A skull found in a previously undisturbed cave in Israel may hold important new evidence about human migration and intermixing with Neanderthals.
The paper <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14134.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> published last month</a> by scientists from Tel Aviv University, offers new evidence about the timing of human migration out of Africa, and when those modern humans mixed with Neanderthals. not 
<div id="attachment_22187" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22187" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/skull580-300x171.jpg" alt="Photo: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority" class="size-medium wp-image-22187" width="300" height="171" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/skull580-300x171.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/skull580-574x330.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/skull580.jpg 580w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Photo: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority</div>
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<h6>A New Timeline?</h6>
The first anatomically modern humans emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago. This latest finding appears to support several theories about the timing of the human migration <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/476136a/box/1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">out of Africa</a> as well as the timing of intermixing between humans and Neanderthals.
All non-African people today carry traces of Neanderthal DNA. Based on DNA tests scientists have suggested that the interbreeding likely happened between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.
A study last year, that used new techniques to more accurately date Neanderthal remains, suggested that Neanderthals and humans may have lived side-by-side for <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28693371" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">up to 5,000 years</a>. But when and where the Neanderthals and modern humans mixed has been harder to pinpoint.
That’s what makes this study so interesting.
<h6>How Old?</h6>
Uranium-thorium dating of the skull shows that the remains are about 60,000-to-70,000 years old. Known as the Manot cave, the site is near the town of Haifa and within miles of several other archeological sites where Neanderthal remains dating from that same period have also been found. This suggests that at the very least the two species, homo sapiens and homo neanderthalensis, lived side-by-side in the Middle East during that time.
But the researchers involved in this study believe that the bones show more than that.
<h6>New Insights</h6>
According to the author of the study, <a href="http://english.tau.ac.il/news/discovery_ancient_skull" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tel Aviv University Professor Israel Hershkovitz</a>, the shape of the skull bears characteristics found in early modern humans. They are similar to remains found both in Africa and Europe. The skull also shares some characteristics found in Neanderthals. But whether the skull was of a human who had interbred with Neanderthals cannot be determined without recovering DNA from the skull.
Unfortunately, extracting DNA from this skull could prove very difficult. Unlike the remains of other ancient humans that were found in much colder climates where DNA can be preserved longer, these remains have been exposed to much higher temperatures. DNA begins to break down as it&#8217;s exposed to microbes, water and oxygen. Ancient DNA tends to be found in very small quantities and is often fragmentary or damaged.
So far the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6178/1417.summary" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">oldest human DNA</a> was extracted from a bone found along a Siberian riverbank of a man who lived 45,000 years ago.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-14049" title="neanderthal icon" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/neanderthal-icon-96x150.jpg" width="50" height="77" />
Got Neanderthal DNA?
23andMe customers can <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/neanderthal/">find their inner Neanderthal</a> or at least how much Neanderthal DNA they have. Not yet a customer? <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store">Visit our store</a>!

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Meeting At the Crossroads

Jessica has a black and white photo of her grandfather, Phil, standing next to her great grandfather, Sam.
In the photo, both father and son are staring into the camera and smiling. Now after uncovering something hidden about her ancestry, the photo takes on a new meaning.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22174" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-226x300.jpeg" alt="Phil and Sam" width="226" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-226x300.jpeg 226w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-662x880.jpeg 662w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam.jpeg 665w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px" />
Phil, in a white t-shirt with his hair slicked back, towers over his dad and has a pretty distinctive chin dimple and big ears. His dad, Sam, with a gap-toothed grin and his sparse hair sticking up all over, has a very different set to his chin than his son.
The photo is an old one, something Jessica had looked at many times before. But after getting a message from another 23andMe user, Jessica realized something that was staring right at her. The two men – her grandfather and his father – couldn’t look more different.

