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Anybody had any DNA testing done?

Doubt

Philosopher
Doubt
Joined
Apr 25, 2002
Messages
8,106
Tried 23 and me. Results just came in. Not many surprises there. 2.7% Neanderthal. Almost all of my DNA can be traced to "non-specific" europe, northern europe and eastern europe.

One slightly surprising thing is that some y chromosome characteristics are more prevalent in Spain and France than anywhere else showed up.

A general lack of southern europe specific genes is a bigger surprise. But that non-specific category was almost 40% of me and only one grandparent was from that part of the world.

The FDA shutting having had them shut down some of the health related parts of the service does not seem unreasonable from what I have been reading.

Anybody else tried it?
 
No, but I'm probably human.

I did think about it a few years ago, but it was pricey then and really didn't tell you much you couldn't guess.

When home kits get below £10, maybe.
 
Soapy Sam said:
No, but I'm probably human.

I did think about it a few years ago, but it was pricey then and really didn't tell you much you couldn't guess.

When home kits get below £10, maybe.
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Home kits are off the market in the US. The FDA says the testing is unreliable.
 
I've tried it. I thought it was fun. Still watching the debate on reliability though.

But, it determined my earwax type perfectly!
 
I had mine done through familytreedna.com. It didn't tell me much I didn't already know- Northern European stock.
 
I'd be interested to know the ancestry bit, if it could be a little more specific, but I'm not interested in any of the health analyses.
 
I joined the National Geo project
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=2001246&gsk early on and got my results.

Not much new but was impressed it charted the family shifts in location as I knew them.

davids%2520genome%2520copy.png


I'm sure the new testing is more detailed but I felt I was contributing to a good cause
 
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I did NatGeo, too. Traced my mother's mother's family (I'm somewhat limited, as a female). Nothing specific, though.
 
I did participate in Kaiser's HUGE study. They are combining genomes and electronic records of 500,000 members. I guess they are building the database, and opening it up to independent researchers.

But I won't get any results personally- unless they find something important. But I haven't heard of any results from the researchers. Maybe it's time for me to look for some again?

I suppose a system like 23&me would need a database like that to get more precise?
 
Loss Leader said:
Home kits are off the market in the US. The FDA says the testing is unreliable.
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Not off the market. They just are not allowed to put out the health analysis now. Which, if it were accurate, would be the best reason for doing it. But like you said, they are not reliable in that aspect.
 
My mother did. The service was on sale for a reduced price at the time, and we're waiting for that to happen again to do mine.

Her original last name was English/Irish and her family traced themselves back to England. So DNA associated with England, along with maybe some from the rest of the British islands and/or northern Europe, would have been no surprise. And that's mostly what she got. But she also turned out to have a roughly 16% contribution (a bit under 5/32, so the equivalent of 5/8 of one grandparent) from Italy or southern France.
 
I want to do one of these tests, but haven't had a chance yet. I'm adopted and don't know who my actual* family was or their background(s), so personally it would be quite interesting.



*I originally wrote "my real family," but of course I feel my real family is the one who adopted and raised me, so I think this term is a bit better.
 
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Iamme said:
Someday, i bet govts require this.
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It would be very simple to collect DNA samples at birth. So simple, I can't help wondering how frequently it already happens.

The joker in the pack regarding health predictions from DNA tests is that in the case of health insurance, it is likely to short circuit the process.
If a DNA test tells me I am 90% sure to die from disease X , the insurers are going to reject my application and so lose my business. If the test shows I'm immune to X, then I don't need the insurance anyway.

Insurance is, by definition, a matter of actuarial probability. Remove any uncertainty and the whole game changes.
 
Soapy Sam said:
It would be very simple to collect DNA samples at birth. So simple, I can't help wondering how frequently it already happens.
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Sample collection is easy. But then somebody has to pay for the testing.

The joker in the pack regarding health predictions from DNA tests is that in the case of health insurance, it is likely to short circuit the process.
If a DNA test tells me I am 90% sure to die from disease X , the insurers are going to reject my application and so lose my business. If the test shows I'm immune to X, then I don't need the insurance anyway.
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So far the genetic testing services that are available have not proven themselves to be reliable. 23andme got their order to stop the marketing of their product based on the health testings just after I signed up for it. One person that tried several different services found the health results all over the map. Here is the NYT article about that case:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/science/i-had-my-dna-picture-taken-with-varying-results.html?_r=0

Quoting from the NYT article:

23andMe said my most elevated risks — about double the average for women of European ethnicity — were for psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, with my lifetime odds of getting the diseases at 20.2 percent and 8.2 percent. But according to Genetic Testing Laboratories, my lowest risks were for — you guessed it — psoriasis (2 percent) and rheumatoid arthritis (2.6 percent).
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AdMan said:
I want to do one of these tests, but haven't had a chance yet. I'm adopted and don't know who my actual* family was or their background(s), so personally it would be quite interesting.
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My family background was pretty well known but there were some suspicions about some ancestors having been from different countries than we had been told. The results were not specific enough to answer that question. I do find some humor in looking at the results. They listed countries that I might have ancestors from. About half of them were already known known to be true. But none of them match the suspicions within the family.

They also look for matches to segments of your DNA. The closest they have found for me so far is a supposed second cousin. Quite a few people listed as "3ed to distant" cousins out there based on a single segment matching.

Cost for 23andme is about $100. You get the kit the mail and then have to spit into a provided funnel and tube quite a bit to get the sample size right. Then you are in for a 6 week wait after mailing in the sample.
 
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