I just received a spit kit from 23andMe, a biotech company that does genomic SNP analysis.

SNPs (pronounced snip; plural snips) are single nucleotide polymorphisms, which are sections of the genome that vary from person to person (humans share almost all of their genomic data with each other, as is common in a species). 23andMe detects your allele for these SNPs and reports it to you. They used to provide analysis and health predictions based on current studies of the impact of different SNPs, but were shut down by the FDA for providing medical advice. Now, they provide ancestry data (if I have any cousins who have also sequenced, I’ll be able to communicate with them through 23andMe — even if we’re fifth or sixth cousins.

While it’s not technically a full genomic analysis (that’s prohibitively expensive for a college student), and making sense of the results is a bit of an adventure in genomic study, I’m looking forward to my results and learning more about the chemicals that make me who I am!

I’ll be posting results and findings on my blog as I make them. You can get a kit for yourself for $100+S/H.