23andBikes

    the new HQ for 23andMe - still short of a bike rack.

    the implicit message:
    genes + environment + behavior + luck = destiny

    (Disclosure: I'm on the board.)

    Comments and faves

    1. kcnickerson (58 months ago | reply)

      bikes in the lobby, ah, i love the smell of a start-up in the morning...

    2. Tom Lord (Berkeley) (58 months ago | reply)

      genes + environment + behavior + luck = destiny

      Which terms on the left dominate and how do you know? How do they interact?

      What is the difference between this development and, say, the commercialization of eugenics during WWII? Both start with a tiny core of real science but then both seem to quickly leap to non-scientific conclusions in support of bogus political aims. That little equation up there really sets off alarm bells, for me. I understand the romantic appeal of the idea of "exceptional heritage" but when it becomes elevated to the level of social policy I think we must all say "no".

      Current bleeding-edge techniques for less-expensive resequencing have poorly-understood error rates and poorly-understood kinds of error. The sequence spelling ("ACCG...") that you get back is certainly wrong in some details. We don't really know if it is systematically wrong (e.g., whether repeated resequencings of a single genome will likely just keep repeating certain errors or whether it will clear them up). So, I wonder, can 23andMe counsel me as to which kinds of misinterpretation are likely?

      23andMe has a mission of consumer empowerment. Couldn't they save time by putting up a page that says "Well, we really don't know much," followed by a bibliography?

      Why, in other words, is there such a rush among this clique to make a consumer product out of something of such dubious value and that is so poorly understood? We're at the stage of the science where we can begin collecting data, not drawing conclusions. Why should we regard this as anything less than a massive-scale, uncontrolled, unsupervised human-subject experiment combined with a business model designed to get subjects to pay for their own use in the study, this business marketed by a superstitious and unscientific interpretation of the data collected?

      Does 23andMe claim that there is a medical use for this data or for their services? Which regulatory agencies have reviewed these claims?

      -t

    3. Esthr (58 months ago | reply)

      Tom -

      please stand by for the answers. The company has not yet launched. When we do, we aim to be a model of transparency and responsibility.

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