Dec 30 2009
In our last post we highlighted a few of the coolest (in our opinion!) health-related developments of 2009. But human genetics isn’t all about disease. Here are a few more favorites:
The Romanovs
2009 saw the identification of the remains of the missing members of this Russian royal family, as well as identification of the mutation that [...]
Nov 13 2009
Some people want to know everything their genetics can tell them, while others are interested in only part of the story. That’s why starting next week, on Thursday November 19th , we will begin offering our service as two distinct products to better meet the needs of our customers: The 23andMe Ancestry Edition and The [...]
Sep 03 2009
We may be another step closer to discovering what makes us human.
A new study published online this week in Genome Research has pinpointed three genes in humans that may genetically differentiate us from chimps and other primates. Genetically we are very similar to chimps, so most of the differences researchers have observed to date regard [...]
Apr 30 2009
When scientific research is published, the authors often confess that they wish they’d collected more data. Critical reviews of research studies often say the same thing. Indeed, if there’s anything scientists love, it’s more data.
Which is why the members of an international team of genetic anthropologists led by Sarah Tishkoff of the University of [...]
Apr 23 2009
Pocahontas
Every family has its legends. Maybe it’s a story about how they’re descended from a passenger on the Mayflower, a Confederate soldier or Charlemagne.
Of all the classic American family legends, stories of a Native American ancestor are among of the most common. Many times there’s a well-documented link to a Native forbear: Two First Ladies [...]
Apr 02 2009
The 23andMe Personal Genome Service™ offers information about customers’ maternal and paternal ancestry by examining their mitochondrial DNA (which we all inherit from our mothers) and the Y chromosome (which is passed by fathers to their sons).
Over our species’ history new genetic variations have arisen spontaneously in those pieces of DNA, and been passed down [...]
Dec 19 2008
Since 23andWe debuted in May, we’ve asked our customers about all sorts of things: their hair color, earwax consistency, whether they tend to look on life’s bright side. Sometimes people have been surprised to learn that something like your susceptibility to motion sickness — or even which way the hair swirls on top of your [...]
Dec 01 2008
People sometimes think of ancestry as the “fun” part of the 23andMe Personal Genome Service™, an intriguing glimpse at the past that is completely unrelated to our more serious Health and Traits features.
But a new paper shows how ancestry can actually reveal quite a bit about the genetics of disease. In the December issue of [...]
Nov 17 2008
Because their ancestors often were slaves during the 18th and 19th centuries, and therefore usually lacked birth or death certificates, it is very difficult for African American genealogists to trace their ancestors further than a few generations. Even when they can trace their ancestry to the slavery era, it is virtually impossible to find exactly [...]
Nov 14 2008
The American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) has released a statement outlining a set of recommendations for genetic ancestry testing.
At a press briefing on Thursday, members of the ASHG Ancestry Testing Task Force Committee discussed two main themes: the need for clear communication about the limitations of genetic ancestry testing, and the need for [...]
