February 12, 2013
We know from scientific research that, in general, people don’t freak out about the results they get from personal genetic testing. When the results show an increased risk for serious illness, how do they react? It turns out that even then, the news doesn’t trigger serious anxiety. Quite the contrary, [...]
October 30, 2012
We plead guilty to occasionally geeking out on genetics, so it’s nice to see when someone else does it too. In September, Moment Magazine got all nerdy and wrote about their Great DNA Experiment, in which they look at the 23andMe results of 15 notable Americans of Jewish ancestry and make some [...]
May 24, 2012
Crohn’s disease develops when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own gut cells. Although most people with European ancestry are pretty genetically similar, some sub-groups like Ashkenazi Jews have distinct genetic characteristics that carry important implications for health. For instance, [...]
May 22, 2012
Ashkenazi Jews are one group that fall under the umbrella of “European”, but it’s clear from numerous studies that they’re genetically unique and distinct from the European population at large. Most people with Ashkenazi ancestry trace their DNA to Eastern and Central Europe, but also have Middle [...]
May 17, 2012
Jennie Cole, c.1895 As the series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. begins its 10-week run on PBS, The Spittoon will feature posts from 23andMe’s Ancestry Ambassadors featuring their own stories about using DNA to dig into ancestry. By CeCe Moore I have always felt a special affinity for [...]
April 23, 2012
As the series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. begins its 10-week run on PBS, The Spittoon will feature posts from 23andMe’s Ancestry Ambassadors featuring their own stories about using DNA to dig into ancestry. By Andrea Badger There has been a legend in my family, passed down from [...]
April 19, 2012
This month, 23andMe published a new article in PLoS One entitled “Cryptic Distant Relatives are Common in both Isolated and Cosmopolitan Samples." Authored by former 23andMe scientists, Brenna Henn and Lawrence Hon, along with current 23andMe scientists and 23andMe advisor, Itsik Pe’er, of Columbia [...]
April 3, 2012
As the series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. begins its 10-week run on PBS, The Spittoon will feature posts from 23andMe’s Ancestry Ambassadors featuring their own stories about using DNA to dig into ancestry. By Tim Janzen, M.D. My father, Robert Janzen, comes from a long line of [...]
