Personal DNA services for about $1000

There are serveral new services, which will let customers analyze their DNA. This will tell them how likely it is that they will contract inherited diseases by creating a personalised, genetic profile.

I think personalized medicine is the way to go. This is one piece of a larger puzzle. More analysis of this and other data is required. There needs to be individual computer models that represent our detailed physical condition. We need to be able to run simulations against that computer model to know what we should expect before we treat the physical person.

23andMe, one of whose founders is married to the co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, is one of a number of firms aiming to capitalise on their new market for personalised healthcare, where companies aim provide tailored, genetic information to customers. Customers will be able to take ‘preventive action’ in relation to their health.

Last week, DeCode Genetics, an Icelandic firm, began a similar service for North American and European customers costing $985, and another Californian company, Navigenics, is also due to enter the market soon.

Genetics experts criticised the service, saying that for the vast majority of customers it would be “scarcely of any use at all,” and that 80 per cent of the information relevant to a determination about a customer’s life expectancy, say, could be ascertained in a doctor’s appointment.

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