UCB Genetic Testing Program Altered After Decision By State Officials

A genetic testing program at the University of California at Berkeley that allowed incoming freshmen to submit DNA samples will not include personalized results as originally planned due to a decision by the state's Department of Public Health, school officials said Thursday.

The "Bring Your Genes to Cal" program invited the university's more than 5,000 incoming freshmen and transfer students to volunteer saliva samples for genetic testing that would reveal how each individual metabolizes milk, alcohol and folic acid.

About 600 students have volunteered their samples and signed consent forms allowing the tests, and university spokesman Bob Sanders said he expects the number to reach 1,000 during the coming days and weeks.

However, the students will not receive personalized results from the tests because state public health officials decided the academic exercise was not exempt from laws designed to assure the accuracy and quality of diagnostic tests used in providing medical care to patients.

The university argued that because a campus laboratory was performing the tests, and because the students are not patients, those laws did not apply.

"We have...