Ask HN: Does this genetic testing (ie, 23andMe) service exist? I'm thinking of a service like 23andMe that instead takes 2 samples and outputs what the children of the two people would be like, what they'd be disposed to, what their traits might be, etc. I know this can be done at physician's offices to an extent (i.e., during family planning), but I was curious if there was anything cheap/simple out there available to the masses? Thanks! |
* Make your (genetic data) available to algorithms to use as criteria within a dating app for people looking to meet someone that they might want to have children with.
* Similar but use it for helping women find sperm donors (although it wouldn't surprise me if this already exists.)
Observationally some traits are more straightforward. Skin color, IQ and and height give us an unweighted average as the expected value for the offspring, with the height of either parent setting bounds on the variance. But that isn't news if your service can be replaced by SAT scores and simply taking a look in the mirror.
It's a good idea though.
I suspect it's a big chuck of change as they got $4 million from Google back in the beginning.
They do have long legal coat tails, so it might be indeed available business real estate for the intrepid.
23andMe can probably easily pivot to this area, but that hasn't stopped competitors in other fields that were dominated at the time. Plus this area is still pretty young and the market still has a lot of room for growth.