<h6>Hidden Ancestry</h6>
Jessica’s fascinating post<a href="https://strangepilgrimage.wordpress.com/"> “And Who Would’ve Thought…,”</a> drew us in like few others. We won’t ruin the story for you. You need to read it yourself.
But in a brief exchange about her post, Jessica, who writes the<a href="https://strangepilgrimage.wordpress.com/"> “Strange Kind of Pilgrim”</a> blog, said she learned something that might have remained hidden if she hadn’t tested with 23andMe.
“I&#8217;m really thankful that this all came to light while there was still a chance of finding out what really happened,” she said. “I feel like, very slowly, I&#8217;m gaining some roots, and I&#8217;m grateful that I will have these stories and this information to pass down to my children so they can know where they came from.”
<h6>What Does it Mean?</h6>
Reading her story conjures up all sorts of questions about our upbringing, our ancestry and our identity. Your biology and your upbringing make up who you are, but which is more important? How much of what we are is dependent on our biology and how much on our ancestry?<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22176" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo-300x267.jpeg" alt="Jess photo" width="300" height="267" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo-300x267.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo-768x683.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo-1024x911.jpeg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo-880x783.jpeg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo-1180x1050.jpeg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Jess-photo.jpeg 1861w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“The way you&#8217;re raised and the family who raises you can influence who you are in a big way, but I think the biology is always there,” said Jessica.
Jessica graciously let us post an excerpt of her story below, but you really should read the whole piece on<a href="https://strangepilgrimage.wordpress.com/"> her blog here</a>. Let us know what you think.
<h6>“And Who Would’ve Thought…It Figures”</h6>
 “In October I decided, rather on a whim, to order a genetics test from 23andMe.  It’s a company that compares your DNA to populations all over the world and lets you know where your ancestors likely hailed from.  I didn’t do this because I doubted my parentage at all (did you hear that, Mom?  I believe you.  Maybe other people who see us together assume I’m adopted, but I do not.  ), but I wanted to see my father’s side of the family tree more clearly.
“My dad passed away when I was very young.  His mother passed when he was very young, and his father died almost exactly two years after Dad did.  So while I had a vague idea of the Benson family heritage as communicated to me by my mother and aunt, I still felt a bit rootless.  I knew we were Russian and Polish Jews, but that’s it (and to be honest, I wasn’t even sure how Polish we were.  I came across a family tree partly filled out in my baby book, and it traces my paternal grandfather’s heritage to Russia and my paternal grandmother’s heritage to Turkey, but it went no farther back than that.)
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“Fast forward to December: The results came in, and they were…surprising.  I was on the phone with my mom at the time, and I think the first words out of my mouth were, “I’m Irish?!” … I wasn’t supposed to be Irish (or British).  Or Western European at all.  I was supposed to be a Russian, Polish Jew.  I was flummoxed.  My mom was flummoxed.  My aunt was flummoxed.  I really like the word “flummoxed.”  So descriptive.
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“Frustratingly, my search for answers had only turned up another mystery.  Even more infuriating, I couldn’t see a way of solving it.  The pertinent players were all long dead.  I could only figure that someone had fooled around on somebody in my family’s recent history and gotten away with a doozy of a lie.  
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“One of the features of 23andMe is that they match you up with possible DNA relatives.  I have a whole list of 3rd to 4th and beyond possible cousins who share small segments of my DNA.  But my closest relative in the system was a predicted second cousin, who I only knew as P.  I didn’t contact P because I have nearly crippling social anxiety, and it’s a bit of an awkward conversation to initiate (Hi, I think we might be related.  Do you have any idea how?)  I hate awkward conversations like I hate the Patriots.  The antipathy runs true.
“This is all kind of important because a few days ago (has it really only been a few days?  What a short, strange trip it’s been) I received an email, not from P himself but from his cousin, A.  I’m so grateful that A was brave enough to ask those awkward first questions.  She asked if I had any known connections to the [Name removed]   family, and I answered that I didn’t.  I had never heard of the [family].  And then, interestingly, she asked me if I had expected my genetics results to report a sizable Ashkenazi component.  I had expected it, I told her, but it turns out, I’m not very much Ashkenazi.  Instead, I am unexpectedly Irish.  It’s all very mysterious, I confided.  And that’s when everything started to get a little weird.” 
 (READ THE REST OF THE STORY <a href="https://strangepilgrimage.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/and-who-wouldve-thought-it-figures/">HERE</a>)

Jess’s Story

Scientists haven’t agreed on whether blondes indeed have more fun, but at least there is some consensus on what makes their hair blond.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22160" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blond-Hair-270x300.png" alt="Blond Hair" width="270" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blond-Hair-270x300.png 270w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blond-Hair.png 287w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px" />


23andMe scientists looking at the biology behind hair color found three genetic variants already known to be strongly associated with having golden locks among 23andMe customers with Northern European ancestry.
The three variants are on or near the genes HERC2, KITLG and SLC24A4. 

