23&me - A few months later
An old high-school buddy works for 23&me, and when I saw their blimp at Long Beach airport my interest in the service was rekindled and I got in touch with him. I trust him completely, so when he told me that they are really doing great work, I got one of the company's kits.
A few weeks after sending in a moderate amount of saliva, and I was presented with all sorts of information about my genome and the implications for my health and ancestry. I was also given access to my raw genetic data, meaning that if I decide to go search pubmed and find something interesting about a particular gene, I can check to see whether I have a particular variation. This means that I am not held back by 23&me's own analysis, which is nice even though they have a good pool of research and have been doing a good job of adding to it. The entire endeavor of confronting your genes is a bit scary, but it's also thrilling and fascinating. 23&me does a great job delivering on the entire experience, from collection to analysis to presentation (very spiffy web interface).
I don't think anyone really knows exactly what our genes say about us or our futures or pasts (I read recently about a 'ghost genome' that seems to determine the experssion of genes, so clearly the genes themselves are at most just part of the story), but I am really enjoying the experience of this perhaps narcissistic endeavor. My mom & sister also used the service, and thanks to 23&me's sharing feature, we're able to compare genes. If you're on the fence about 23&me, I say go for it. If you do, send me a sharing request when you have your results -- it's always fun to peruse and compare with new people.
