Technology Review, an MIT publication, has an article entitled “Genealogy Gets More Precise: Rapidly growing databases enable a more complete picture of one’s ancestry.“ The article, which is relatively balanced, discusses some of the benefits and challenges associated with genetic genealogy testing.
Also check out the article and video “Mapping Out a Nascent Market” at […]
Genetic genealogy has the potential to reveal information about your health (for example, DYS464 can reveal infertility and sequencing of the entire mtDNA genome can reveal mutations that are suspected of being associated with certain disorders). Although I usually don’t consider this possibility to be serious enough to discourage genetic genealogy testing, I […]
The ninth and final edition of the TGG Interview Series is with Dr. Ana Oquendo Pabón. Dr. Oquendo Pabón is DNA and Historical advisor to the Lost Colony DNA and Research Group, and is an Administrator or Co-Administrator to numerous DNA projects. Her bio is can be seen here.
In the following interview, Dr. […]
Thomas Goetz has written another terrific article about genetic testing and the Personal Genome Project. This article, entitled “The Gene Collector,” appears in Wired Magazine. The article provides some new information about the PGP, including some of the incredibly detailed phenotype information that will be collected from the next 100,000 volunteers in the […]
Portfolio presents an interesting four-part series by David Ewing Duncan about personal genomics. But before I go on, it is important to realize that this series focuses on personal genomics - analysis of SNPs or sequencing throughout the genome - rather than the much narrower field of genetic genealogy. Although there […]
For new readers of The Genetic Genealogist, 23andMe is a personal genomics company that offers a service to examine more than 600,000 SNPs throughout an individual’s genome. The information is then used to analyze ancestry (using Y-DNA and mtDNA) and to estimate propensity for disease. For much more info about 23andMe […]
While conducting some online research the other day, I discovered a series of videos about genetic genealogy by Alastair Greenshields, founder of DNA Heritage. The main page contains 6 videos (shown in the list below) that are broken down into 2 to 8 chapters. Since the videos are broken up into chapters, […]
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, […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
As of Monday the 17th of March, David Paterson will be the Governor of New York State. Lt. Gov. Paterson recently sat down with Susan Arbetter of WHMT’s NYNOW to discuss the results of his genetic genealogy test results. Paterson is probably the first governor in the United States to have undergone genetic genealogy testing, […]
31 October 2007 – 8:29 am
In order to clean out posts I’ve been saving in Google Reader (does anyone else keep posts in Reader until you’ve blogged about them?), I decided to have a potpourri day. The following are links to interesting articles around the blogosphere. And Happy Halloween!
Pedro at Public Rambling has The Fortune Cookie Genome, […]
25 October 2007 – 3:00 am
1. Genetic genealogy is only for hardcore genealogists.
Wrong! If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of your DNA, or about your direct paternal or maternal ancestral line, then genetic genealogy might be an interesting way to learn more. Although DNA testing of a single line, such […]
19 October 2007 – 12:25 am
Today’s issue of Science contains a new look into the world of genetic genealogy. “The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry Testing“, led by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, examines the benefits and drawbacks of genetic genealogy. Here is a table summary of the researcher’s conclusions:
Table from: “Deep Roots”” […]
There is so much information about genetic genealogy in the news right now that I am having a hard time keeping up. That, of course, is good news. So here is a round-up of some of the best from the web:
“Seeking Columbus’s Origins, With a Swab” is an article in today’s New […]
5 September 2007 – 7:52 am
Wow, what a day for personal genetics. Yesterday, J. Craig Venter’s diploid genome was released (I’m not sure where the sequence is, but the paper is available at PLoS Biology, a OPEN ACCESS journal!).
I know that many people have their gripe about Venter, but seeing a story about personal genetics on the front […]
