A STARTUP in California (where else?) is preparing to launch a new Social Not-Working service which will allow users to compare their genetic structures with strangers as well as with members of their own families.

23andMe, the personal genomics startup from Mountain View, CA, is trying to cash in on the social not-working craze by offering people the opportunity to share their DNA information with one another to learn more about their genetic risks of falling prey to a plethora of nasty diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes, muscular degeneration, and cancer.

Technology Review reports that in order to sign up for the service, users can order a $999 kit, gob in a bottle and send it in, then wait to receive a personal analysis of nearly 600,000 genetic variations linked to disease and other things, like ancestry, height, and eye color. It can also give a person information about their specific risks for developing a certain disease.

Co founder of 23andMe, Linda Avery, reckons that people might even join site networks based on their haplogroups, genetic groupings representing migration branches of the human evolutionary tree. It could end up being the genetic equivalent of poking someone on facebook, or seeing what country network they fall under. The site also uses the same sort of visual standards expected from social networking sites, with colourful tools and diagrams, and applications that allow users to compare their DNA to Bono’s from U2, for example.

Avey and second co founder, Anne Wojcicki, say they aim to create a genomic database so big, that they will eventually be able to generate scientifically and medically relevant information about all their users. They also hope that the enterprise will encourage people to take more of a personal interest in DNA testing, which they see as a potentially innovative way to go about genetic research in the future.

The main point of the site would be the “how do I compare to other people?” factor, but the site’s founders also want to spur a sort of grassroots research into diseases like autism and Parkinson’s which they hope would attract large enough numbers of people with the diseases to come together and search their genomes for similarities.

For those, rightly, concerned about what the company would do with all the masses of DNA they collect, Avey says that 23andMe will not sell genetic data to pharmaceutical companies, but that it might sell access to a genetic pool of information from people who have given the company the right to let others use their DNA for research. So, to sum it all up, first you have to pay $999, then you spit on a swab, allowing you to compare haplogroups with rockstars and then have your data poked at by science boffins with unknown intentions. GENE-IUS. µ

L'Inq
Technology Review