23andMe has announced that over 100,000 users have been genotyped using their personal genome sequencing service. Crossing the 100,000 person threshold is a major milestone for 23andMe and the overall personal genome sequencing service field, which despite major growth is still considered to be in its infancy. In order to increase the potency of the data acquired to predict disease risk, it is extremely important for users to allow scientists to use their individual data, and thankfully for the research field over three-fourths of customers have agreed to do just that. This large amount of data has enabled the scientists at 23andMe to identify novel genetic links for various diseases, as well as confirm over 150 previously reported SNP associations to disease, adding even more support to those published data.
23andMe database snapshot – reproduced from the 23andMe Blog:The Spittoon
The 23andMe research team has also started several research communities, including one for Parkinson's disease and sarcomas, in order to identify even more genetic associations that predict disease risk. 23andMe has also paired with the NIH to conduct a study to determine how certain SNPs affect individual response to common medications.
Yours truly, along with my twin brother Matt and pnosker.com's founder Pat Nosker, are proud customers of the 23andMe service. I wrote an article a few months ago about using 23andMe to confirm that my twin brother and I are indeed identical twins, and for that information alone I am forever indebted to 23andMe. I thoroughly enjoyed using their service and love reading the monthly updates. And for users who may be more technologically and/or biologically savvy, you can get even more information by running your data set on the third-party Promethease program, which has recently been upgraded itself. I haven't had time to run my data on this new version yet, but I definitely will in the near future.
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