The same is true for any population where not many members have taken the test for a particular company. Middle Eastern reference populations are not as well represented as European, an industry-wide challenge.” The author quotes a representative from the company 23andMe as saying, “Different companies have different reference data sets and different algorithms, hence the variance in results. An article in Gizmodo describes one family’s experience with DNA testing and some of the pitfalls. Second, because the analyses compare the sample DNA to DNA already in the database, it matters how many people from any given area have taken the test and are in the database. It may not seem like an important detail, but it shows that the comparison population is not the same as the general population. There are some interesting implications to how these databases are built.įirst, they are primarily made up of paying customers, which means that the vast majority of genetic datasets in Ancestry’s database come from people who have enough disposable income to purchase the kit and analysis. Each person who buys genetic analysis from Ancestry, for example, consents to having his/her data become part of Ancestry’s enormous database, which is used to perform the analyses that people pay for. (Photo copyright: New York University.)Īlthough some people purchase kits from multiple companies, the majority of people take just one test. “It just takes one person in a family to reveal the genetic information of everyone in the family,” she notes. “There is a wild-west aspect to all of this,” Erin Murphy, a New York University law professor and genetics specialist who focuses on privacy implications, told McClatchy. In some cases, the sequencing from one sample submitted to different companies for analysis have rendered dramatically different results. Many reporters, scientists, and others have taken multiple DNA tests from different companies and received entirely different results. The answer depends, in large part, on who you ask. As of now, some one in every 25 adults in the US has access to their genetic data.

Those numbers represent a lot of spit, and an enormous amount of personal health information. The consumer DNA testing market was worth $359 million dollars in 2017 and is projected to grow to $928 million by 2023, according to a report from Research and Markets. That this branch of genetics is an area of emerging study and not clearly understood.How the physical samples are stored and used.Rather, critics cite other issues, such as: There are critics of the booming direct-to-consumer genetic testing business, but it’s not due to the quality of the sequencing.

But the analysis of the genetic data for an individual and its interpretation is performed by Ancestry’s team. In the case of Quest Diagnostics, the clinical laboratory company does the actual sequencing for Ancestry. For example,, one of the largest direct-to-consumer genetic data testing companies, works with both Quest Diagnostics and Illumina. Many companies offer this type of DNA testing, and each of them works with one or more clinical laboratories to get the actual sequencing performed. In 2017, some 12 million people paid to spit in a tube and have their genetic data analyzed, according to Technology Review. Diagnostic medical laboratories may sequence DNA genetic tests correctly, but there are issues with how companies analyze the information

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