On Friday, Sergey Brin, one of the famous masterminds behind Google’s takeover of the world, announced that he has one of the genetic mutations associated with Parkinson’s. As Ned Potter reported, his wife, Anne Wojcicki, who owns 23andMe does precisely this kind of predictive genetic testing and allows people to be connected on the web into a genetic disease community for just $399.
This Facebook for genes may help to destigmatize a wide range of genetic mutations and conditions especially if people as famous as the Google guys come out to say “Yeah, I have that genetic mutation.” Yet, we must all remember that having a given mutation doesn’t mean that one will necessarily ever have a disease.
Will 23andMe make genetic testing cool and mainstream? Anne Wojcicki hopes so–but time will only tell.
Summer Johnson, PhD