Genetic analysis is the first in the top-50 inventions of 2008

Time magazine published TIME's Best Inventions of 2008 – a rating of the 50 best inventions of 2008.

On the first line in this list is the method of individual genetic testing developed by the Californian company 23andMe.

23andMe is not the only company offering DNA testing, but its services are publicly available and inexpensive. For just $ 399, anyone can receive a test tube by mail to collect a saliva sample, send the sample to the company and receive (based on the analysis of six hundred thousand genetic markers) a conclusion about more than 90 characteristics of their heredity, from relatively harmless (for example, a predisposition to baldness) to very serious (the likelihood of losing sight).

And although now many experts doubt the expediency of such testing and express concerns about the consequences of disclosing such intimate information, personal genomics has already entered the path of revolutionary development, and it will not be possible to draw the open curtain. Therefore, the pioneers of personal genomics undoubtedly deserved the title of the authors of the best invention of 2008.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Time 10.11.2008