MyHeritage Acquires Promethease and SNPedia
MyHeritage announced the acquisition of SNPedia and Promethease, through acquiring the company that owned and operated them, River Road Bio. This will expand MyHeritage’s intellectual property in medical genetics. This marks MyHeritage’s first consumer health acquisition and their 10th acquisition since MyHeritage’s founding.
Promethease will be made free through the end of 2019 and SNPedia will remain a free wiki resource for academic and non-profit use.
SNPedia.com was launched in 2006. It is a wiki that contains a broad, community-curated knowledge base linking between genetic variants and medical conditions, as well as traits, citing over 30,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications. It is the primary encyclopedia and de facto go-to resource for information about genetic makers and has evolved to cover 110,413 genetic variants.
SNPedia operates under a Creative Commons license. It is a free resource for academic and non-commercial use. Only MyHeritage has the right to utilize it commercially. MyHeritage plans to maintain SNPedia as a free resource under the same rights and will utilize this comprehensive knowledge base to enhance future versions of MyHeritage’s DNA health products.
Promethease.com is a literature retrieval service. It allows consumers to upload their raw DNA data (from services such as Ancestry.com, 23andMe, and others) and automatically compares it to SNPedia to see relevant scientific findings regarding their genome.
The Promethease service currently costs $12, and offers consumers the option to store their DNA data. Since its launch in 2008, Promethease has become one of the world’s most popular consumer health services by allowing customers to obtain information on their unique genetic makeup.
Following this announcement, MyHeritage is transforming Promethease into a free service. This free promotion will run until the end of 2019.
MyHeritage intends to keep Promethease separate from its MyHeritage DNA health product line. Unlike Promethease, MyHeritage does not provide any health reports based on DNA data uploaded from vendors.
Related Articles on FamilyTree.com:
MyHeritage Explains How to Navigate Your DNA Health Report
MyHeritage Introduces DNA Health + Ancestry Test
MyHeritage Changed Its Data Upload Policy
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