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23andme Research Paper

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23andMe make a constant claim that their growing understanding of genetics is reshaping medicine. Their product uses token pieces of information from the most basic level of the human genetic sequence – which still includes a three-billion letter string of A’s, T’s, G’s and C’s (the code of DNA) that is very similar in most everyone. However, there’s an estimated 10 million different places in the genome where a single letter in the sequence can be different from one person to the next. Those particular letter variations are known as SNPs, or single nucleotide polymorphisms, and they form the basis for the genotyping that 23andMe offers and analyzes due to the fact that there are thousands of SNPs are scattered across 23 pairs of chromosomes. The technology that 23andMe is referred to as a BeadChip, which is not a microprocessor, but a miniaturized genetics lab, according to their description on their website for “Genotyping Technology”. The BeadChip is a small glass slide with millions on tiny beads on it’s surface, where each bead has probes with complementary DNA for sites in your own personal genome where SNPs of interest are located. After a person’s DNA is chopped into pieces and washed over the chip, different fragment sticks await their complementary cells. Though a little complicated, scientifically, 23andMe claims it is a very simple and reliable method in practice! The technology that is used is Illumina HumanOmniExpress-24 format chip, which then …show more content…

23andMe was also targeting pharmaceutical and biotechnical companies as a consumer, because they have the ability to mine the information out to guide drug development. Overall, however, the true target consumer is someone who is looking for something that is cheap, convenient, fast and insightful and gives them the information they want for the money they are paying for the

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