Sixty years ago James Watson, Francis Crick and colleagues ushered in the modern science of genetics. Ever since, people have been trying to learn about genes – especially their own. Thus the rise of “commercial genomics,” wherein companies, for a fee, test human saliva and provide a report on your genetic makeup and what that might mean for your health.
Giving people tools to manage their health is a good idea – but only solid tools. The testing that 23andMe sells may not qualify, with potentially high rates of false or misleading results. The same samples sent to different companies have yielded widely varying interpretations; even geneticists often cannot say with much confidence what such tests imply.
Read the full, original story here: Let the buyer beware of commercial genetic tests