Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

Direct-to-consumer genetics testing firm 23andMe has moved to a subscription-based pricing plan that now includes a one year contract and an additional charge of $5 per month. Along with the change in pricing, the company has done away with its separate Ancestry Edition and Health Edition products, which are now part of one service, called Complete Edition, that the firm offers. The base price for the testing service remains at $499 . The Ancestry and Health Edition products were launched a year ago by 23andMe. The changes took effect on Nov. 22. After the initial year expires, the contract will go to a month-to-month model, and customers will be able to cancel their contract at any time, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, Calif.-based 23andMe said. In an e-mail, she said the new monthly charge is based on the company's need to update its test and customers' test results as new genetic discoveries are made. The company's scientific team continually evaluates the latest scien...

Well it so exiting to watch how man makes his future ... The future, always so clear..., had become like a black highway at night. We were in uncharted territory now, making up history as we went along. The future is not set, because we control what happens through the choices we make . The GATTACA era is not far off. 23andMe has dramatically slashed the price for its service and expanded its offerings to include a lineage tracing service through a partnership with Ancestry.com. In a statement today said that by cutting the price for its genotyping service from $999 to $399 it is “democratizing personal genetics and expanding the opportunity for more people to benefit from the genetic revolution.” The company said advances made to Illumina’s genotyping technology , specifically the introduction of the HumanHap550-Quad+ BeadChip , made the price cut possible. Illumina is the provider of genotyping tools for 23andMe’s services. 23andMe also said that beyond the new ancestry ser...