Who's sequenced their genome?

[james hadfield]

Hi Everyone,
I'd be interested in finding out if anyone on SEQanswers has sequenced their own genome yet. Or how many people are thinking of doing it now or in the future. My own genome library has been in the freezer for a while now and it would be really easy to drop it on a HiSeq lane, but not so easy to make sense of it!

1: have you sequenced your own genome?
2: would you consider doing your own?
3: what prevents you from doing it today?

If you prefer to discuss off line so as not to identify yourself I'd be happy to start a private conversation.
James.

[GW_OK]

1) Not yet.
2) Absolutely.
3) The invoice I'd receive from myself.

I lobbied for myself to be our Hiseq training run, but since it was only a 50bp PE run we let some collaborators with "more important" projects take the lanes.

[NGSfan]

I would be happy with an exome...

[Bruins]

Interesting thread!

Strangely enough (I work with exomes every day): no, thank you. It's an uncomfortable thought having my sequenced DNA lying around somewhere.

I should in fact take some time to fully think this through and discuss it with various people: why? why not? In my opinion it's not something you do without giving it extremely careful thought first. Two things come to mind immediately: do I want to know what's in there? Who is going to use my sequence against me in the future?

So James, GW_OK and NGSfan, why are you so eager to have your own DNA sequenced? Why should I, or why not?

I hope more people join this discussion. It'll be interesting to see how people who work with this kind of data on a daily basis feel about this.

[NGSfan]

Interesting thread!

Strangely enough (I work with exomes every day): no, thank you. It's an uncomfortable thought having my sequenced DNA lying around somewhere.

I should in fact take some time to fully think this through and discuss it with various people: why? why not? In my opinion it's not something you do without giving it extremely careful thought first. Two things come to mind immediately: do I want to know what's in there? Who is going to use my sequence against me in the future?

So James, GW_OK and NGSfan, why are you so eager to have your own DNA sequenced? Why should I, or why not?

I hope more people join this discussion. It'll be interesting to see how people who work with this kind of data on a daily basis feel about this.

Why would I want to know? Well, without going into personal detail, I've had first hand experience with finding a problem with my genome - I've recently had my karyotype studied and it revealed a chromosomal abberation that affects my life. It is not that serious for me personally, but it explained a lot about an aspect of my life. And had I known earlier I would have done some things differently in my life - not to mention the lives of others.

So knowing this, I think I would like to know what else is there. But I would only worry over the "clear signals"- the obvious things and not the markers that are low confidence.

I understand the fear of some in the community that a lay person would read his report finding a "65% chance of developing heart complications by age 40" and drastically change his life (for better or for worse).

[GW_OK]

Well obviously you don't have a folder sitting on your FTP site or general lab share on the your server labeled "Bruin's DNA Sequence". You do it right, like all of the other exomes (I work on exomes all day, too) and de-identify yourself. And if your data sharing policies are working properly only you and whoever else you plan on sharing that data with will know what your DNA encodes or even that sample XXX is you.

As for why, to quote Jonathan Coulton "All the good things or bad that you do or don't have, you can find out for sure if you've got 'em". As a scientist I'm very interested in knowledge, and self-knowledge is particularly interesting (to me, at least). Much like the phrase "physician, heal thyself" I'm thinking "scientist, figure thyself out" This head-burying, don't-tell-me-about-my-basic-physical-being-ism is quite mystifying.

To paraphrase Coulton again, I want to read the giant book that's hidden inside me.


PS I think this would be the ultimate facebook app.

[ttnguyen]

Would it be easier and cheaper to try 23andme first?

[GW_OK]

Well, yeah, but where's the fun in that...

Edit: actually, I would rather do myself myself for the whole data-security thing, as well.

[NGSfan]

Look at it another way, if you had cancer, wouldn't you want your genome to be sequenced so the doctor could figure out which cancer treatment was best for you? Or would you rather they take their best guess and possibily spend 6 months trying a treatment that you were unlikely to be responsive?

So why is sequencing your genome for the sake of any knowledge related to your health any different?

Even if the results are a bit uncertain (eg. "prediction: you are at 60% risk for heart disease") would I change my diet? Maybe I'd eat bacon once a week instead of twice a week. I dunno

Ignorance is bliss sometimes, but knowledge is power.

[rworthi]

I have 23andme and Nimblegen exome now, and Complete Genomics (or Amazon to be technical) is supposed to deliver WGS any minute. I am a PGP volunteer so it will all be public, but PGP still hasn't told me what to do about uploading the exome data. They have my 23andme genotypes. And, my fibroblast cells are at Coriell.

- Ron

[Jon_Keats]

I'd do it at some point. A little squeamish after test runs on an Affy 500k back in the day said I was female not male. And they wonder why I like Agilent stuff... got a nice looking Y chromosome on their CGH platform.

[rskr]

I might go for a genotyping now, but I will wait until I can have it done denovo not any of this reference guided list of SNP's stuff.