Amy Harmon, a science writer for the New York Times, writes “Gene Map Becomes a Luxury Item,” an article about Knome (know-me), a sequencing company that will return a customer’s entire genomic sequence for $350,000. Knome was co-founded by Harvard professor George Church, who also directs the Personal Genome Project.
Dan Stoicescu is a [...]
The “Starting a Business” section of the online bizjournals site has an article called “Riding the Revolution” that reviews the success of the entrepreneurs behind the popular Family Tree DNA (who recently launched a new company called DNATraits).
The company was founded in April 2000 and is led by president Bennett Greenspan and chief operating [...]
With the popular African American Lives series on PBS and numerous news stories and magazine columns, Black History Month often results in increased attention to the genealogy and genetic history of African Americans. I saw a similar increased interest in genetic genealogy last February as well.
The Multiracial Roots of Americans
Diverse has an article [...]
On the heels of my recent post discussing all the interesting information that’s recently entered the blogosphere about genetic genealogy and DNA studies, here are a few more:
Misha Angrist, one of the Personal Genome Project’s “First 10“, wrote an article about the inevitability of DNA sequencing at News Observer. The article is [...]
There is so much to talk about, and so little time to write. So I thought I’d do a round-up post to bring these interesting stories to your attention. I hope you enjoy the following:
Of great significance to genetic genealogists, the Wall Street Journal says that as many as 1 in 25 [...]
Earlier today I posted about the recent updates to the 23andMe service, including an enhanced Gene Journal section and the new Paternal Ancestry.
To get a much more thorough analysis of these new additions, read David P. Hamilton’s “23andMe makes genomics personal — and slick” at VentureBeat: lifesciences. Hamilton’s articles are always insightful [...]
Anyone who is interested in genetic genealogy has likely heard of Professor Bryan Sykes. Sykes is the founder of the genetic genealogy testing company Oxford Ancestors and author of very influential books such as Blood of the Isles, Adam’s Curse, and The Seven Daughters of Eve.
Sykes was recently interviewed by The Telegraph in [...]
The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) is sponsoring the Save GINA contest. I’ve written about GINA before (see “GINA: A Primer“), which is legislation currently before the Senate the seeks to protect people from discrimination based upon their DNA. The legislation is on hold in the Senate (see my summary here [...]
Bennett Greenspan and Max Blankfeld [I apologize for the previous misspelling of Greenspan's and Blankfeld's names] of the genetic genealogy testing company Family Tree DNA have launched a new service called DNATraits to examine a customer’s DNA for evidence of genetic disease. According to the website, DNATraits:
“provides direct-to-consumer genetic data from tests conducted [...]
Last week the NBC Nightly News had a three-part special series “Who We Are: The Truth About DNA.”
The first video, “Genealogy for Sale” (although it is spelled ‘geneology’!!), is a report from chief science correspondent Robert Bazell. Bazell follows a couple who experience genetic genealogy for the first time. He mentions [...]
DNA Projects, often affiliated with a genetic genealogy testing company, are used to coordinate the testing and result analysis of individuals that have the same surname, originate from a common location, or have a comment set of ancestors. For example, I’ve started the Bettinger DNA Project for individuals with the “Bettinger” surname. [...]
Car manufacturer Buick and the Generation Network’s Ancestry DNA have joined together to offer contest winners the “chance to discover your heritage.” To enter this contest, just go to buick.ancestry.com. You’ll also find a short video there about the PBS series African American Lives 2.
Ten first-place winners with receive a free DNA [...]
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen suggest that a mutation that arose around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago was inherited by every individual who has blue eyes (original study here). This mutation, located within an intron in a gene called HERC2, reduces the activity of a neighboring gene called OCA2. The [...]
In honor of Black History Month, Anheuser-Busch - through the flagship Budweiser brand - announces a sweepstakes called “Discover Your History” in which a grand-prize winner and three guests will be given a trip to “their ancestral background as determined via genetic testing.” Nine other winners will receive “genetic genealogy testing and ancestral [...]
GenomeWeb Daily News announced on Friday that DNAPrint Genomics is being purchased by Nanobac Pharmaceuticals (I’ve written about DNAPrint here and here, including about their Doggie DNAPrint product). Here is the press release from Nanobac.
DNAPrint had a big year in 2007 with a number of partnerships and new products, and many people [...]
According to some sources, genetic genealogy testing rises considerably during February, which is Black History Month (as I wrote about last February). Part of this might be due to last year’s very popular TV show “African American Lives” on PBS. Starting next week (on the 6th) is the first half of [...]
January 2008 has been another interesting and busy month for genetic genealogy and personal genomics. Keeping track of the latest developments can be a challenge, so I thought I’d do a brief round-up of some of the headlines that I thought were particularly interesting. Happy reading!
Hsien at Eye on DNA discusses [...]
The DNA Network was full of news about 23andMe, Knome, and the newly-announced 1000 Genomes Project, which plans to sequence (can you guess?) 1,000 genomes from around the world. The 1GP will “receive major support from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England, the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) Shenzhen, China and [...]
Here are few of the latest sources of information or discussion about 23andMe:
Mark Fletcher at Wingedpig.com writes about some “23andMe Updates.” Fletcher notes that Andrew Scheidecker has written a program that will extract and download your own raw SNP data from 23andMe (http://www.scheidecker.net/personal-genome-explorer/). Scheidecker writes that the program doesn’t violate 23andMe’s terms [...]
Remember, you heard it here first! The Houston Chronicle appears to have advance news that two companies, Family Tree DNA and Seqwright, are planning to launch products that will analyze DNA for genes associated with disease, similar to services offered by 23andMe and deCODEme. The news is casually mentioned in a news [...]
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