Genetic Testing Needs To Get Better, And The FDA Wants To Help

For about $1,000, companies can read your DNA, but not without mistakes. The U.S. government is trying to help them do a better job of it.

Your genome, the strands of DNA in the cells of your body, contains more than 3 billion base pairs—chemical bonds that act like letters of code. Amazingly, new technologies can take a drop of blood or saliva and read someone's whole genome in about a day, for as little as $1,000 (down from close to $47,000 six years ago). Unsurprisingly, they don't get everything right. No one knows for sure how far off the results are, and how much the accuracy varies from one test and company to another.

Read Full Story