Beware The Boom In Genetic Testing

DNA gel with CATG genetic code.

Image: Adrian Neal

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When I moved to San Francisco in 1997, Silicon Valley was in the midst of the dot-com frenzy. Coming from the far less-hip East Coast, I marveled at what seemed to be a Peninsula-wide psychosis.

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Sure, the internet sizzled with possibilities, but the promises being made and the business plans proffered seemed more often nutty than not—an assessment that led more than one dotcom true believer to inform me that I just didn't get it, whatever it was.

Still, it was a heady moment for Web technology. Hundreds of startups participated in a culture-shifting, multibillion-dollar experiment to see what businesses would work online.

At the time, I likened it to World War I, when radical new technologies for killing people were tested by sending legions of 18-year-olds to the battlefields to step in front of them. Millions were killed while generals and politicians figured out what worked.

A brutal comparison, perhaps, but I do recall what seemed like legions of 28-year-olds being given millions by investors to set up everything from online designer-kibble stores to Web portals offering empowerment to the oppressed.

In Silicon Valley, much of this money seemed to go to some fabulous parties, foosball tables, and Razor scooters for every employee, and a good time was had by all.

The apparently sudden appearance of companies that want to test your DNA in order to help you plan appropriate recreational, health-care, and lifestyle choices; to determine ancestry, and to assess your predisposition for disease or criminal activity is a small, staid affair in comparison.

Investors are pouring in millions instead of billions, and there are virtually no parties. Even the toolmakers that make the sequencers and create the software to analyze genes have an aggregate market value of less than $1 billion.

The question is: Are we seeing the early stages of what will become a new flurry of companies rushing to the genetic front lines to see which business plans and technologies work for potential consumers of DNA-testing products?

Already, early leaders in one subset of the industry, the direct-to-consumer online genetics companies, are experimenting with various approaches to selling individuals information about what is hidden in their DNA.

The Google-backed 23andMe, down the peninsula from San Francisco, is mixing serious genetic markers associated with dreaded diseases with "recreational genetics"—finding out about "fun" traits such as caffeine resistance and a preference for mornings or evenings.

Iceland's deCODEme is offering a slightly more sober website featuring less fun and more information about gene markers for disease, many of which its parent company, deCODE, discovered.

Both 23andMe and deCODEme offer basic information on genealogical DNA-tracing one's genetic roots and links to ancestors.

The Bay Area-based Navigenics will open for business next month with a site devoted to the DNA of disease, with WebMD-like links to A-list medical institutions and a feature the other two websites do not have—phone access to live genetic counselors. Navigenics plans to charge about $2,500, compared with about $1,000 for 23andMe and deCODEme.

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