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23andMe's DNA Mixup Leaves 96 Customers With Wrong Test Results
As we know all too well here at Switched, everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone, however, makes mistakes quite as far-reaching as was the blunder that private DNA-testing company 23andMe recently made. On Friday, the company announced that "a number of new 23andMe customer samples were incorrectly processed" by the third-party lab that conducts the DNA tests, and confessed that "up to" 96 people received test results that weren't really theirs. As you can imagine, mass confusion ensued. In a recent post on the company's message board, one affected woman wrote about mistakenly believing that her son had hemochromatosis, which she found strange, since neither she nor her husband were carriers. She was so bewildered, in fact, that she even began questioning whether or not her son had been mistakenly switched with someone else at birth.
Chances are, the mix-up occurred as a result of an absent-minded lab worker, who probably grabbed the wrong 96-well tray of samples. It's worth noting, then, that the snafu isn't entirely 23andMe's fault, since it was, after all, the lab that erred. And the company should probably be commended for its openness about a consumer relations crisis that many companies may have tried to cover up.
Yet, it was still the company's responsibility to deliver the results, and to ensure that those results were valid. As Genetic Future points out, a sizable number of customers have flooded the site with complaints about how long it took 23andMe to explain itself, and about how some mistakes (like incorrectly labeled genders) could've easily been caught at first glance.
The main question going forward, however, is what measures 23andMe will now implement to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. In a statement, the company has assured the public that it is "putting additional procedures in place that will add an extra layer of safeguards," and that it is considering the adoption of "a process that would include removing manual steps at the lab, completely automating the sample analyses, and implementing further checks of the data before it gets loaded into customer accounts." But, in light of the recent controversy surrounding non-federally approved, at-home DNA tests, 23andMe's careless error may only provide more impetus for stringent regulation, and, perhaps, government intervention. [From: GeneticFuture, via: TechCrunch]
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Comments
14
Subscribe to commentsadmJun 9th 2010 7:54AM
"You are not the father!"...3 months later , OOPS!..You are the father."
King DavidJun 9th 2010 11:45AM
THIS is a time when the lawyer sharks should move in IMMEDIATELY and sue this piece of garbage company OUT OF BUSINESS -- IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!! Not only have they created strife and anguish that is immeasurable but they also taint the validity of DNA usage in the world of criminal prosecution (Imagine a defense lawyer bringing up this case as part of a "reasonable doubt" defense!!). No, when ANYONE is entrusted with the delicate portions of anyone's lives, AND THEY MAKE THESE KIND OF MISTAKES, THEY MUST BE IMMEDIATELY ELIMINATED, and ALL STAFF MEMBERS FOREVER BANNED FROM FUTURE EMPLOYMENT IN THIS VENUE -- THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH FOR APATHY AND EXCUSES!!!!
RobertRobJun 9th 2010 8:37AM
Sounds like they R a greedy just 4 profit company like most here in US in our 21rst Century.
They probubly used some lab in India I bet.
Well any way they got what they deserved I hope they get sued back into the stone age LOL.
Oskar LievowitzJun 9th 2010 9:03AM
RobertRob, congrats to you sir!!!. Save the DNA test costs your spelling of the word "probably as "probubly" shows you are descended from the ape branch of the primate group. Keep on posting and you will be caught and put on display at the local zoo.
ldawnnjJun 9th 2010 11:17AM
yea, big deal
DebraJun 9th 2010 11:31AM
Peoplle that pont out oher peoplle's spelleng errers are jest plane STUUUUPPPIIIIDDDD!
Don't you hav someting betar to do OKSAR? Geeze, what a dumba**. Yeh that is mispeled.
CarleneJun 9th 2010 1:06PM
Oskar, perhaps you doth protest too much. You lay him out for spelling but your own note is overridden with puncutation errors. How's that glass house of yours standing up today, dear one? In other words, put that stone down.
RenaeJun 9th 2010 11:39AM
Hope none of those samples were Maury.
johnJun 9th 2010 12:16PM
Oscar, you must be from the same ape branch of the primate group. However, your problems arewith grammar and punctuation, not spelling. I detected a minimum of five errors in your three sentence post. You were able to find only one error in RobertRob's post. Does that mean you are five times more simian than he is?
rjeabzJun 9th 2010 12:53PM
Golly - playing God is tougher than we thought! Oh, well --- what harm?
CarleneJun 9th 2010 1:10PM
Yes, I spelled "punctuation" wrong. Just a typing error, but...it IS an error. Now everyone can write about me! HAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!
antiBSsupporterJun 9th 2010 1:11PM
I wonder how many relationships were ruined and divorces were caused because of this outrageous blunder?
RosieJun 9th 2010 2:35PM
Relax, the company is of COURSE out to make money, aren't you? They trusted a lab who was untrustworthy and THEY were the ones who make the mistakes. The person who "grabbed the wrong 96-well tray" should be FIRED. This lab should be reinspected and recertified. What a mess! Did they say how long it took them to find the mistake? Who and how? I'd like to hear from the people who had to deal with this.
noneJun 9th 2010 2:55PM
I hope none of these screw-ups had anything to do with death row or current trials. How can anyone is a position like this have "grabbed the wrong 96-well tray of samples"? Some things are unforgivable, and I think this is one of them. DNA is too important for even one tiny mistake to be made.