A Whole Genome Sequence serves as a permanent, comprehensive genetic resource that can be re-analysed over your entire lifetime informing your present and future medical decisions.
3.2 billion base pairs.
Every single one read.
A whole Genome is
While standard genetic chips only test for a fixed checklist of known variants, Whole Genome Sequencing unlocks your entire genetic blueprint. Our WGS technology sequences 100% of your DNA—including the 98% of the genome lying outside the exome. This non-coding region acts as your body's genetic control panel, and it is where today's most vital health and wellness discoveries are being made.
Chip tests and panels read markers chosen in advance — they can only find what they look for. Sequencing reads every position, including the 98% of the genome that lies outside the genes, where much of today's new discovery is happening.
Each position of your DNA is read dozens of times over, so a real variant is distinguished from instrument noise. That read depth is the standard clinical diagnosis depends on.
You share 99.9% of your DNA with every other person — the differences sit in roughly 4 to 5 million variants that are yours alone. They don't change over your lifetime, so neither does your data.
How it compares
These all get called a DNA test. They read very different amounts, because each was built to answer a different question.
| The test | What it reads | Of your DNA |
|---|---|---|
| DNA chip tests | A pre-selected set of markers — ancestry and common traits | <0.1% |
| Gene panels | A short list of genes, chosen in advance | ~0.3% |
| Exome sequencing | Only the protein-coding regions | ~1.8% |
| Whole genome sequencing | Everything you were born with — coding and non-coding | ~100% |
Percentages refer to the approximate proportion of the genome sequenced or analysed. Less than 0.1% is a glimpse. MyDNAComplete is the whole picture.
Why one test, once
Traditional healthcare is reactive. When symptoms are complex, patients are sent down a fragmented "diagnostic odyssey" — sequential single-gene tests ordered one after another, each blind to everything outside its narrow panel. Whole Genome Sequencing replaces that chain with a single, exhaustive blueprint of ~100% of your DNA — including the 98% of the genome that targeted panels never examine.
There are over 6,000 clinically defined rare diseases, and roughly 72% have a direct genetic origin. Collectively they affect an estimated 300 million people worldwide — about 1 in 17 of us.[8]
Because WGS reads all 3 billion base pairs, it can cross-reference millions of variants against known disease databases in a single run — screening thousands of conditions concurrently, not one test at a time.[2][3]
Used as a first-tier benchmark, WGS dramatically increases diagnostic success, improves drug-safety decisions, and saves the cost of repeated testing — no new sample, no new bill, each time a new question arises.[2]
What it changes
Traditional diagnosis is a step-by-step guessing game — doctors order single-gene tests one after another, hoping to land on the right one. It's slow, expensive, and often ends in a dead end. WGS reads the entire book of your DNA at once, so the answers are already there.
Developmental delays
Causes for unexplained slow growth, intellectual disability, or autism spectrum traits.
Neurological conditions
Mutations linked to severe epilepsy, brain abnormalities, and muscular dystrophies.
Congenital anomalies
Structural birth defects and multi-system organ issues in newborns or fetuses.
Cystic fibrosis
A severe lung and digestive disorder caused by specific gene deletions or variants.
Hemophilia & sickle cell anemia
Inherited blood disorders affecting clotting or red blood cells.
Marfan syndrome & familial hypercholesterolemia
Connective-tissue and cholesterol-processing conditions.
Blood cancers
Helps classify and risk-stratify complex leukemias like acute myeloid leukemia to guide precise therapies.
Solid tumors & sarcomas
Identifies somatic mutations, structural changes, and therapy targets within tumor DNA.
The clinically actionable genes
The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics maintains a list — ACMG SF v3.2, now over 80 genes — of variants so penetrant and so treatable that laboratories are directed to report them proactively, in any patient.[6][7] The rule is simple: if a mutation is found, the disease is highly likely — and a proven intervention exists if it is caught early.
Knowing enables aggressive early surveillance — MRIs and colonoscopies — or preventative surgical management, proven to save lives when started early.
BRCA1 · BRCA2 · PALB2
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer
MLH1 · MSH2 · MSH6 · PMS2
Lynch syndrome — colorectal and uterine cancers
APC
Familial adenomatous polyposis
TP53
Li-Fraumeni syndrome
PTEN
PTEN hamartoma tumour syndrome
VHL · RET · STK11
Von Hippel-Lindau, MEN2, Peutz-Jeghers
A finding directs clinicians to beta-blockers, lifestyle modification or implantable defibrillators — preventing sudden cardiac arrest in people who feel perfectly well.
LDLR · APOB · PCSK9
Familial hypercholesterolaemia — early heart attacks, highly treatable
FBN1 · TGFBR1 · TGFBR2
Hereditary thoracic aortic aneurysms, incl. Marfan syndrome
MYBPC3 · MYH7 · TNNT2
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
KCNQ1 · KCNH2 · SCN5A
Long QT syndrome
RYR2 · CASQ2
Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia
PKP2 · DSP · DSG2
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy
Early intervention — diet control, chelating agents, enzyme therapy or a simple anaesthetic swap — halts organ damage that would otherwise accumulate silently.
ATP7B
Wilson disease — copper overload, manageable with chelation
HFE
Hereditary haemochromatosis — iron overload, managed by phlebotomy
GAA
Pompe disease — enzyme therapy exists
RYR1 · CACNA1S
Malignant hyperthermia — a fatal reaction to standard anaesthesia, avoidable if known
HNF1A
Maturity-onset diabetes of the young
RPE65
Inherited retinal disease — eligible for targeted gene therapy
A selection from the ACMG SF v3.2 list, grouped by condition — not exhaustive. MyDNAComplete reads every gene on the list, completely, including the regions standard panels miss.[6][7]
Sequenced once · Read for life
In published studies, re-analysing stored genome data has solved cases years after the first report[4] — variants are reclassified as the evidence base grows, and the same sequence keeps yielding new answers. That is what makes this the one health test you never need to buy twice.
Questions, answered
Your genetic data is deeply personal. We treat it that way — from sample handling to the way your results are shared.
References
