where you spit in the tube and you mail it off and they do DNA testing and give you ancestry and health data.

Well, here's the deal

They approached me and asked me if I would make a video on Smarter Every Day about them, and what they do

But there's a problem with that

I'm really

fascinated with this technology like I think this is the future of medicine. Imagine a doctor walking into your room opening a chart and saying

"Oh well

I can't give you this drug because you're genetically predisposed to a negative reaction"

That is the future of medicine so I really believe this is important however

I can't do an ad

for something this important and have you the viewer think that I'm just shilling for a company and saying what they want me to say

because they're giving me money, so I set up the following terms. I said, look,

I'll do this video if, number one, I get to ask any question

I want of anybody and I get to say whatever I want as long as it's true

And they said yes to that and number two I want access to the labs with my camera

And I want to be able to ask the scientist questions, and they said yes to that and that never happens !

That's awesome. And number three

I told them I actually wanted them to sponsor the video

Which they did so to their credit, 23andMe is sponsoring a transparent video

which is a little scary for them because they have no idea what I'm gonna say. So here we go,

Let's do this. When you get the kit. It's pretty clear how this exchange works.

I give up genetic material, and I get health and ancestry data back, but that's scary

I don't know what they're gonna do with my sample

I don't know exactly what I'm giving up. When I ask people on Twitter, everybody cited privacy concerns, so just for a second

let's pretend that we can't trust this company we need to go to an independent third-party

expert that knows exactly what type of information we're giving up when we spit in a tube and mail it to 23andMe

So when a lot of people think about, Huntsville, Alabama,

they think about the space industry like the Saturn 5, right ?

But what you didn't know if you get on Google Maps and go to

601 Genome Way, you're gonna see a double helix

you can see from space. That is this place.

No joke. Huntsville,

Alabama is home to one of the largest DNA

sequencing centers in the entire world and it's in my hometown like I see these people at PTA meetings. The HudsonAlpha Institute for

Biotechnology is where Dr. Neil Lamb, a PhD in human genetics works.

We're go in here and learn about DNA sequencing. Hey, are you Neil ? NEIL>> I am

DESTIN>> Hey, I'm Destin. NEIL>> Nice to meet you

DESTIN>> Nice to meet you, yeah NEIL>> Welcome to HudsonAlpha

DESTIN>> Chris nice to meet you guys

Hey, how you guys doing, you doing all right? NEIL>> Welcome to the Institute. DESTIN>> Yeah, thank you. This is fancy.

NEIL>> Is this your first time here ? DESTIN>> No actually I

upload stuff to the YouTube channel here because you have the fastest internet connection in the city

Did you know I did that? NEIL>> So we're headed to the genome sequencing center

which is the all of the sequencing machines that we have at HudsonAlpha.

DESTIN>> Ok, so these are the sequencers right full-blown DNA sequencing. NEIL>> These are DNA sequencers

This is really the heart of HudsonAlpha. These machines are designed to take an individual or an organism to sequence

it's broken up into small pieces and the

sequence A's T's C's G's... DESTIN>> for the entire genome? NEIL>> for the entire genome. DESTIN>> Like how much data are we talking there, in bytes?

NEIL>> So the raw data that comes out of this machine is about 80 gigabytes of information for one human genome.

DESTIN>> Okay, this explains why the fastest internet node in the city is it HudsonAlpha. NEIL>> That is correct

DESTIN>> Does 23andMe have like a bank of machines like this ? NEIL>> 23andMe uses a completely different technology for genotyping

DESTIN>> So what's the difference in genotyping and

full-blown DNA sequencing ? NEIL>> So to answer that question let me show you another illustration. This is a representation of your

genome. There's a hundred notebooks on the bookshelf, and I want you to imagine that each of those notebooks, has

5000 double-sided pages full of nothing but

DNA sequence. DESTIN>> Adenine, cytosine,

thymine and guanine. NEIL>> Exactly right so you've got two copies that copy you inherited from your mom and the copy you inherited from your dad.

So this is a representation of one of those two copies the amount of information that you're gonna get from

23andMe is not all three billion bits of information.

