In which a do not lament the decline of 23andMe. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... - ThreadSky

adamrutherford.bsky.social • 4 days ago

In which a do not lament the decline of 23andMe.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/27/geneticist-mourn-23andme-useless-health-information#comments

Comments

etotheipiadd1.bsky.social•3 days ago

Great article ... that reminds me, I must put "How to Argue With a Racist" on my birthday list.
Seems like it might come in handy.

chasjennings.bsky.social•1 day ago

I had one funny experience -a few days before a hiking trip to the Dolomites (Alta Via 4) which involved some precarious ferratas, I got a msg from 23&me: “charles, based on your genetics and other factors, you are less likely than average to be afraid of heights.” Coincidental perhaps...

c0nc0rdance.bsky.social•4 days ago

Agree with you on all points.

I think they did a lot of damage to how people view human populations & advanced a kind of genetic determinism that misleads people about how genetics influences health and behavior.

And the business model was frankly based on scamming people.

ozebe.bsky.social•4 days ago

So, what do you think of this? It's not from a right-wing ideologue https://x.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1904631272795763130?t=O3f1U1DCbdDM3ePjor_Arw&s=19

adamrutherford.bsky.social•4 days ago

I’m not clicking on X, but I have argued the the public understanding of genetics was impeded by these companies, because they trade in a superficial and deterministic view is out of date and actually wrong.

ozebe.bsky.social•4 days ago

Ok, it's a link to an article from the resarcher Michael Mina https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/25/23andme-bankruptcy-patient-empowerment-consumer-genetic-testing/

castornestor.bsky.social•4 days ago

I once followed a genetics MOOC that offered a discount for 23andMe, there was no way I would have surrendered my data this way.

jonroberts.bsky.social•4 days ago

DCT genetic test companies are like hydra. Cut off one and two more grow in their place!

jonroberts.bsky.social•4 days ago

DTC even

hazelhatman.bsky.social•4 days ago

You might have a different view point if you do not know one or both of your parents.

adamrutherford.bsky.social•4 days ago

I acknowledge that in the article.

hazelhatman.bsky.social•4 days ago

Finding lost relatives, yes but it’s wider than that.
A friend found no relatives but at last understood where she came from - a sense of self most of us have from childhood.
And if you have no info at all, finding out the presence of eg breast cancer variants can literally save your life.

els76uk.bsky.social•4 days ago

was their service different from any of the others? I always thought it was just a bunch of different companies all trying to hoover up your data.

both to tell you "stuff" about yourself which may or may not be of any use, but also so they can sell the info elsewhere (eg, to medical researchers)

aankphd.bsky.social•4 days ago

I have an adopted daughter who will have a much smaller chance of ever finding her biological relatives because of this bankruptcy. What alternative do you suggest for cases like ours?

alaskanweeb.bsky.social•4 days ago

Doesn’t Ancestry do basically the same thing?

aankphd.bsky.social•4 days ago

I am not a fan of Ancestry’s connection to the LDS church. Secular resources are preferable. They also have a much smaller database for certain minority groups, which is relevant in this case.

jimbucktoo.bsky.social•2 days ago

After decades of searching, I found my birth relatives through 23andMe; it has made a huge difference to how I narrate my life. However, for me, the big revelation is that, despite the genetic affinities, nurture and culture have had a paramount effect on me.

jonicoleman.bsky.social•4 days ago

23andMe have made important contributions to a lot of areas of complex trait genetics — I totally agree with your scepticism on what they gave to the customer (and, sadly, with your advice to delete data), but the potential loss of their database is a loss to our progress in those fields.

adamrutherford.bsky.social•4 days ago

No doubt, but was that data in the public domain? Was it under the open scrutiny of the worldwide genetics community, as so well enshrined in the principles of the HGP?

jonicoleman.bsky.social•4 days ago

Indeed not...

adamrutherford.bsky.social•4 days ago

I know these are political points, but what we do is in service of humankind, and what they did was not.

folkersen.com•4 days ago

They did contribute to a lot of scientific publications to be fair. Those are a service, no?

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

That was why I withdrew consent for research years ago, because they wouldn't commit to making results available to the STUDY SUBJECTS, let alone the public. This week I went full delete.

silparacchini.bsky.social•4 days ago

Am I the only one not deleting their data?

drmoab.bsky.social•4 days ago

Great article. What do you think of new companies entering the same sphere such as https://mynucleus.com/?

catrinj.bsky.social•4 days ago

Do these arguments also apply to what the NHS is doing with Our Future Health? I’ve donated my DNA to that but was there not much point?

samperryman.bsky.social•4 days ago

I can't complain about the company, without that test I would never have known that I have Hashimotos disease. It may have been years more of suffering before my doctors finally figured it out.

daniellemilbank.bsky.social•4 days ago

Hands up if you were waiting to get @adamrutherford.bsky.social ‘s view on this sorry mess!

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

There was tremendous potential on the health traits front, but they screwed it up from the beginning. They focused on some trivial things that weren't particularly accurate. They didn't understand validation, hence the FDA debacle. Then they didn't know how to report / aggregate it for users. /1

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

I learned some useful health and trait things. Before GeneSight I had actionable medication information. I got insight into my partner's history of adverse reactions. A known risk was verified. Some rare things in raw data, not reported, which I could research independently. /2

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

Population "ancestry" was wildly off in some ways but historically educated users were able to extract useful information. There was synergy with archaeogenetics discoveries. Personally I found traces early Iberian colonizers in the same time frame as native American which was meaningful /3

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

For adoptees it was life changing. I will never diminish that. /4

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

On the flip side, it opened people's eyes to ye olde "not parent expected" including switches at birth, "non paternal events", incest, inter-family adoption, etc etc. I think most people knew these things happened but NOT the extent of it. 23andMe washed their hands of educating users, though. /5

midstreamdreams.bsky.social•3 days ago

For genealogy, it's been a major change. Almost entirely user-driven, 23andMe wanted nothing to do with it at the beginning and that barely changed. They had powerful data and poor tools. Ancestry now has some better tools but still poor guidance, now propagating false connections DNA stamped /6

dl2409.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thank you! Needed to be said loud and clear

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