Free genetic tests from 23andMe to 10,000 African Americans
Companies like 23andMe are trying to bring genetic profiling home to the individual customer, providing an analysis of your genetic variation and possible risk factors for only $99 and a cheek swab.
These tests are far from perfect, but they point to the dream of personalized medicine based around one person’s gene variants and unique risk factors. But a genomic database (the large libraries of information collected in order to make these comparisons) is only as good as the information that goes into it. And right now 23andMe is only 1.8% African American.
That means if you’re not white, your genetic results could be very skewed, and perhaps meaningless, just because they don’t have enough data to compare to.
(Source: jtotheizzoe)
