These four companies are the largest, with 23andme co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin.
23and me
Navigenics
Decode
Pathway
There’s a handful of remaining obstacles, not making it ready for medical school prime time. Here’s why:
- The science is unable to offer meaningful predictions about the risk that a person will get a disease. Say 12% likelihood of developing heart disease. Compared to what?
- It’s still relatively expensive, anywhere from $500 to $2,000. Recreationally, if you have the cash, however, it’s fascinating if not entertaining.
- The tests only sequences a small portion of the genome, a million “hot” spots where higher correlations have been found among common diseases. But there’s at least three billion spots to examine
- It’s not so simple. Genetic variations can only explain a small part of the risk of getting most diseases. The rest involves still unknown genetic factors or environmental, psycho-social ones.
- Finally, for now at least, in most cases there is little a person can do to act on the information
To make the tests more useful, the companies are adding more practical “so what” information. Others are targeting MDs rather than the public.
As the cost of reading DNA continues to fall, and as scientists gain a better understanding of the link between genes, disease and medicine, analyzing people’s genetic make-ups will one day, I predict, become an integral part of health care.
In the meantime, vitamins and exercise may have to do.