<h6>Known Associations</h6>

These findings among 23andMe customers confirm<a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v39/n12/full/ng.2007.13.html"> known associations</a> reported on in several other published studies over the last few years.
Hair color is a complex trait, meaning more than one genetic variant influences whether a person has light or dark hair. And these three genetic variants by no means account for all the genetic factors that influence hair color. But at least for people with Northern European ancestry they explain a lot.


A pigment molecule called melanin determines the color of your hair. People with higher levels of the brown-black form of melanin have darker hair. But people with the lower levels have lighter hair. About 20 percent of 23andMe customers report having light or dark blond hair.

<h6>Why is this important?</h6>

While blond hair is most common in people of Northern European ancestry, it is also found in people without European ancestry. But the biology behind blond hair in those populations is different. For example, between five to ten percent of<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3481182/"> Solomon Islanders </a>have blond hair that is caused by a single variant in the TYRP1 gene.


Why is it even important to study these kinds of traits you might ask?

Part of the reason researchers look at traits like hair and eye color, is because it provides a broader insight into the biology of complex traits. The color of your hair is not as simple as many might think. For instance, simply having one or two blond hair alleles does not mean that you will have blond hair. In fact, most people with just two blond hair variants don’t have blond hair. Only in people with five or more blond hair alleles do we see a majority of them with light hair.
<h6>Complex Traits</h6>
By studying complex traits like hair color scientists can sometimes gain better understanding about the genetics of other conditions.
Just looking at research about blond hair, for example, has informed scientists about the finely tuned process of gene expression.
<a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v46/n7/full/ng.2991.html">A 2014 study</a> led by researchers at Stanford looked specifically at the variant nearby, but not in the KITLG gene. The study was fascinating because the researchers showed that  a variant in so-called &#8220;junk&#8221; DNA has a strong influence on the expression of KITLG. This in turn influences hair color. Instead of simply turning on or off expression of the KITLG gene, this variant dialed down the gene expression levels, changing the hair color along a blond to brown gradient.
<div id="attachment_22180" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22180" class="size-large wp-image-22180" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/blond_hair_snps-640x196.jpg" alt="The frequencies of three genetic variants associated with blond hair across Eurasia. " width="640" height="196" />The frequencies of three genetic variants associated with blond hair across Eurasia.</div>

Blonde on Blonder

If a bumpy ride in the back of a car makes you nauseated, blame it on your genetics, according to the first ever genome-wide association study <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Bethann-Hromatka-2-253x300.jpg" alt="Bethann Hromatka 2" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21548" width="253" height="300" />


Motion sickness is extremely common. One in three of us is highly susceptible to it, and the condition is very heritable. That means that genetics accounts for a large reason why some of us are more prone to motion sickness than others. 
<h6>Current Estimates</h6>
Estimates indicate that most of a person’s risk for experiencing motion sickness is pegged to their genetics. Motion sickness also tends to be more common in women and younger people.
But even with what we know about the condition, and how common it is, we still don’t fully understand its underlying causes.
New research by 23andMe may change that.
23andMe researchers conducted the first genome-wide association study on motion sickness and found 35 genetic variants that were significantly associated with the condition. Published in Oxford Journals’ <a href="http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/01/26/hmg.ddv028.abstract?keytype=ref&#038;ijkey=2ntxck5YUKc8QSA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Human Molecular Genetics</a>, this study is the first to identify the genetic variants associated with this highly heritable condition.
“It’s estimated that up to 70 percent of a person’s risk for motion sickness is due to genetics, but up until now the genetics of motion sickness was poorly understood,” said 23andMe Scientist Bethann Hromatka, one of the study’s authors. “We’ve identified 35 genetic associations with motion sickness that fall into a few different biological categories. Some genetic variants are in or near genes involved in development, including development of the eye and ear. Other variants appear to be involved in neurological processes as well as glucose and insulin regulation.”

