Feb 22 2012
Data from the 2010 census showed that about 13% of people living in the United States self-identify as African American, but from a genetic point of view, ethnicity isn’t so black and white. Most African Americans have genetic ancestry tracing back to both Africa and Europe and many Americans who consider themselves of completely European descent may actually have some African ancestry as well.
Jan 20 2012
In 2011, 23andMe added or updated 78 health reports. Many of these reports fall into the “disease risk” category and cover complex conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, coronary heart disease, and hay fever (allergic rhinitis), to name a few. We also added new “trait” reports, for instance on the genetics underlying iris patterns, and new “drug [...]
Mar 16 2010
Today at the American College of Cardiology conference in Atlanta, researchers from the Mayo Clinic and Medco Health Solutions, Inc., presented results showing that using genetic testing to guide dosing of the commonly used blood thinner warfarin reduces hospitalizations. Overall there were 31% fewer hospitalizations within six months of beginning warfarin therapy in those who [...]
Oct 02 2009
Through the millennia wave after wave of migrants – often in the form of invading armies – have descended upon the British Isles. The first people to arrive after the Ice Age were hunter-gatherers who followed their prey north from southern Europe about 12,000 years ago. The Celts came from central Europe about 3,000 years [...]
May 26 2009
Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in the developing world, claiming nearly a million victims each year. The great majority of them are African children below the age of five. The illness is caused by a single-celled parasite called Plasmodium that is transmitted by mosquito bites to humans. In a paper published [...]
Jan 12 2009
For an insightful and thought-provoking essay on the present and future of personal genomics, as well as the role that 23andMe is playing in its advancement, check out Steven Pinker’s essay “My Genome, My Self” in this week’s New York Times magazine. Pinker, who is a 23andMe customer himself and also a participant in George [...]
Nov 15 2008
In a way, organ transplantation is the one branch of medicine that has already been personalized, because doctors must carefully match the immune systems of donor and recipient to prevent rejection. Now transplant physicians in Germany have taken that procedure a step further by engineering not just a successful bone marrow transplant, but one that [...]
Nov 12 2008
Like many Americans, Vincent Vizachero knew only bits and pieces about his family history. He knew, for instance, that his paternal grandfather emigrated to America from Italy in 1914. But because his grandfather died long before he was born, Vincent did not hear a lot of family stories growing up. So he had to dig [...]
Nov 11 2008
When 23andMe launched last November, we set out to make genetics accessible to everyone – not just the experts. So we created a series of education videos called Genetics 101. These videos educated viewers on the basics of genetics: What is a gene, what is a SNP, how genes are inherited from generation to generation, [...]
Sep 26 2008
The practice of monogamy – the most popular mating practice on the planet today – is nothing new. In fact, anthropologists have found evidence of monogamous relationships in Homo erectus, a human ancestor that lived nearly 2 million years ago. But the alternative to monogamy – polygamy – though not nearly as popular in today’s [...]