Instead, it's more like about

90 pages. DESTIN>> Really? Now, what's the difference in genotyping and just doing a DNA sequence, what's the difference in those two things?

NEIL>> Right, in DNA sequencing, I'm reading through every single letter in your genome. With genotyping,

I'm going to a specific place, and I'm saying at this one site, what do you have? And with genotyping I'm doing that...

well for 23andMe they're doing that at about

600,000 sites across your genome. DESTIN>> So it's not like you're giving away your entire DNA sequence when you do something like this. NEIL>> That's right

You're only giving away a tiny fraction of your genetic information when you do something like 23andMe. DESTIN>> Okay,

Got it this it's not your entire sequence

I thought it was I thought they were gonna be Destin clones walking the streets

But if you do the math it's only 0.02% of your sequence. That's a game-changer

They should like put that on the website or something.

Okay, was at this point that I was invited to an education summit headquarters in Mountain View,

California. My wife, who's really smart when it comes to genetics, insisted that she take my place for reasons, I'll let her explain

TARA>> I am a medical professional as someone who's done

genetic research in the past and wanted to know if it would benefit you guys there were if it would harm you guys

So I'm here ! DESTIN>> This part is super cute to me because she doesn't like to be on camera that much

But I asked her to vlog just a little bit

She went and talked to professors and researchers from all over the country

And they discussed the different benefits and risks of doing this type of testing both on the individual level and its overall implications for society

The main thing she learned is that the optional questions are the key. When people answer the question scientists can start to figure out what

genotypes affect what traits. We decided, as a family, that we want to contribute to the overall genetic body of knowledge

because that's going to help

society in the future. Okay, after you decide to spit you were about to send your genetic information

off to a third party. Kind of scary... so a set up an email address

Specifically to do the kit

and it's pretty interesting because there's no return address so really the only indicator for which tube is mine

is this 14 digit code. I spit in the tube, you're smart, you can figure that part out and you write down that

14 digit code on the tube and link that to the email address and that goes to 23andMe headquarters.

The kit however, does not go to 23andMe headquarters

it goes to LabCorp, a completely different company after doing some research

I discovered that 23andMe has isolated themselves physically from the samples. LabCorp has samples and numbers

23andMe has

email addresses and numbers I decided to spit in this thing and then chase it out to

California to see what happens when it hits the door of the lab.

This is the first time LabCorp allowed someone like me into the lab with a camera

I was introduced to the lab manager Amanda Douglas and was told I could film anything and ask any question I wanted

AMANDA>> So we're at the National Genetic Institute

DESTIN>> National Genetics Institute okay. AMANDA>> It's a subsidiary of LabCorp.

DESTIN>> No way is that the FedEx guy that brings brings the stuff in? What's up, man?

Do you bring all the samples here? FedEx Guy>> Yes I do. DESTIN>> Nice to meet you man. This is way more behind the scenes than I thought it was gonna be

AMANDA>> This is a small batch so we open them by hand but with larger batches there's a conveyor belt

DESTIN>> Really? AMANDA>> And that will cut them open

DESTIN>> And so you open them and you... Oh! He's actually got the sample, okay, so what's your name man? LONNIE>> Lonnie. DESTIN>> Lonnie, I'm Destin, man

Nice to meet you.

All right, so we got our spit in the system now what?

AMANDA>> Alright, so now that the spit is in the system, we'll know...

ok, let's go ahead and test the ones that are ready to test and then they'll move on to the lab. DESTIN>> Is that where we're going now? AMANDA>> That's where we're going now.

DESTIN>> Sweet. These are all specimens here. So Lonnie has done his thing, we come in here, and we're ready to extract the DNA. AMANDA>> That's right.

DESTIN>> Okay AMANDA>> So we'll go on here

DESTIN>> Oh, this is so rad... Oh god !

This is like from the future. What are you guys doing? LAB TECHNICIAN>> I'm currently uncapping

specimen sample, to be able to put them into the

Tecan which will then take a little small amount of this into the 96-well plate.

