Viva la Revolucion! DTC genomics research. Democratized!

Ok,
I am not late to the party here on this one. I have been talking about this for quite some time with posts which include

"We have No use for YOUR laws"

"Who Needs Institutional Review Boards"

"Steal Your Baby's Genome"

I could go on and on here, but this is a natural move here.......

23andSergey have decided to move the company into a space which is less likely to get them into hot water with the federal government and in fact may win them a few points with the Federales....

Why? Everyone knows the end game here. A huge database of millions of phenotypes paired with millions of genotypes and millions of metabolomes and millions of demographics........

With that you create the greatest query machine for human health, generate hypotheses from this and cure mankind of illness. That being said, what 23andSergey have now done is start the "Research Revolution", which to me sounds a lot like Dr Atkins Diet Revolution of the seventies. You remember, the guy who says "I am not really a science guy, but trust me this works"

Let me explain why their intention may be very good here. What usually happens in research: The government gives a bundle of money to a researcher or a consortium of researchers who apply for it by writing tedious grant proposals, rather than teach other doctors, students, etc about genetics. Then each institution fights like hyenas over the money to assess institutional fees (also known as indirect costs) Some institutions can take up to 30% of the money before ever getting the research off the ground......(Sounds like another money making scheme to me)

Finally after a year of planning and a year of grant writing and a 6 month ordeal with IRB approval, the study is maybe ready to get underway. Often it may take another 6 months of planning. Thus 2-3 years of leg work to get some large study started, another year to 10 to get results......

So what has 23andSergey decided? The current research system sucks!

Listen closely.......I agree with him, I also agree with the other 23.......

The system is broken, probably just as bad as medicine. So what did 23andSergey do? They launched Research Revolution!!! So the first thing I did was look it up.....But I couldn't figure out what Steven Wagenheim had to do with 23andSergey

Finally I corrected the error and landed at 23andResearchRevolution

It turns out I wasn't late to the party. There appears to have only been 4 people to sign up for this Revolution. Which includes a test for 99 dollars, the inability to keep your own personal genomic data, and of course Sergey!

23andSergey have decided that because the system sucks, they will change it by crowdsourcing research, which could be a great thing. IFF you actually had statistically needed participant numbers, research goals, informed consents which go through the process, allow participation for free and an independent IRB......

It turns out in the whole "Scrap it and let's start new" 23andSergey have thrown out the baby with the bath water......

This could have been a fantastic and it may prove to be a fantastic way to recruit patients and hell, maybe 23andSergey could turn into a CRO organization, but this is no way to do real scientific research, but it is a way to do pseudodscience, like market research........

My assumption is that this start up has decided to move away from medicine, way too much heat there, and go further into the marketing, "science", and advertising land. 23andSergey will probably morph into this social network that does pseudoscience, much like their new partner patientslikeme......

They can sell their data to pharma and to marketing agencies, they can create the first genomic focus group.....without the ire of medicine and the government.......

The Sherpa Says: Hey, be a research captain and get a free T-Shirt with Sergey's face on it......Has all the hallmarks of successful participant recruitment already! Try again. Where is the mention of your IRB? Your ICOB? Your "scientists"? These Guys? Informed consent requires ALL the information. But, hey, at least you have 4, that's a start!