The genetic test, available as part of a service called DeCodeme, allows customers to explore DNA for tiny variations that signal higher risks of conditions such as diabetes, eye disease and heart disease. By comparing the results with known variants common within some populations, the test may also tell where ancestors came from.
"If you find out you have variants shown to occur in higher frequency in people with particular diseases, you may have reason to talk to your physician," said Kari Stefansson, the company's chief executive officer, in a telephone interview yesterday, "just like when you step on a bathroom scale and find you're obese."
DeCode is the first to offer such a test, which provides results in as little as two weeks and allows customers to update their genetic profiles as new information about variants becomes available. While the service shouldn't be used for diagnostic purposes, it may give people useful health information, said Stefansson.
Small variations in genes, the blueprint for all the body's characteristics, can raise or lower people's chance of getting certain diseases, scientists have found. For example, differences in a gene that makes a protein called complement factor H may raise the risk of an eye disease called macular degeneration by increasing inflammation.
"You might find out some bad news," said Josephine Johnston, an associate for law and bioethics at the Hastings Center in Garrison, New York, in a telephone interview today. "You want to be looking at these tests with open eyes about how much they can really tell you. You might find out information that you're not expecting or that doesn't make you happy."
Along with health information, the testing system may allow customers to compare results with friends, opening the possibility of unexpected genetic similarities, Stefansson said.
"This is a playful activity, and there's nothing wrong with being playful," he said. "It's in keeping with what people are doing in cyberspace on Facebook."
People will have to get permission to compare their genetic profiles with those of others using the service. Those in the same families could potentially find they are genetically unrelated, Stefansson said.
Applera Corp., Roche Holding AG, and other companies are developing technologies to sequence all a person's genes for a few thousand dollars. Harvard Medical School scientists in Boston said earlier this year that sequencing all of a person's genes may soon be possible for US$300 in material costs.