DESTIN>> Okay, so these machines are autonomously taking the samples out of the specimen tube that people mailed in and then it's

Automatically putting those into the 96-well plate. That's what we're doing

Got it. Okay, so this is the first time where we no longer have humans touching it, and we're moving towards machine automated process. LAB TECHNICIAN>> Exactly.

DESTIN>> Is that it? I would high-five you, but you get gloves on. I

spent the entire day with Amanda learning the whole process and basically it works like this. First

they isolate the DNA and then they amplify it by allowing it to replicate and then the magic happens. This chip is the secret to

genotyping. Basically they take the DNA, and they unzip the double helix

which leaves you with one side of a ladder rung they then put this unzipped DNA onto the chip

which has

thousands of artificial DNA probes on it these probes are basically long stretches of DNA that match known parts of the human genome

So when a ladder comes along and gets beside the probe it's a perfect match and will bind to it

Since this stretch of DNA is a known sequence you can then read the next base pair

That's hanging off of the probe and that's the specific information for that base pair

They do this by a fluorescent marker that they'll put on the chips which reacts to different kinds of light these specific locations are chosen

because they're associated with something interesting like a disease risk or a physical trait this fancy machine

illuminates the chips and takes a picture, which tells you what letter you have at that particular DNA snip

Or single nucleotide polymorphism, and that's it. That's how the data is captured the next thing

I wanted to know is what happens after your sample is tested. On the website,

you could choose to allow lab core to keep the sample on long-term storage for future testing or

You can check a box and tell them to destroy it

I asked Amanda if she would show me this because a lot of people want to know if they check that box

It's actually gonna happen. Amanda has agreed to show me the process. It's really exciting I'm told. AMANDA>> Oh

Yeah, you're in for an

excitement here, so

we take a box of

120 samples that we've scanned and said "this sample is to be discarded", the customer does not want to store it long-term

So once they're ready to be discarded. We'll take the samples and throw them in to the trash

And we simply toss them into the trash

pour the whole box in the trash.

DESTIN>> That's it? AMANDA>> That's it DESTIN>> And then what happens to it? Like you I really expect you that you're hiding the samples somewhere, right?

You're gonna do something crazy with them, right?

AMANDA>> We just throw them away. DESTIN>> And they go and they are destroyed at a

biomedical waste facility. AMANDA>> That's right DESTIN>> So we're kind of goofing around here

but it is important, so she showed me the entire process the samples are consolidated

They're kept under lock and key, and they're picked up daily

It's legit. So I am satisfied with the process obviously

23andMe knew I would be satisfied or they wouldn't have allowed me to do this, but it was really fun to anyway

I really enjoyed the ancestry data a lot more than I thought I would I elected to talk to my dad about it

We had a really good discussion, and we actually learned things about our family together. The health stuff is interesting though.

It is your responsibility to

understand what those results mean and to get a better handle on this I decided to go talk to Dr. Lamb

again the unbiased third party at HudsonAlpha. NEIL>> I found the information really fascinating it gave me some insight into myself

But I'm... I have a background in human genetics

That's my PhD so I got all the nuances I understood what that means and what that

doesn't mean DESTIN>> So what you're saying is even if someone does

23andMe and they get that information about their own body, it's important to go the next step and understand

what you're learning about your body?

That's what you're saying. NEIL>> and to bring your medical doctor into those conversations and to make sure that your doctor

understands the nuances of genetics as well. They're a piece of information

and you've got to make sure you understand what that piece can and can't tell you and in a lot of cases you have the

Decision you can make the decision do I want to even know this information?

Or do I want to not look at that part of my report. DESTIN>> Got it okay and to be clear

Neil has nothing to do with 23andMe. NEIL>> That's correct, DESTIN>> Okay, so that's an unbiased third-party opinion

Thank you for that. NEIL>> My pleasure.

DESTIN>> Okay, in summary. I was concerned about privacy. I went to the lab

I am no longer concerned about privacy. They've got a good handle on that. You were concerned about the data

the benefits outweighing the risks do you feel like it does? TARA>> I do feel like the information is helpful for