The Genetic Genealogist

Image via CrunchBase

This isn’t about genetic genealogy or even genealogy, but it’s too interesting to pass up.

A recent Fortune article titled “How Facebook is taking over our lives” points out that roughly 175 million people are members of Facebook, and that the total daily use of Facebook is over 3 billion minutes.

Here are some rough calculations using that 3 billion minutes per day value (and feel free to check my math, please!):  three billion minutes equals 50 million hours, which equals 2.08 million days, which equals 5,707 years.

Thus, every single day humanity spends the equivalent of over 5,000 years on Facebook!

Image via Wikipedia

In “Called back to Africa by DNA,” journalist Teresa Watanabe highlights the recent surge of interest in the genetic genealogy by African Americans.  This increased interest is often written about during February, which is Black History Month (see “Genetic Genealogy and Black History Month” from February 2008 and “DNA Testing Jumps During Black History Month” from February 2007).  Although the LA times article rehashes some of the same issues, it also contributes a number of new points to the conversation.

Interesting Tidbits:

Among other things, the article mentions several of the projects that focus on African American genetic genealogy, including African Ancestry:

The curiosity has fueled the growth of DNA testing outfits. African Ancestry Inc., a Washington-based firm, has tested the DNA of 15,000 people against its database of 25,000 African genetic lineages, according to its president, Gina M. Paige. The firm’s clients include Winfrey, film director Spike Lee, musician Quincy Jones, comedian Whoopi Goldberg and actors Morgan Freeman and Don Cheadle.

And the African American DNA Roots Project:

Other DNA testers include Bruce A. Jackson, co-director of the African American DNA Roots Project at the University of Massachusetts, who said he is swamped with so many requests that he has stopped taking them until he works through a two-year backlog.

It appears that both projects are doing very well, and adding valuable new information to the diverse genetic ancestry of African Americans.

Peter Dizikes at Salon.com writes “Your DNA is a Snitch,” about privacy concerns surrounding genetic testing.  Peter contacted me a little while ago and we talked about some of my thoughts on the topic.  My opinion on the security measures at genetic testing companies was included in the story:

Early-adopting customers tend to agree [that genetic testing companies can protect personal information]. “They have every incentive to keep information private,” says Blaine Bettinger, a law student and genetics blogger in New York state and a 23andMe customer. “A security breach would be devastating for those companies.” Certainly well-funded firms like Navigenics and 23andMe can devote substantial resources to data protection.

I wrote a longer post about the importance of testing company protections last November (see “Security at Navigenics and 23andMe.”)

The Salon.com article is very well-written, and looks at numerous aspects of the issue.  There are a number of other people that I highly respect quoted in the article, including Misha Angrist, Hank Greely, and Linda Avey, among others.  Misha mentioned on his blog today, too; see “Peek-a-boo I sequence you” (Misha, I usually don’t announce my law school career unless I know it’s safe!).

I’ve been working on a presentation regarding the future of genetic genealogy, and one aspect of that future is the ability to trace DNA (SNPs, mutations, haplogroups, etc…) through recent history as the result of combining extensive genomic sequencing with massive family tree information.  Although the ability to do this will have many uses (both for genealogy and for personalized medicine), it will also raise a number of privacy issues, as a recent paper suggests.

A New Privacy Study

In “Inferential Genotyping of Y Chromosomes in Latter-Day Saints Founders and Comparison to Utah Samples in the HapMap Project,” author Jane Gitschier uses a combination of FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org) and Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (http://www.smgf.org/) to elucidate the Y-chromosome signature of two founders of the LDS Church.  Gitschier then used that information to determine whether anyone who contributed DNA to the HapMap project was related to these individuals via the Y-chromosome (none appeared to be).  However, Gitschier was able to predict the surname of many of the HapMap participants using these databases.

This research is related to two posts I wrote last October about using genetic genealogy results to determine surnames (“DNA Could Reveal Your Surname, Of Course,” and “More On Revealing Surnames Using Genetic Genealogy”).  I first mentioned this research last September when I highlighted some of the most interesting abstracts submitted for the American Society of Human Genetics’ November meeting (see here).

The Abstract:

“One concern in human genetics research is maintaining the privacy of study participants. The growth in genealogical registries may contribute to loss of privacy, given that genotypic information is accessible online to facilitate discovery of genetic relationships. Through iterative use of two such web archives, FamilySearch and Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, I was able to discern the likely haplotypes for the Y chromosomes of two men, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, who were instrumental in the founding of the Latter-Day Saints Church. I then determined whether any of the Utahns who contributed to the HapMap project (the “CEU” set) is related to either man, on the basis of haplotype analysis of the Y chromosome. Although none of the CEU contributors appear to be a male-line relative, I discovered that predictions could be made for the surnames of the CEU participants by a similar process. For 20 of the 30 unrelated CEU samples, at least one exact match was revealed, and for 17 of these, a potential ancestor from Utah or a neighboring state could be identified. For the remaining ten samples, a match was nearly perfect, typically deviating by only one marker repeat unit. The same query performed in two other large databases revealed fewer individual matches and helped to clarify which surname predictions are more likely to be correct. Because large data sets of genotypes from both consenting research subjects and individuals pursuing genetic genealogy will be accessible online, this type of triangulation between databases may compromise the privacy of research subjects.”

In November 2007 I estimated that as of that date 600,000 to 700,000 DNA testing kits had been sold by genetic genealogy companies and that the number was increasing by 80,000 to 100,000 kits per year  (see “How Big is the Genetic Genealogy Market?”).  I ended that article with a prediction:  “As the interest in genetic genealogy grows, I predict that the 1 millionth genetic genealogy customer will push the ‘buy’ button as early as 2009.”

It seems my prediction might not have been too far off.  This week, Family Tree DNA issued a press release stating that the company had recently received an order for the 500,000th testing kit.

FTDNA’s Press Release:

HOUSTON, February 9, 2009 (For Immediate Release) – Family Tree DNA (http://www.familytreedna.com), the world leader in genetic genealogy, announced today that it received its 500,000^th DNA test order for genealogy and anthropology purposes.

This number of historic significance includes Family Tree DNA’s own customers as well as the public participation samples in National Geographic and IBM‘s Genographic Project (www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic), which are also processed by Family Tree DNA.

Founded in April 2000, Family Tree DNA was the first company to develop the commercial application of DNA testing for genealogical purposes that had previously been available only for academic and scientific research. Almost a decade later, the Houston-based company continues to establish standards and create new milestones in the increasingly popular and rapidly growing field of genetic genealogy, whereas other companies have came to the market space looking for the business opportunity, but offering tests of lesser value.

Presenting the most popular and wide-ranging DNA-testing service in the field of genetic genealogy, Family Tree DNA prides itself on its commitment to the practice of solid, ethical science. Family Tree DNA is the only company that provides all customers with a guaranteed assignment of ancestral origins and places their records in our secured database – the largest in the world for matching purposes, which in turn means increased chances of finding long lost relatives. In that regard, Family Tree DNA is an important resource for the three million people in the United States who either were adopted or descend from adoptees.

Since its inception, Family Tree DNA has been associated with the Genomics Analysis and Technology Core at the University of Arizona as well as some of the world’s leading authorities in the fields of Genetics and Anthropology. In 2006 Family Tree DNA established the state-of-the-art Genomics Research Center at its headquarters in Houston, Texas, where it currently performs R&D and processes over 200 types of advanced DNA tests for its customers.

Family Tree DNA currently has representative offices in Europe and the Middle East.