, and $195 in the UK (125 pounds). It's cheaper to order the US version to the UK.

The shipping used to be $90 I think (because it's tracked there and back international delivery).

I suspect if they want to develop the UK sales at all, they will need to adhere to certain regulations regarding what information they give out, rather like what the FDA does. This means treating UK customers slightly differently, which incurs additional expense. I'm not hugely surprised.

Re: 23andMe UK

#36

Post by jessriedel »

jebus989 wrote: post #18
thebiglebrewski wrote: post #2

If I'm in the US, is there any way to proxy into my full health results?

Of course, they're just calling SNPs and using published GWAS studies to estimate disease risk. You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe and convert to e.g. VCF format for use in a bioinformatics tool like the variant effect predictor. Besides, really the most interesting health-related alleles are the simplest: ApoE, BRCA1 — no complicated algo is needed to interpret those associations.

> You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe

Well, not your full genome. You can get the raw SNPs that 23andMe test for, and if you're in their pilot program that sequences the exome (which is a superset of the SNPs but a subset of the full genome) then you can presumably get the raw data on that.

Re: 23andMe UK

#37

Post by mcculley »

shaurz wrote: post #32

I really would like to get my DNA anaylsed out of pure curiosity, but I'm also afraid I might discover something I would have been better not knowing.

I did 23andme myself before the FDA came down on them and I'm happy for the things it tells me. What would you be better off not knowing?

Re: 23andMe UK

#38

Post by ctz »

talkingquickly wrote: post #22
iamben wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just from (UK) insurer Aviva's health insurance policy: "We don’t cover treatment of pre-existing conditions or related conditions if you had symptoms of, medication for, treatment for or advice about that condition in the five years before your joining date." It wouldn't take much for companies to start requiring that you disclose the knowledge you're at (high?) risk of something and adjusting their prices according…

Often (in the UK at least) if your insurance is provided as a benefit through a company rather than buying your policy directly, pre existing conditions will be covered even though the provider would normally exclude them if purchased by an individual.

This observation likely explains my experience!

Re: 23andMe UK

#39

Post by jebus989 »

jessriedel wrote: post #36
jebus989 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, they're just calling SNPs and using published GWAS studies to estimate disease risk. You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe and convert to e.g. VCF format for use in a bioinformatics tool like the variant effect predictor. Besides, really the most interesting health-related alleles are the simplest: ApoE, BRCA1 — no complicated algo is needed to interpret those associations.

> You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe Well, not your full genome. You can get the raw SNPs that 23andMe test for, and if you're in their pilot program that sequences the exome (which is a superset of the SNPs but a subset of the full genome) then you can presumably get the raw data on that.

That's their terminology I believe (hence quotes). However, for fun you can have a go at imputing a full genome from these SNPs (e.g. http://genomesunzipped.org/2013/03/learning-more-from-your-2...). SNPs aren't necessarily exonic either so exome-seq isn't a superset of SNPs (I am a bioinformatics PhD student so while this isn't precisely my day job I'm not speaking from a position of ignorance).
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