I have always joked you can buy just about anything on the internet…books, dvds, food, pets, significant others…but 23andme takes this concept to a whole new level with their at-home DNA testing. And for the bargain hunter who wants to know their genetic makeup, 23andme is running a Black Friday sale!
23andMe Holiday Sale– Black Friday and Beyond
23andMe has announced an end-of-the-year price reduction on their at-home DNA test. Analyzing a sample of your saliva, 23andMe gives you a personal, private portrait of your health and/or your ancestry through their Health, Ancestry and Complete Editions. These services normally retail for $429, $399 and $499, respectively.
The Black Friday “23 for 24-hours” sale begins at 12:01 am, Friday, November 27th and offers 40% off 3 kits or more, 20% off 2 kits, or 10% off 1 kit. A 23andMe General Holiday Promotion runs from Saturday, November 28, 2009 through Thursday, December 31, 2009, offering 20% off 3 kits or more, and 10% off 2 kits.
What better gift is there for the person who has everything than the ability to know yourself a little bit better?
Customers of 23andMe’s Ancestry Edition can discover their lineage and trace their ancestors’ migrations. An exciting new feature called Relative Finder allows you to fill in branches of your family tree, learning about living relatives that share your DNA, and, if you like, you can make contact with them via anonymous e-mail requests.
23andMe Health Edition customers learn their genetic risk for nearly 120 traits and diseases, including carrier traits such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, breast cancer and Parkinson’s disease and their genetic drug responses to common medications such as Coumadin and Plavix.
Customers who purchase the Complete Edition get all of the information provided by these two editions.
Personally, I find this to be a bit freaky. It’s a concept that science fiction has played with quite a bit, and never to a good end. Everything from Gattaca to the 4400 to Heroes have shown that mucking around in knowing our genetics is a dangerous thing.
But this is real life, and hopefully nothing that sinister will come of a few swabs of saliva. If you have the cash to spare, you don’t fear an army of clones showing up at your door, and you desperately want to know whether you really are the offspring of an alien abduction (or you’d like to offer the same peace of mind to a friend), check out 23andMe this Friday to take advantage of their Black Friday sales!
