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No Mention of a Consolation Prize for Navigenics

Oct 31, 2008

This should quash any hopes you had that the 23andMe hype was dying down. Time magazine named the company's genome scan service as the 2008 Invention of the Year, crediting the firm with "pioneering retail genomics."

While Genetic Genealogist Blaine Bettinger congratulates 23andMe on the award, Larry Moran at Sandwalk takes issue with it. He contends that the technology has been around for years, so it really can't be considered an "invention"; he also charges that "there are serious ethical concerns about genetic testing that have not been resolved."

 

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