Gene test mix-up brings scrutiny to industry
By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera,
San Francisco Chronicle
| 06. 11. 2010
[Quotes CGS's Jesse Reynolds]
Last week, retired marketing specialist Nora Probasco called her brother with a half-serious, half-joking question: Was she adopted?
The issue came up after the 59-year-old genealogy hobbyist from Louisville, Ky., received the results of a test she took through 23andMe, a Google-backed firm that allows people to learn more about their ancestry and some medical conditions through DNA analysis.
"I was shocked," she said. "What it came down to, the way I know to read them, is that my mom is not my mom."
To her relief, it turned out to be a mistake. Last Friday, the Mountain View firm acknowledged in a post on its Web site that it mixed up the samples of 96 clients and sent them the wrong ones. The company corrected the mistake relatively quickly, but observers see the potential for similar errors that could lead individuals to make ill-informed decisions regarding their health.
The company, which was founded in 2006, said in an e-mail that the mistake occurred when a tray with 96 samples was misplaced. The company added that new procedures have been...
Related Articles
By Grace Won, KQED [with CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.02.2025
In the U.S., it’s illegal to edit genes in human embryos with the intention of creating a genetically engineered baby. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Bay Area startups are focused on just that. It wouldn’t be the first...
Several recent Biopolitical Times posts (1, 2, 3, 4) have called attention to the alarmingly rapid commercialization of “designer baby” technologies: polygenic embryo screening (especially its use to purportedly screen for traits like intelligence), in vitro gametogenesis (lab-made eggs and sperm), and heritable genome editing (also termed embryo editing or reproductive gene editing). Those three, together with artificial wombs, have been dubbed the “Gattaca stack” by Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency company...
By Adam Feuerstein, Stat | 11.20.2025
The Food and Drug Administration was more than likely correct to reject Biohaven Pharmaceuticals’ treatment for spinocerebellar ataxia, a rare and debilitating neurodegenerative disease. At the very least, the decision announced Tuesday night was not a surprise to anyone paying attention. Approval...
By Lucy Tu, The Guardian | 11.05.2025
Beth Schafer lay in a hospital bed, bracing for the birth of her son. The first contractions rippled through her body before she felt remotely ready. She knew, with a mother’s pit-of-the-stomach intuition, that her baby was not ready either...