<h6>Previous Known Phenotypes</h6>

The study, which involved the consented participation of more than 80,000 23andMe customers, also gives us new insight into the biology of the condition. The work also confirmed previously known phenotypic associations between motion sickness and other conditions such as migraines, vertigo, and morning sickness as well as postoperative nausea and vomiting.


These findings could help provide many new clues about the causes of motion sickness and other related conditions.
Because the study also identified associations between motion sickness and lifestyle the new findings could help researchers identify risk factors  and future treatments.  They know for instance that there is an association between being a poor sleeper and having a propensity for motion sickness. 
The researchers also note that experiencing headaches after drinking red wine is associated with a propensity toward motion sickness. In addition having a good sense of direction and the ability to handle stress are also associated with having a lower risk for motion sickness. While these are all interesting findings, it is difficult to assess causality. For example, does being a sound sleeper make one less susceptible to being motion sick, or vice versa. Or are both related to a third condition?

Genetics found to influence likelihood of motion sickness

So where did that red hair come from? 
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</code>by Kasia Bryc, 23andMe Population Geneticist 
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</code>Most people who see my unruly wild <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21956 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kasia1-197x300.jpg" alt="" width="197" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kasia1-197x300.jpg 197w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kasia1.jpg 369w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px" /> 
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As a first generation immigrant from Poland, I don’t have any ancestors from Ireland.
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<h2>Recessive Trait</h2>
Yes, really, just take a look at my 23andMe Ancestry Composition results.
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Yet it is true that red hair is strongly tied to Ireland. Over 10 percent of 23andMe customers of Irish heritage, whose four grandparents were born in Ireland, have red hair. In most other parts of continental Europe, red hair is less common, and its frequency tends to hover between one and three percent. 
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</code>For me, my red hair holds special significance. Both my parents had brown hair, yet both my brother and I have red hair, thanks to the joys of recessive inheritance (No, we’re not adopted. And yes, our family relationships have been confirmed genetically through 23andMe). 
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</code>Red hair acts, for the most part, like a recessive trait, meaning that you need two copies of the red-hair genetic variant to see red hair. Which explains why my parents, each carrying one copy of the variant, didn’t have red hair, but could pass it on to their children by chance, which they did, twice. 
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As a child I puzzled over my hair color – it seemed rather poor camouflage, and surely ill-adapted – how could a trait as odd as red hair have come to be? 
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</code>That early fascination with human traits and evolution helped lead me to a career as a population geneticist. Nowadays I love wrangling with just such questions as I study the genetics of people across the globe. 
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</code>The red hair gene 
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</code>To dive into the genetics of red hair, we first have to understand the function of a gene called the Melanocortin 1 Receptor (MC1R). MC1R acts as a lever that toggles the cells to produce a brown or black pigment instead of producing a reddish yellow pigment. The color of the pigment, and how much is produced, leads to much of the diversity in appearance of humans around the world.
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Genetic mutations can change the normal function of MC1R, leading to a loss of function. That means that the protein the gene makes is changed so much that it doesn’t work as it should. So the pigment-producing cells don’t get their signal to make black-brown pigment that is so protective against the sun’s harmful UV rays,and instead produce more reddish yellow pigment, which, in your hair, gives it a red color.
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About 90 percent of 23andMe customers who report having red hair carry at least one of three of the most common genetic variants associated with red hair variants. Though there are other known and unknown variants involved in determining human pigmentation.
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<h2 class="tablepress-table-name tablepress-table-name-id-1">Do you carry one of these variants associated with red hair?</h2>
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Three variants highly associated with red hair among 23andMe customers. Not yet a customer? Visit our store!
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</code>For a long time, red hair was thought to be an adaptive trait. Not the hair color itself, but rather, red hair and lighter skin pigmentation are a bit of a package deal, and this lighter pigmentation was thought to be adaptive in northern Europe. Lighter skin color allows the skin to produce sufficient vitamin D when levels of light are low, when you don’t get sufficient levels of the vitamin through your food (such as from fish). So if you were a farmer in, say, Ireland, lighter skin would help you keep your vitamin D levels sufficiently high.
