23andMe Ancestry Tests Allegedly Have Issues With People of Color

23andMe Ancestry Tests Allegedly Have Issues With People of Color August 29, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

MOUNTAIN View, Calif. – Does genetic ancestry research company 23andMe have a problem when it comes to looking up information for people of color?

Euny Hong, a writer for news website Quartz, recounted in a recent column the issues she had determining her ancestry. She said data provided by 23andMe was not as robust as she imagined, as there were only 76 Koreans included in her dataset. Hong is of Korean heritage. Hong said that’s far too little information when considering there are approximately 1.7 million people of Korean heritage in the United States—out of 83 million Koreans across the globe.

Hong spoke to geneticists across the United States about the findings who told her the samples the company uses are primarily from the United States and are not “terribly useful for studies of indigenous composition,” something Hong was trying to discover.

Other problems the geneticists who Hong spoke with noted are when it comes to various ethnic groups, there are no breakdowns of regional distinctions, such as northern and southern Chinese peoples, who have different traits. 23andMe’s senior director of research Joanna Mountain called the claim “insulting,” Hong said.

Mountain said the company is looking to diversify its datasets, particularly noting an attempt to gather 20,000 African-American samples. However, Hong said she was disappointed that Mountain claimed not to know many Korean genome projects, when she said there are numerous ones due to the obsession with ethnic purity. For her part, Hong said the reports generated by 23andMe should have a disclaimer on them “for entertainment purposes only.”

In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service that provides carrier status, wellness, trait and ancestry reports to consumers. The test is available for $199 and will include more than 60 health, ancestry, wellness, and personal trait reports, as well as personalized insights based on analysis of 650,000 genetic variations according to a company statement. The FDA’s approval of 23andMe’s new DNA testing is a turnaround from the trouble the company found itself in two years ago. In 2013, the FDA sent a warning letter to the California-based company, saying it must discontinue marketing its health-related genetic tests. The company was forced to stop selling the kits for medical or diagnostic uses, although they could continue to sell them without offering clinical diagnostics.

23andMe is now looking at expanding beyond the development of DNA testing and exploring the possibility of developing its own medications. In July, the company raised $79 million to partly fund that effort. Additionally, the funding will likely help the company continue with the development of its new therapeutics division. In March, 23andMe began to delve into the therapeutics market, to create a third pillar behind the company’s personal genetics tests and sales of genetic data to pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, the company has a deal with Pfizer Inc. (PFE) to enroll more than 10,000 patients with colitis or Crohn’s disease. In May, 23andMe inked another deal with Pfizer to launch the Lupus Research Study. The aim is to enroll 5,000 individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus to better understand the genetics of lupus. The effort is also in collaboration with the Lupus Research Institute.

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