GenCove To Discontinue Offering Invidiuals DNA Testing June 15 2018

I found out GenCove was shutting down individual accounts and no longer allowing new accounts after June 15, 2018 when I logged in GenCove a few days ago. Here’s the direct link to the announcement: https://medium.com/the-seeq-blog/sunsetting-gencove-for-individuals-7d24f951193c You still have time (if you read this before June 16, 2018) to upload your raw data from Ancestry DNA, 23andMe, FamilyTree DNA (FTDNA), MyHeritage DNA, etc., but I would do it as soon as possible.

Sunsetting Gencove for individuals

We are making some important changes at Gencove.

In the last year, we’ve seen increasing demand for our low-pass sequencing technology from researchers looking for accessible and effective sequencing, and we have been working hard to launch exciting new capabilities for this technology. You can read more about what we are doing here.

But this also means that we have decided to fully focus on our sequencing platform and that we will need to gradually discontinue our direct-to-consumer products. What does this mean for you?

To start, we will discontinue DNA data uploads and kit orders for individual customers as of June 15th 2018. If you are an existing user, you will still be able to access their account and download all your results and raw DNA data for one year, until June 15th, 2019.

After the one year period, we will close all accounts and delete your data permanently. You can always delete your data and account any time before that date through your account settings.

You will also notice that we changed our website to a version that better reflects our new focus. Going forward, to access your account you can go to https://gencove.com/ as usual, and click on “For Individuals” on the top right, or go directly to the new user site: https://my.gencove.com/

We want to thank you for trusting us, and we really hope you found our ancestry analysis and other genomic interpretation features useful and fun.

Below, you’ll find information about how to keep your ancestry results and what else you can do with your DNA data.

Please contact us at support@gencove.com if you have any questions, or email me directly at joe@gencove.com.

In my opinion, they are making an unwise business decision since they could simply add the new items and allow the present system of direct to consumer (DTC) DNA testing choices to remain. For those not familiar with GenCove, you can either order a kit from them for $59.99 or upload your raw data free from one of the major DNA genealogical testing companies.

In addition to the above blog post from GenCove, there is a second one that goes into more detail as to what its new plans include https://medium.com/the-seeq-blog/a-platform-for-replacing-genotyping-arrays-with-sequencing-cf570937968c (I removed some of the information in my copy/paste, but covered what I thought was the relevant portions)

A platform for replacing genotyping arrays with sequencing

tl;dr: Gencove has opened up a platform for low-pass sequencing, available at gencove.com

About ten months ago, I discussed the arguments for using low-pass sequencing as a replacement for genotyping arrays. The key argument is that sequencing-based technologies (when combined with advances in imputation algorithms) allow one to collect more data at a lower cost than genotyping technologies.

Since I wrote that blog post, sequencing costs have continued to decline, our molecular biology processes have become more efficient, and our imputation algorithms have continued to improve. Indeed, we have been offering low-pass sequencing as a service to leading academic, biotech, and pharma research groups. Today, I’m pleased to announce that we are making this technology broadly available as a platform for scientists in these sectors.

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This platform consists of three products — the first two are low-pass sequencing along with imputation at different levels of sequencing coverage. We calibrated these coverages to allow for imputation that outperforms genotyping arrays of comparable prices: 0.4X coverage outperforms the Illumina Global Screening Array and similar arrays across populations, while 1X coverage additionally outperforms the Affymetrix Biobanking Array. Since these are sequencing-based assays, at large sample numbers, both can be used to identify new genetic variants that have previously never been observed.

 The third product additionally includes custom content — we’ve designed a sequence capture assay that allows for the capture of a set of regions (for example, exons from a set of important genes, or a set of known SNPs of interest) in addition to low-pass sequencing from the rest of the genome, while retaining cost-effectiveness. In research applications, this effectively allows a scientist to place a prior on what parts of the genome they expect to be important for their trait of interest.

As an example application of the capture assay, you might imagine research on cardiovascular disease risk: we know that there are many thousands of genetic variants with small effects on heart disease risk that are spread across the genome, along with a few variants of larger effect in genes like LDLR. Commonly-used gene panels are unable to measure the polygenic component of risk, while genotyping arrays do not comprehensively assay the genes of large effect. A low-pass sequencing plus capture assay measures both aspects of risk in a scalable and cost-effective manner.

From my user panel, I can access the following items: https://user.gencove.com/ (you will need to be logged into your GenCove account for it to work)
Explore your ancestry
Relative Radar
Friends
Available through GenCove, including 3rd party companies.
Discover your microbiome (GenCove) – Not Available as of May 24, 2018
My Genome (GenCove) – appears to be DNA.Land (? ordered raw data just in case)
How happy are you? (USC Behavioral and Health Genomics Center)
GenePlaza (Insilico Genomics SA/GenePlaza) https://www.geneplaza.com
Sleep (GenCove)
YouGenomics India (YouGenomics) – https://genavli.in/ *register for $48 or use your GenCove data until it’s no longer available
GenCove Mobile App (GenCove)
Open Humans (Open Humans) – https://www.openhumans.org/
Genetics of Personality Type Research – https://www.personalitygenie.com/ have to agree to consent to view it on GenCove
iobio (https://gene.iobio.io) – not in the main page, but listed on a separate section, https://gene.iobio.io/ ( * link above so I didn’t make this one active since it redirects to http://newgene.iobio.io/ if I click on the app)

We’ve used a method called imputation to fill in blanks in your genome, which means some blanks may be filled incorrectly. Please read this great article (https://dna.land/impute-info) by DNA.land to learn more about it. This is one of the reasons data in your Gencove account should only be used for research or educational purposes. Study (Personality Genie)

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