Actually, they will not sequence your genome—they will genotype you. It’s actually quite a difference and I would recommend changing the title of this post. So what they do is use a so called “SNP chip” to test your genotype at a large number (hundreds of thousands) of positions known to be polymorphic in the human population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNP_genotyping). This is the same technology currently used by personal genomics companies such as 23andMe, and it’s not particularly expensive.
Sequencing a genome is done by totally different technologies, and can potentially determine your entire genome sequence (whereas in the genotyping case you are restricted to the particular loci that were included on the chip). It it also still considerably more expensive.
I signed up for this back in March 2012, sent in my spit in September, and according to an email I got today they’re actually sequencing my full genome. So it turns out the original title was correct (at least in my case).
I think “Get genotyped for free” would work, I don’t know how many people will not fully understand what is meant but it’d be hard to come up with something else without getting non-snappy.
How ironic that the people who are supposed to be intelligent can’t tell what they’re signing up for. Then again, maybe I’m bitter because for some reason I didn’t do well enough on the math portion.
Actually, they will not sequence your genome—they will genotype you. It’s actually quite a difference and I would recommend changing the title of this post. So what they do is use a so called “SNP chip” to test your genotype at a large number (hundreds of thousands) of positions known to be polymorphic in the human population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNP_genotyping). This is the same technology currently used by personal genomics companies such as 23andMe, and it’s not particularly expensive.
Sequencing a genome is done by totally different technologies, and can potentially determine your entire genome sequence (whereas in the genotyping case you are restricted to the particular loci that were included on the chip). It it also still considerably more expensive.
I signed up for this back in March 2012, sent in my spit in September, and according to an email I got today they’re actually sequencing my full genome. So it turns out the original title was correct (at least in my case).
Thanks for correcting my error. How should I name the title? What about “SNP genotyping for free! ( If your IQ is in the 99,9th percentile) ”
( The problem is that some people, like me, may not know the term. Which makes for bad marketing :-) )
I think “Get genotyped for free” would work, I don’t know how many people will not fully understand what is meant but it’d be hard to come up with something else without getting non-snappy.
Done.
How ironic that the people who are supposed to be intelligent can’t tell what they’re signing up for. Then again, maybe I’m bitter because for some reason I didn’t do well enough on the math portion.