Choosing your depth
DNA array or whole genome, how much we look at.
Both are ways of looking at your DNA. What differs is how much of it. An array types about 680,000 chosen positions directly in your sample, then infers the common variation between them. Whole-genome sequencing covers your whole genome, about thirty times over. The eight areas are the same either way. What changes is how much of your DNA sits underneath them, and how deep the reports inside each area can go.
The honest difference
What an array covers, and what it misses.
An array is a fixed set of probes, tiny detectors printed on a chip, one for each position it measures. Ours is a customised Global Screening Array, chosen for the common, well-studied variants. It is fast, affordable and genuinely useful: ancestry, common tendencies across every area, and the everyday genetics of food, drink, sleep and movement. Its reach is then extended by imputation. Imputation fills in the common variants between the probes, using a large reference panel of other genomes. That is what lets us compute polygenic risk scores (many small genetic effects added into one number). It cannot conjure a rare variant that was never on the chip.
Whole-genome sequencing covers your whole genome directly, about thirty times over. Every position is sequenced, so nothing between the positions has to be inferred. That is where the rare, high-impact variants live, along with larger structural changes and the deeper detail of how you handle medicines. It is a depth of the same analysis, with more of your DNA underneath.
One genome, start to end
Rare, high-impact variants
□ not read by the array
■ read by sequencing
DNA array
chosen positions, gaps in between
Whole-genome sequencing
every base, and what falls between
chromosome
Side by side
A DNA array, and the whole genome.
| DNA array | Whole-genome sequencing | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | About 680,000 chosen positions, typed directly in your sample | Your whole genome, about thirty times over |
| How it is measured | Customised Global Screening Array, then imputed | Illumina NovaSeq, paired 150bp reads, ~320bp inserts, ~30x mean depth |
| Common variants | Yes, the well-studied ones | Yes, sequenced directly |
| Rare and private variants | No, only what is on the chip | Yes, including ones almost unique to you |
| Structural changes | Large gains and losses, not the finer detail | Yes, down to smaller indels and rearrangements |
| Medicine-handling detail | The common variants | Fuller, including rarer ones |
| Ancestry and traits | Yes | Yes |
| Price, everything included | $850 | $2,950 |
Which depth fits you
The right depth depends on what you want to find.
An array is enough when the common picture is what you want: ancestry, the everyday genetics of how you live, and common-variant tendencies across every area of the analysis.
Choose the whole genome for what an array cannot reach. That means the rare and private variants beyond its probes, and the fullest detail on how you handle medicines. Every position is sequenced, so the answer comes from your own DNA rather than a reference panel.
Either way, the same scientist reviews your results and writes the same kind of analysis. You choose the depth on the questionnaire: an array is $850 and the whole genome $2,950, every area and every deeper report included. See how pricing works.
This is informational and educational, not clinical or diagnostic. Anything of clinical consequence is flagged plainly for you to bring to your own physician.
Choose your depth
The common picture, or all of it.
Tell us which depth you want. A precision medicine analyst replies with what your analysis will cover and when it will reach you. The price is fixed at either depth: $850 for the array, $2,950 for the whole genome, everything included.