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23andMe Lowers Price to $399 and Adds More Genealogical SNPs

logo 23andMe just announced that the price of their service has dropped from $999 to $399.  According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the company lowered the price of testing to attract more customers and increase the size of their database.  The article maintains that 23andMe will still bring in profit from the lower membership price, which is made possible by a “new, higher-density gene-scanning chip made by Illumina Inc. of San Diego.”  From the press release:

“The new Beadchip, called the HumanHap550-Quad+, makes use of a four-sample format. 23andMe also has added improved custom content to the new Beadchip, which will include a broader range of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) variations and rare mutations not found on the previous Beadchip, thereby providing more relevant data on published associations, as well as maternal and paternal ancestry.”

Since 23andMe launched nearly a year ago, I’ve said that genealogists are a huge potential market for 23andMe’s services.  Undoubtedly, the company has recognized the value of marketing their product to genealogists.  Indeed, 23andMe’s blog, the Spittoon, announced today that the company has partnered with Ancestry.com to provide ancestry-related content from 23andMe to customers who have their DNA analyzed by Ancestry.com:

“We’re also very pleased to announce a new partnership between 23andMe and Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online source of family history information. As part of this arrangement, customers who have their DNA analyzed for genealogical purposes by Ancestry.com will also have access to ancestry-related content from 23andMe.”

You can learn more about the partnership by reading 23andMe’s press release.  As of Tuesday morning, I don’t see any press release at Ancestry.com or DNA Ancestry.

This lower price is only slightly more than many current genetic genealogy tests (some of which only sequence a few thousand bases rather than the 1,000,000+ SNPs tested by 23andMe’s SNP Chip). Will this lower price spur you to sign up for 23andMe’s services?  Will other companies such as deCODEme lower their prices in response?  What do you think?

Related Posts:

23andMe Adds Paternal Ancestry and an Updated Gene Journal
Follow-Up to 23andMe’s Price Drop
Warren Buffett, Jimmy Buffett, and 23andMe Continued
23andMe in the News
23andMe Partners with Illumina – To Offer Genetic Genealogy?

This entry was written by Blaine Bettinger and posted on 9 September 2008 at 7:08 am and filed under DNA Companies, DNA in the News. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

6 Trackbacks

  1. By Genetic Future : Cheap as chips: 23andMe slashes the price of personal genomics on 9 September 2008 at 11:40 am

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] (Update: from the press release, it appears that the total number of markers assayed will remain around the same (550,000), but “will include a broader range of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) variations and rare mutations not found on the previous Beadchip, thereby providing more relevant data on published associations, as well as maternal and paternal ancestry.” The “rare mutations” statement suggests that the new chip may target changes involved in diseases like cystic fibrosis, while the “maternal and paternal ancestry” refers to increased marker density in mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, respectively. The latter change will certainly be popular with genetic genealogists.) […]

  2. By Ungrateful Little Bastard on 9 September 2008 at 12:11 pm

    links from Technoratithe announcementthat 23andMe is lowering the cost from $999 to $399, and also partnering with Ancestry.com This is great news for DNA nerds and/or I-don’t-have-all-of-my-freaking-medical-history-thanks-for-nothing-mom ingrates like me who found the $1K pricetag

  3. By Follow-Up to 23andMe’s Price Drop » The Genetic Genealogist on 10 September 2008 at 8:42 am

    […] The Genetic Genealogist Adding DNA to the Genealogist’s Toolbox Skip to content HomeAboutAbout Genetic GenealogyArchivesFeatured ArticlesRoots Television - DNA Channel « 23andMe Lowers Price to $399 and Adds More Genealogical SNPs […]

  4. By Roots Television | Megan's Roots World on 11 September 2008 at 10:24 am

    links from TechnoratiKudos to Sharon Elliott for finding this family. This is exactly why we do what we do. After 60-plus years, WWII remains of Yuma family member found Wow! 23andMe has lowered their price from $999 to $399 AND partnered with Ancestry! Incredible!23andMe Lowers Price to $399 and Adds More Genealogical SNPs » The Genetic GenealogistCongrats to Joe Bott and the good folks at DeadFred! NWAnews.com :: Northwest Arkansas’ News Source At least his descendants won’t have to wade through oodles of Johnsons . . . until they get to his parents, anyway.

  5. By Protein® OS on 12 September 2008 at 7:04 pm

    links from Technorati3pointsYesterdayI wrote about 23andMe’s decision to lower their price to $399 (down from $999) while adding more genealogically-relevant SNPs and partnering with Ancestry.com.  Although I don’t have any further information about the new SNPs, I

  6. By Family Geneology and Sequencing Services - CareCure Forums on 17 November 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[…] your genes. The prices are now coming down into an affordable range of $300-$400 for basic screens (Source). The whole concept of knowing your genes is fascinating many people both from a disease and […]

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