Gene testing of embryos needs guidance

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

Couples might soon use the technologies sold by personal-genomics companies to choose the genetic make-up of their children.

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Genetic testing may not be the best way to study one's ancestry

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

In recent years, companies providing personal genetic exams have sprung up like mushrooms. For a fee and a cheek swab, they can will identify the client's countries of ancestry, even to specific regions.

However, Charmaine Royal of the the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences has serious reservations:

"The general limitation, I'd say, of all of these tests, is that they can't pinpoint with 100% accuracy who your ancestors may or may not be. Some people are concerned that the biogeographical ancestry test reifies the notion of race

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Gene-testing startup's study responds to critics

jerry submitted, created time 2 months 4 weeks (ap.google.com)

Navigenics, a Silicon Valley gene-testing startup is sick of all the criticism. The service that Navigenics offers is called personal genetic testing. Their customers are given a genetic writeup that covers markers for diseases like multiple schlerosis, glaucoma, obesity, and some kinds of cancers. Neither the article nor the Navigenics website says whether these customers are people who already have a family history of these conditions and wish to learn whether they inherited the tendency or whether they are simply curious

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