Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 20-Sep-2008 23:44 hrs
Google co-founder Sergey Brin, seen here in June 2008, has started a blog, candidly telling of being at risk for Parkinson's Disease and plugging his wife's genetic testing start-up firm.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has started a blog, candidly telling of being at risk for Parkinson's Disease and plugging his wife's genetic testing start-up firm.
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While Brin is no stranger to news-making webcasts and online press announcements, he made a blogging debut Thursday by sharing personal musings in a post at the Blogger weblogging website Google bought in early 2003.
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Brin wrote of his mother being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and how testing by 23andMe, a company started by his wife Anne Wojcicki, shows he has a gene mutation that "markedly" increases his chances of getting the illness.
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"This leaves me in a rather unique position," Brin wrote.
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"I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds. I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me."
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Brin told of working with The Parkinson's Institute and the Michael J. Fox Foundation to combat the disease and provided links to the organizations' websites.
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"I feel fortunate to be in this position," Brin wrote.
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"Until the fountain of youth is discovered, all of us will have some conditions in our old age, only we don't know what they will be. I have a better guess than almost anyone else for what ills may be mine and I have decades to prepare for it."
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Brin wrote of comparing his genes with those of relatives and of checking whether his DNA links him to others with his family name.
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Founded by Wojcicki and Linda Avey two years ago, California-based 23andMe offers genotyping for a price of 399 per person. — AFP
