By Jessie Inchauspe, Product Manager – Research Experience
Since 2010, 23andMe’s research team has made groundbreaking discoveries on the role of genetics in health, discoveries made possible because of customers’ contributions to research. We’ve published them in top scientific journals along with world-class collaborators — and we hope they will lead to advances in medicine that will make life healthier for everyone.
23andMe customers who participate in research are the reason this is possible. By answering questions about themselves and sharing with us their genetic data, they enable our research team to make discoveries and publish them.
Did you know there’s now a place where 23andMe customers can see exactly which published discoveries they individually made possible?
We’ve recently added a new feature to our logged-in site that lets 23andMe research participants see how their research responses and DNA were used and which published scientific discoveries they’ve personally helped fuel.
When participants see a “You Contributed” tag on a publication, it indicates that their data was used in the analysis performed by our researchers to lead to this new breakthrough. It takes on average about two years from the moment a customer answers a question to the publication of a new discovery that leverages their data.
And every customer who participates plays a role – even those with no medical conditions. For research to happen we need to compare the DNA of healthy people (controls) to the DNA of people with a condition (cases).
By agreeing to answer 23andMe’s online survey questions, they’ve made it possible for our researchers to link genetic data to critical study topics from ancestry to traits to disease. Genetics research is an exciting but complex field, and the simple truth is, we couldn’t do it without our participants.
Our own CEO has contributed to 46 publications at the time of writing.
What’s your number? Log-in to find out.
Not yet a customer? You can see all our published discoveries here, find out more about 23andMe research and what you can learn about yourself by using 23andMe.
