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Have not typically seen any government agency work at a pace we would consider “not too long”.</p>
<p>True jym… I didn’t think that one through. :p</p>
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<p>The “not too long” will entirely depend on 23AM’s ability to provide the data the FDA is requesting in terms of the PMA. This will have little to do with the speed of responses, but a whole lot with the dedication and professionalism of 23AM. </p>
<p>I am far from being optimistic about the willingness of 23AM to pursue the PMA when facing a limited revenue stream and a probable dwindling support from their investors.</p>
<p>Aww Rats, Romani. I coulda sold you mine. I just spit in it and sent it in b/c I thought it would be worthless (well as not more than a fun exercise… you know what I mean)</p>
<p>Well, per tracking update, saliva is in So. CA</p>
<p>Several points:</p>
<p>1) 23andme is currently providing the same health related information it did before the FDA letter to those who have already been tested. Whether or not this will continue - who knows. How this applies to those who purchased their kits before November 22 but who have not had their samples run? We will have to wait and see.</p>
<p>2) The $99 price is comparable to the price for ancestry only DNA analysis with Ancestry DNA and Family Tree DNA. The 23andme ancestry related DNA analysis is, in my view, a better value than Ancestry and Family Tree because for your $99 23andme will give you the analysis of your X and Y (if applicable) chromosomes, while you have to pay extra for those tests with Ancestry and Family Tree.</p>
<p>3) You can upload your 23andme DNA data to Family Tree DNA. I have done so and have not been impressed by the results (they say I’m 97% European with no subregional breakdown). Both 23andme and Ancestry DNA produce results which, for me, make sense with what we know of my family tree.</p>
<p>4) If you are interested in countries or areas of ancestral origin, you can also upload your DNA data to Gedmatch dot com, which has a lot of interesting utilities. Gedmatch from time to time gets overloaded with data, and they sometimes do not allow uploads, but as of a few days ago they were accepting uploaded data from 23andme, FTDNA and Ancestry DNA.</p>
<p>dadx3, they’re still doing the full tests + results for those who purchased before Nov 22. </p>
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<p>(The Facebook page has been updated more than the webpage).</p>
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<p>Given the Croatia is in a place near where many ethnic groups live, and has been under the rule of various foreign powers for much of the past thousand years, there were plenty of ways for other ancestors to get in (although not always easily detectable today). Croatia in its current borders include significant number of ethnic minorities, and Croats live in some other nearby countries as ethnic minorities (although ethnic minority populations in each country were greater before the Yugoslavia-breakup wars).</p>
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I probably need to clarify that it helps to be tech savvy with the Promethease program – they give you a tremendous amount of data, but a very rudimentary interface. There’s a video tutorial which I think is worth viewing first.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up, cal. I hadn’t gone through the Promethease site yet to see what it was like. </p>
<p>The other one that people are referencing is SNPedia- do you know anything about this site?</p>
<p>Also, 23andme has a social media component – forums for sharing information - and it looks like those of us who already have health data have continued access. So between the offsite utilities and the ability to connect up with, for example, members posting on the lung cancer forum – you’ll probably be able to reconstruct a lot of the information on that end. I mean, I took all the percentages with a grain of salt, but as there are only four possible gene combinations for each reported marker, then all you have to do is find someone with the same combination and share notes-- that should work unless you have some thing that is extremely rare (and there doesn’t tend to be much info available on rare stuff either – the Promethease database is better for that, if only to get a picture of how rare a combination is.)</p>
<p>SNPedia is connected to Promethease – basically its like Wikipedia for the genetic information, so Promethease is using that as a back end database. So any updates to SNPedia get automatically incorporated into Promethease results.</p>
<p>Thanks UCB–I am familiar with the history of that region and have been there.</p>
<p>Well, the updates is that there is no update. The USPS tracking shows that its been sitting at the sort facility since Dec. 7. No further action other than “sorting complete”. I called the customer svc # Friday to see if it could me looked into. They said that sometimes companies pay extra to NOT have their mail delivered and instead they come to pick it up once or twice a week. Say whaaa??? There was no PO box address on the package IIRC. It was a delivery address in Los Angeles. Not believin’ that companies pay EXTRA to have to come pick up their mail and not have it delivered. That seems far fetched to me.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the whole thread, but I got this email from them on 12/7
I did this test (mostly for novelty of it). I found it interesting. </p>
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<p>Dear 23andMe Customers, </p>
<p>I’m writing to update you on our conversation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and how it impacts you. </p>
<p>If you are a customer whose kit was purchased before November 22, 2013, your 23andMe experience will not change. You will be able to access both ancestry and health-related information as you always have. </p>
<p>23andMe has complied with the FDA’s directive and stopped offering new consumers access to health-related genetic results while the company moves forward with the agency’s regulatory review processes. Be sure to refer to our 23andMe blog for updates. </p>
<p>We stand behind the data we have generated for customers. Our lab partner adheres to strict quality standards that are part of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 - known as CLIA. These are the same standards used in the majority of other health and disease-related tests. </p>
<p>You are among the first people in the world to ever get access to their genomes. You are genetic pioneers. Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to continuing to serve you. </p>
<p>Anne Wojcicki
Co-founder and CEO, 23andMe</p>
<p>Hi Sue,
Yes that’s been discussed and yes I got that too. The kid was purchased in the summer but I just sent it in a few weeks ago</p>
<p>Before the FDA action, it generally took about 3 weeks from the time the sample was mailed until the testing was done, maybe longer. I didn’t record the tracking number on my sample so there was no way for me to try to trace it via UPS, but I certainly understand why a genetic sample might require special handling.</p>
<p>calmom, surprisingly, DNA is pretty hard to destroy. Amplicon contamination is the worst nightmare of any molecular diagnostic lab. I would not worry about sample integrity even if it sits at room temperature for a while. The reason that you are getting your results so late even though the test itself is pretty fast is sample batching: the lab does not run every single sample that comes in, but rather it waits for samples to accumulate so the technician can run a whole bunch with a single setup and without wasting reagents.</p>
<p>My point was in response to jym’s post, expressing doubt over the report from USPS that some customers pay extra to have their incoming mail held for periodic pickup. My point was simply that I could see why a company in the business of doing genetic testing would opt to do that. I wasn’t focused on sample integrity; I was focused on the logistics of handling mailed-in samples.</p>
<p>I just got my packages in the mail Saturday! :)</p>