When in doubt, spit it out

As a soundtrack that included Whole Lotta Love blasted, the couple were submitting samples for tests that could reveal disturbing news, like his propensity to develop throat cancer or the chances of her having pregnancy complications.

But Netschert adopted the party mood, focusing, at first, on the less consequential details about her heredity. 8220;I want to figure out why I have freckles,8221; she said.

It was taking a few minutes to fill the tube with the required amount of saliva, so Netschert had a dry-mouthed moment to consider what the couple might do if her husband turned out to be carrying a gene that could doom his offspring.

8220;Then maybe we8217;ll adopt instead,8221; she said. 8220;Really.8221;

Some people might fear a world where widespread DNA testing would remove the mysteries of their futures or even strip them of privacy. But the testing company 23andMe, which was the host of what it billed as a 8220;spit party8221; in the middle of New York Fashion Week, filled with celebrities, wants people to think of their genomes as a basis for social networking. As in: You are invited to join the group Slow Caffeine Metabolizers. Co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of a founder of Google, the company, which has token financial backing from Harvey Weinstein and Wendi Murdoch, hopes to make spitting into a test tube as stylish as ordering a ginger martini.

Typically, customers register and pay online 8212; the price of a test was cut by nearly two-thirds to 399 last week 8212; and are sent a testing kit. A customer spits into a tube, mails it in, and about a month later receives results via a Web account. The information on 89 genetic markers include details of customers8217; ancestry as well as what current research suggests are proclivities to certain diseases and other genetic traits like one8217;s appetite for sugar and responsiveness to antidepressants.

Wojcicki8217;s own offline networking has built support for her company. She met Ivanka Trump in St Barts, where Wojcicki and her husband, Sergey Brin, were spending the New Year holiday aboard a boat.

Comprehensive DNA tests may one day be a normal part of medical care, but right now 23andMe8217;s efforts to make genetic testing an impulse buy disturbs many researchers.

Wojcicki and Linda Avey, the company8217;s other founder, say their chief goal is to advance science by compiling a database of genetic information that medical researchers can tap. Customers cannot opt out of having their information anonymously shared, but they can refuse to participate in surveys focusing on specific traits.

When customers see their results on the screen, they are instructed about which findings are based on widely accepted science and which are less certain.

Wendi Murdoch said she, her two children with Rupert Murdoch, her husband and his 99-year-old mother had all been tested.