Estonia Offers Free Genetic Testing to Residents

The nationwide experiment will initially include around 100,000 volunteers.

Written byDiana Kwon

| 2 min read

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PIXABAY, VIKUCKA

The Estonian government announced last month that it would pay to genotype 100,000 of its citizens as part of its to plan integrate genetic testing into its healthcare system. The country aims to minimize disease risk and promote healthier living through personalized reports generated from the DNA tests.

“Today we have enough knowledge about both the genetic risk of complex diseases and the interindividual variability of the effects of medicines in order to start using this information systematically in everyday healthcare,” Jevgeni Ossinovski, Estonia’s Minister of Health and Labor, says in a statement.

Participants will be required to donate blood and provide consent for their information to be stored at the Estonian databank, Lili Milani, a researcher with the Estonian Genome Center at the University ...

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Meet the Author

Diana Kwon
Diana is a freelance science journalist who covers the life sciences, health, and academic life. She’s a regular contributor to The Scientist and her work has appeared in several other publications, including Scientific American, Knowable, and Quanta. Diana was a former intern at The Scientist and she holds a master’s degree in neuroscience from McGill University. She’s currently based in Berlin, Germany.
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