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However, there has been a surprising dearth of evidence for positive selection of red hair in Europeans, and there seems to be no association between red hair and the evolution of light skin in European populations. In contrast, the gene SLC24A5, which is involved with skin pigmentation, has a strong signal of selection. So it seems that for red hair, the vitamin D hypothesis isn’t really substantiated by science. 
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</code>Instead, the current theory most evolutionary scientists believe suggests that selective pressure to maintain proper protective black-brown pigmentation is highly constrained in regions closer to the equator that have strong sun exposure. The production of black-brown pigment, necessitating a functioning MC1R gene, helps shield cells from ultraviolet radiation that can increase the risk of skin cancer. 
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</code>In the far north, it seems, that selection may be relaxed. Comparing the human MC1R gene sequence to a chimpanzee’s genome suggests there was a lot of functional constraint on this gene&#8230; right up until humans migrated out of Africa. Mutations in MC1R that take away production of black-brown pigment may matter less where the sunlight isn’t as powerful. As a result, we observe these mutations, and the accompanying red hair. Sometimes, the mutations drift up in frequency by chance, and red hair becomes (more) common. 
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</code>For an even more nuanced contemplation of skin pigmentation and adaptation, and its possible relationship to the switch from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to farming, check out this read.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-22143 size-larger" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map-880x350.jpg" alt="" width="880" height="350" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map-880x350.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map-300x119.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map-768x306.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map-1024x407.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map-1180x469.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Red_hair_map.jpg 1272w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px" />
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<h2>Where are 23andMe customers with red hair from?</h2>
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</code>A closer look at the three most common red hair variants among 23andMe customers shows that red hair allele frequency in Europe does correlate with distance from the equator. The variant that is most common (and is involved in a third of red hair among 23andMe customers) is R151C. Unsurprisingly, this variant is most common in individuals whose grandparents were born in Ireland and in the UK.
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Over 50 percent of 23andMe redheads carry at least one copy of this variant. Are you one of them?
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The variant D294H is also most frequent in Ireland, but overall it is less prevalent, and found in a limited range: mostly Ireland, the UK, and France, Switzerland, and Belgium.
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Unlike the first two, the variant that I carry, R160W, isn’t most common in Ireland. Instead, it is found at its highest frequencies in Sweden and Lithuania, as well as other parts of Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe.
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So what do these maps of variants tell us about why red hair might have come to be?
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Well, there does seem to be a correlation between where the variants lie – each variant is most frequent above the 35th parallel, which suggests that there may really be a relaxed selective constraint on MC1R function this far north of the equator.
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<h2><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22093" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-300x300.jpg" alt="redhair world" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/redhair-world.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Research</h2>
In researching traits among 23andMe customers, I learned a lot about red hair. I was amazed at how the genetics of just one trait are so complex. For example, not everyone with two MC1R variants reports having red hair. Isn’t that how recessive traits should work?
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But instead, red hair variants aren’t completely penetrant, meaning they don’t always cause the trait. The variant that I carry, R160W, is especially illustrative: only 50 percent of individuals that carry two copies of this variant have red hair.
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On a personal level, I felt reassured that what I knew about my family’s history was consistent with what I found to be true about red hair. But even more, I realized just how widespread red hair variants are across Europe, especially its northern reaches.
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Kasia Bryc

No, I’m Not Irish

Before a medicine reaches pharmacy shelves, it goes through extensive and rigorous evaluation to prove it is safe and <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21214" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IBD-IMage-.jpg" alt="IBD IMage" width="240" height="160" />effective.
We want to shed some light on a few of the steps involved in drug development and highlight how the work being done by 23andMe with the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ibd/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study</a> can help inform this process in the future. 

