I have wondered on occasion which reference lab was performing the DNA testing for consumer genealogy/genomic web sites like AncestryDNA.com and 23andMe. Part of the answer was recently revealed by the Dark Daily (see: AncestryDNA Collaborates with Quest Diagnostics to Provide Home DNA Testing to Healthcare Consumers). Below is an excerpt from the article:
Did you ever wonder which lab does all the genetic testing for Ancestry as it offers to help consumers learn more about their family histories?....[I]t is Quest Diagnostics...,one of the world’s largest clinical laboratory companies—that does the genetic sequencing on the consumer samples provided to it by Ancestry....[T]he number of individual samples in the Ancestry repository and database is now four million, according to information on its website. AncestryDNA (Ancestry) and Quest Diagnostics (Quest) now collaborate to help consumers learn about their family histories and unlock secrets in their DNA. Since August of 2016, Quest has performed the genomic testing for home DNA kits ordered through Ancestrydna.com....To utilize the AncestryDNA service, consumers must first order a DNA kit online through the Ancestry website. The cost of the kit is $[79]....The DNA test uses microarray-based autosomal DNA testing, analyzing as many as 700,000 changes in an individual’s genome....
[Ancestry.com] maintains...[that the company does] not claim ownership rights to DNA submitted to them for testing, and that they do not share DNA testing results with other entities and organizations without customer permission....Regardless of the debate over ownership of a person’s DNA, this collaboration between Ancestry and Quest Diagnostics is an example of a company relying on diagnostic industry vendors and clinical laboratories to perform services for its customers. It illustrates the need for clinicians and laboratory professionals to remain current on industry trends in ways that might help their labs to increase profits and provide value-added services to consumers. Ancestry’s growing volume of consumer testing demonstrates that there is a potential market for medical laboratories that make themselves available to consumers to answer questions and concerns about DNA testing.
AncestryDNA.com had announced its business relationship with Quest in August 2016 as a second diagnostic partner (see: Quest Diagnostics and AncestryDNA Collaborate to Expand Consumer DNA Testing). The article did not discuss the identify of the first partner. More details were revealed at that time about its new relationship with Quest:
Ancestry selected Quest Diagnostics after considering several laboratory organizations through a formal request for proposal process. Quest Diagnostics will perform genetic testing on Ancestry customer samples at its state-of-the-art laboratory in Marlborough, Mass. ....Opened in 2014, the 200,000 square foot laboratory can accommodate expected growing demand for AncestryDNA. Quest expects to begin performing testing for Ancestry in the first quarter of 2017. Over time, the two companies intend to explore additional opportunities such as developing tools and applications to guide people on building and understanding their "family medical tree."
Ancestry.com started as a genealogy company, enabling its customers to build a family tree on-line and providing access to historical records like U.S census reports as an on-line resource. 23andMe was launched as a consumer-oriented genomic testing lab but encountered resistance from the FDA (see: 23andMe Customers: Suckers or Empowered Consumers?). The company has moved in recent years in the direction of being a legitimate DNA medical reference lab (see: 23andMe Requests FDA Clearance for DNA Saliva Testing; FDA allows marketing of first direct-to-consumer tests that provide genetic risk information for certain conditions). It looks like AncestryDNA has decided to avoid any entanglements with the FDA by turfing its lab testing to Quest and restricting its interpretations for customers to genealogy issues, thus avoiding any legal and regulatory issues raised by genomic testing. At any rate, Quest's experience with large-scale DNA testing for AncestryDNA certainly prepares it to scale-up for genomic testing in Marlborough for all of its healthcare clients as demand for such testing increases.
Comments