GenomeWeb Daily News published a story on Friday entitled “En route to Neandertal Genome, Researchers Analyze Its Complete Mitochondrial Genome” which revealed the results of recent Neanderthal mtDNA analysis.
On Thursday May 9th, Svante Pääbo spoke at the Biology of Genomes meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Pääbo’s group, along with 454 Life Sciences, […]
The Quantified Self has a follow-up to last week’s post about the reproducibility of SNP testing by 23andMe and deCODEme using Illumina SNP chips (see the Quantified Self’s post and my post). In that post, it was revealed that two comparisons of the 560,000 overlapping SNP results from the two different companies had […]
I’ve added a new page to the blog called “Featured Articles“. It’s available 24/7 at the top of every page, and contains a categorized list of about 50 of my favorite articles from the last year. These posts are listed under categories including “Popular Articles”, “Personal Genomics”, “Learning About Genetic Genealogy”, […]
An Updated Y-DNA Tree at ISOGG
The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) announced today that their Tree Team has completed the 2008 version of the Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree. This revision was a major undertaking, because, as ISOGG states in the version history, “[t]he Karafet et al paper (2008) required a significant revision to […]
Although the genome scanning services offered by companies such as 23andMe, deCODEme, and SeqWright have been front and center in the press the last few weeks, I’m sure that the following information will not be included in any of the reports.
Comparisons
Two different sources have concluded that the scanning service offered by 23andMe and deCODEme, […]
Last week I received a press release announcing the creation of a non-profit organization to raise and disseminate funds to increase original research in genetic genealogy testing (some of which will undoubtedly be reported in the open-source Journal of Genetic Genealogy). The DNA Fund also has a blog, available here. Following is […]
On April 9th, 2008, I posted a quiz about genetic genealogy here on the blog. (If you haven’t taken the quiz yet, it is available here; it only requires a few minutes and might make the following analysis more clear and personally relevant). I created and posted this quiz because I thought it […]
Around the year 1700, a relatively healthy young hunter was walking along a glacier in land that would one day be British Columbia in Canada. He wore a robe of 95 animal skins, perhaps gopher or squirrel, stitched together with sinew, and carried a walking stick, iron-blade knife, and spear thrower. […]
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak recently wrote “I’m a Euro-Mutt!” about the results of her AncestrybyDNA EuropeanDNA 2.0 test (from DNAPrint Genomics). Megan found that the results of her test were both expected and surprising! From DNAPrint Genomics’ website:
DNAPrint® Genomics’ powerful new EuropeanDNA 2.0 product, further elucidates European sub-ancestry using 1,349 European Ancestry Informative Markers […]
Yesterday, a very interesting paper was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics by the Genographic Project Consortium entitled “The Dawn of Human Matrilineal Diversity.” The results of the study, which examined the 624 mtDNA genomes from sub-saharan Haplogroup L lineages, suggests that humanity once split into two small groups with […]
1:25PM EST: Senator Olympia Snowe is currently on the floor of the Senate speaking about GINA (see it live on C-SPAN 2). And yes, I realize that live-blogging C-SPAN coverage is dangerously boring, but I can’t help myself!
3:00PM EST: I just received a press release from the Genetics & Public Policy Center that […]
On April 27, 2007, I wrote “GINA: A Primer“, which was an introduction to the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act. Today, nearly a year later, the bill will most likely be voted on and passed by the Senate, the last step before being handed over to President Bush to sign into law (which he […]
The Washington Post has an article entitled “From DNA of Family, a Tool to Make Arrests” about using DNA obtained from family members to search DNA databases or identify relatives as criminals. Here is a summary of the issue from a recent Columbia Law review article available here (pdf):
For years, law enforcement personnel have […]
Yesterday the Spring 2008 Issue of the Journal of Genetic Genealogy was published online. As always, the journal and every article is completely FREE. Here is a listing of the articles in the current issue:
Editor’s Corner - A New Y Tree by Whit Athey
‘Satiable Curiosity - Y-Chromosome and mtDNA Information from deCODEMe […]
In January I wrote about a study that traced a mutation in a single colon cancer gene to 1630. Today, researchers announced that a founder mutation in another gene, MSH2, has been traced to roughly 500 years ago (”Origins and Prevalence of the American Founder Mutation of MSH2” (pdf)).
MSH2 is a mismatch […]
I recently received notification that The Genetic Genealogist has been rated a 9.0 at Blogged:
What is Blogged? From the website:
“Blogged.com is all about blog discovery. It’s a place for readers to discover interesting blogs and for authors to discover who their readers are. Blogged goes beyond being a traditional blog directory. We focus […]
Update: See the related story in GenomeWeb News (free sub. required).
Forbes.com published an article today entitled “States Crack Down On Online Gene Tests” that examines New York state’s response to the recent launch of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing services by companies such as 23andMe, deCODEme, SeqWright, and Navigenics, as well as the behind-the-scenes companies […]
The American Society of Human Genetics announced a press release out today about a study of student essays submitted as entries in the National DNA Day Essay Contest in 2006 and 2007. The ASHG’s education staff examined 500 of the 2,443 essays and found that 55.6% of the essays contained at least one […]
ThinkGenealogy introduces episode 1 of “Are You Smarter than a Grade School Genealogist?“: “Match your genealogy knowledge against a grade schooler to determine: Are You Smarter than a Grade School Genealogist? In this episode, Nathan, a 4th grader from Arizona introduces DNA for the genealogist.” The episode is just over 4 minutes long […]
MSNBC will air a documentary tomorrow evening about the journey of 28-year-old African American David Wilson as he discovers his genealogical roots. Wilson uses both traditional genealogical research as well as DNA testing to learn more about his ancestry. Along the way, Wilson meets another David Wilson, a white 62-year-old descendant of […]
