23andMe is proud to announce the first publication to come out of 23andWe, our novel participant-driven research program.  Our results, which encompass replications of previous findings as well as newly discovered associations, appear online today in PLoS Genetics.

23andWe is a web-based research framework designed to facilitate the rapid recruitment of participants to many studies at once, thus reducing the time and money needed to make new discoveries.

“This paper announces and validates a revolutionary way of conducting scientific research,” said our President and Co-Founder, Anne Wojcicki.  “In this paper we confirm that self-reported data from our customers has the potential to yield data of comparable quality as data gathered using traditional research methods.  We are excited about moving scientific research forward, faster,” she continued.

(Check out “Sergey’s Search” in the current issue of Wired to learn how this approach is allowing us to validate genetic associations in a fraction of the time traditionally needed.  And check out this recent Spittoon post to read about some of our other 23andWe successes.)

Over 9,000 people contributed data to our study of 22 separate traits. Novel SNP associations were revealed for hair curl, asparagus anosmia (the inability to detect the scent of certain asparagus metabolites in urine), the photic sneeze reflex (the tendency to sneeze when entering bright light), and freckling.  Previously identified genetic associations between nine genes and certain pigmentation-related traits (hair color, eye color, and freckling) were replicated.

23andMe chose to publish its results in PLoS Genetics because of the journal’s open-access policy, which allows anyone—including 23andMe customers who contributed to the research—to freely access the study.  Customers will also see the results incorporated into the reports available in their online accounts.

Read more in this 23andMe press release.

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Cary, a software engineer at 23andMe, works on a wide variety of systems, from processing raw data from the lab to working on the customer-facing website. Most of the site is developed in Python on top of MySQL and Apache, all running on Linux. Cary has mostly worked on the backend of the website, and most recently worked on large parts of the 23andWe infrastructure.

Cary on the 23andMe Service:

“I really like the genetic comparison feature. It’s interesting to see both how close we all are genetically and how human migration patterns are reflected in our genetics.”

“Also, my parents are 23andMe customers too, and it’s been interesting to see through the Compare Genes feature that I’m more similar to my mother than my father in genes that relate to circadian rhythms and pigmentation. I do have my mother’s complexion and eye color, and I’m a night person just like her (my father’s a morning person).”

“I also have a personal interest in 23andWe, the research part of 23andMe. In addition to having worked on the feature, I’m also interested in the research opportunities provided by it. I, my mother, and her father all suffer from congenital anosmia – the lack of a sense of smell. Little is known about it because it’s very rare and not considered very serious (and generally isn’t, unless there’s a gas leak). It would be almost impossible to fund a traditional research project on congenital anosmia, but perhaps with the low-cost research opportunities afforded by 23andWe, we’ll finally be able learn more about its genetics.”

Cary on being a 23andMe employee:

“I joined 23andMe as a software engineer after studying computer science at Stanford. I had previously been interested in biology, but my engineering classes didn’t leave me with too much time to study the hard sciences. It almost feels like I haven’t left school because I’m still learning new things every day.”

“I feel lucky to have joined such a great company – although I started right out of school, I was given real responsibilities right away, and quickly saw my contributions go live on the site.”


Think you have what it takes to join Cary on the engineering team? Check out our jobs page!

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