An API for Genome Apps
By The Daily Scan,
The Daily Scan
| 09. 20. 2012
23andMe is opening up its application programming interface so that third-party developers can create apps that will piggyback on customers' personal genome data.
The company, which announced the API launch at last week's Quantified Self conference, says that genome apps should be of great interest to "self-tracker” community. Conference attendees "immediately latched onto the potential of the Personal Genome API for the self-tracking movement. Integrating various sets of genetic traits into sleep trackers, for example, was a popular topic."
Mike Polcari, director of engineering at 23andMe, tells Daily Scan sister publication BioInform that the company is taking privacy seriously. Interested developers will have to apply online in order to ensure that they are "real and identifiable "and that they "are being thoughtful about which pieces of the genome they are accessing," Polcari says.
In addition, individual-level data won't be personally identifiable to developers, and 23andMe customers will be able to decide whether they want their data accessible to an app.
Wired UK speculates that there may be a benefit for 23andMe benefactor Google, noting that "with the attitudes toward personal...
Related Articles
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 07.10.2025
Before a baby in the United States reaches a few days old, doctors will run biochemical tests on a few drops of their blood to catch certain genetic diseases that need immediate care to prevent brain damage or other serious...
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post | 07.17.2025
Nearly 2 million people protected their privacy by deleting their DNA from 23andMe after it declared bankruptcy in March. Now it’s back with the same person in charge — and I still don’t trust it.
Nor do the attorneys general...
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yeganeh Torbati, The Washington Post | 07.16.2025
A group of well-heeled, 30-something women sat down to dinner last spring at a table set with pregnancy-friendly mocktails and orchids, ready to hear a talk about how to optimize their offspring.
Noor Siddiqui, the founder of an embryo-screening start-up...
By Suzanne O'Sullivan, New Scientist | 07.09.2025
Rare diseases are often hard to spot. They can evade detection until irreversible organ damage or disability has already set in. Last month, in the hope of preventing just this type of harm, the UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced...
