The summer of our government's discontent (with personal genetics tests) continues. Yesterday an investigator with the Government Accountability Office reported back to Congress on its undercover investigation of the tests on the market, saying that testing the DNA of GAO staffers returned frequently contradictory and confusing answers.
"Consumers need to know that today, genetic testing for certain diseases appears to be more of an art than a science," said GAO investigator Gregory Kutz [CBS News].
Here at 80beats, we've gone over some of the potential problems
with these tests. DISCOVER blogger Ed Yong covers them in great detail
in a post he wrote this week after getting his genes tested by 23andMe, including the dearth of data appropriate for interpreting results if you're of Asian rather than European descent, and deciding whether to peek into the data that says whether you have a much higher than average risk for Parkinson's ...
