Enterprising or altruistic selves? Making up research subjects in genetics research Richard Tutton 1 and Barbara Prainsack 2 1 ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (Cesagen), Department of Sociology, Lancaster University 2 Centre for Biomedicine and Society (CBAS), King’s College London Abstract The emergence of direct-to-consumer (DTC) personal genomics companies in 2007 was accompanied by considerable media attention and criticism from clinical geneticists and other health professionals, regulators, policy advisors, and ethicists. As well as offering genetic testing services, some firms are also engaged in building their own databases and conducting research with the data obtained from their customers. In this paper, we examine how one of these companies, 23andMe, is creating a certain kind of ‘research subject’ in opposition to that constituted in conventional forms of disease research. Drawing on debates about neoliberalism, contemporary health discourses and subjectivity, we consider two kinds of subjectivities produced through the discursive and material practices of 23andMe and UK Biobank, namely, ‘enterprising’ and ‘altruistic’ selves. We argue that the 23andMe model promotes the idea that curiosity about one’s genome on the one hand, and participation in research on the other, are not only compatible but complementary aspects of being an entrepreneurial subject of contemporary health and medicine framed by the technologies of web 2.0. Keywords: research participation, personal genomics, subjectivity, internet, biobanking Introduction In 2007 a small number of companies in the US, and one in Iceland, introduced a new internet-based genetic testing service. By analysing over 600,000 genetic markers across the human genome, for which genetic studies suggest associations with a range of complex diseases, conditions, and traits, these companies started marketing personalised genetic risk profiles direct-to-consumer (DTC). The emergence of these first so-called personal genomics (PG) companies was accompanied by considerable media attention and sparked immediate criticism from clinical geneticists and other health professionals, regulators, policy advisors, and ethicists concerned about the provision of genetic information outside the clinical context and its impact on individuals (Prainsack et al. 2008). As well as offering these personalised genetic risk profiles to customers, some firms are also engaged in building their own databases and conducting genetic research on the basis of the data obtained from their customers. California-based 23andMe is an example of such a Sociology of Health & Illness Vol. 33 No. 7 2011 ISSN 0141–9889, pp. 1081–1095 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01348.x Ó 2011 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness Ó 2011 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA