23 and Me

I am coming as close today to having my genome sequences as is feasible for a few hundred bucks ( at least for the next few years) using the SNP genotyping service provided by 23andme. 23 and me examines nearly 600,000 SNPs for under $400. Of course only a few of these SNPs have verified (or at least published) medical, phenotypic, or other interesting qualities. I am certainly interested about what this will reveal about my ancestry. I have almost zero ethnic affiliation (typical for schizoid personalities I understand); but it should be interesting.

I am at many times frugal, passing on some of the other toys I want, but this was an exception. First of all, it is illegal (or possibly illegal) for me to have this genotyping done in New York State. Apparently there are various ethical/legal issues that upset NY's Attorney General, and there was/is the fear that NY residents might not be able to use this service at all. So rather than wait for the 23 and me service to be off-limits, I cashed in my 5-gallon dH20 jug of coins ($412 + dollars) and was off to New Jersey, where anything goes.

I decided to make a day of it, and took the ferry from the world financial center to Hoboken; a frontier town on the wrong (?) side of the genetics Mason-Dixon Line, and the closest I could get to not being in New York, while not venturing too deep into the Jersey wilderness.

I apprehensively boarded the floating ferry dock, which was part circus tent and part rusted out dumpster. As the waves buffeted the heap, I was partly comforted that once I had provided a sample of my DNA, it would be recorded and could live on if I didn't make it back. Crossing the icy Hudson, it was a quick trip to the other side. To find the Fed-Ex Kinko’s, where I would send back the pre-paid envelope.

"Inside the beast"

Ignoring the Fed-Ex drop-off boxes (decoys from the NJ eugenics ministry??? Not sure, but I could not sense any malevolent thoughts from the locals), I found the Kinko's a block away, where I felt sure my sample would make it safely to the lab.

Spitting into a tube on the open street and placing into a biohazard bag and mailer was at once undignified, and possibly suspicion arousing. So from the local park, I produced a saliva sample (as I approached way points along my route, the ferry, the train stations, the Kinko’s, I felt it increasingly easy to salivate) and mixed it with the preservative provided. Into the mailer, and into the Kinko’s drop-box.

A few weeks from now, I will be getting my results which I hope to share and make into lesson plans. Getting home was now an easy task, though belabored. The NY Waterway calls themselves the “civilized commute,” and boasts surprise free commutes. Due to the ice, the boat (the Peter R. Weiss, whoever that was) was late, and when it did arrive was unable to dock back at the WFC due to ice. They said they would send a larger boat, and fortunately the Senator Frank Lautenberg raced into port at a speed it I was sure would push the dock off its moorings. The senator promptly left without taking on a passenger. The Weiss eventually transported us to some other NJ station, where finally we boarded the Empire State which saw us all home. Now to wait for the results.

"looking over into the NY police state"

P.S. New York may be a police state, but the Financier Patisserie at the WFC has make a great "Opera" torte.