Sharing your genome

Parents tell their children never to share personal information online. One would presume that includes information on their DNA. Nevertheless, a Mountain View, Calif., company that offers personal DNA testing, 23andMe, is set to launch a social networking site that allows users to share and compare their DNA with family and friends. Call it Facebook Plus.

"I think the idea of social networking has untapped potential," George Church, a Harvard professor and member of 23andMe's scientific advisory board, told MIT's Technology Review. "The idea has precedence in PatientsLikeMe, people who have been enabled to find one another by their disease. Here, people can find each other by their alleles [genetic variations]."

What's next? A matchmaking service?

--Shari Roan

Illustration: B.D. Cummings/Tribune Media Services