<h6>
The basics 
</h6>

On average, it takes somewhere between 11 and 14 years for a drug to go through development. This extensive process can cost up to $5 billion. Of all the medicines that start the clinical development process, less than 10 percent make it through all the stages of clinical trials and through Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The majority of the drug
<div id="attachment_22135" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22135" class="size-medium wp-image-22135" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Global-Drug-Dev-Spending-300x223.jpg" alt="Image: The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation " width="300" height="223" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Global-Drug-Dev-Spending-300x223.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Global-Drug-Dev-Spending.jpg 548w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Image: The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation</div>
development timeline is taken up by conducting the clinical trials (6-11 years), and one of the most time-intensive parts of running clinical trials is finding study volunteers. Only 7 percent of Americans say their doctor has ever suggested they consider participating in a clinical research study.

<h6>
What happens before clinical trials? 
</h6>

Before a medicine enters clinical development, it goes through years of testing in the laboratory, using cell culture and animals to better understand how the drug works and to ensure it’s safe.

<h6>
Clinical Trials: Phase I to Phase III 
</h6>

The very first study of a new medicine in people is called a “phase I” study. This type of study is very small – just a handful of volunteers are given the drug, starting at very low amounts. The dose is increased incrementally until they find a dose that is safe and also high enough to be considered active.
<div id="attachment_22136" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22136" class="size-medium wp-image-22136" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Time-in-years-to-FDA-approval-300x211.jpg" alt="Image: The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation " width="300" height="211" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Time-in-years-to-FDA-approval-300x211.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Time-in-years-to-FDA-approval.jpg 566w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Image: The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation</div>
The next study, a “phase II” trial, is larger and looks for safety as well as efficacy. Essentially this phase looks at whether the drug does what it is meant to do. Does it improve the symptoms or alleviate the disease?
A “phase III” study is the largest still and often includes a “control” group – volunteers who are given the standard-of-care medications (not the experimental drug) for comparison.  The FDA then reviews the data collected from these trials. The FDA can then request additional studies, or it can “clear” the drug for use (meaning the manufacturer can go ahead and sell the drug.)
<h6>
How can genetics impact the drug development process?</h6>
Newly approved medicines provide benefits to many people. They alleviate symptoms, or sometimes cure a disease. However, they don’t work well for everyone. Many people take medicines which don’t help their condition, or sometimes lead to unacceptable side effects. There is no way to know which medicines will work for which patients. The method of finding the right treatment for any patient is still very much a “trial and error” process – the doctor keeps prescribing different medicines until he or she finds one that works.


This is where genetics may play a role in improving the process. We know that genetics can influence how people respond to drugs. By studying the genetics underlying diseases, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), we hope to provide more insights into how IBD differs between people. It is possible that there are certain genetic variants which can predict what type of drug would be most effective, or cause the least side effects.
A better understanding of the genetics of IBD can change how clinical trials are done, which can in turn bring medicines to the market faster and provide guidance to physicians about which patients will most benefit from which drugs.
<div id="attachment_22134" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22134" class="size-medium wp-image-22134" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Examples-of-Drugs-Approved-300x241.jpg" alt="Image: The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation " width="300" height="241" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Examples-of-Drugs-Approved-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Examples-of-Drugs-Approved.jpg 528w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Image: The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation</div>
Patients who enroll in clinical trials of new medicines must meet several specific eligibility criteria. For IBD, right now those criteria may involve a list of medications the person must have taken (and failed) and/or a specific range of acceptable lab results.
In the future, the eligibility criteria for an IBD trial may include lists of specific genetic variants that participants need to have in order to enroll in the study along with other precise measures of disease such as the composition of their microbiome (the types of bacteria in their gut). In this way, only those patients who would most benefit from the experimental medicine would be enrolled, sparing patients with no hope for efficacy the potential side effects of the drug and allowing them to find other clinical trials better suited for their IBD.


Precision medicine (prescribing the right medication for the right patient at the right time) is already a reality in the treatment of many cancers. Examples of such drugs are: trastuzumab (Herceptinâ“‡) for the treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer, cetuximab (Erbituxâ“‡) for the treatment of colorectal cancer which carries a mutation in the EGFR gene but not the KRAS gene, or crizotinib (Xalkoriâ“‡) for the treatment of lung cancers with an ALK gene fusion.
The reality of genetically targeted medicines is still not yet realized for IBD, but we are helping lay the groundwork through our research efforts and collaboration with Pfizer, a manufacturer of new treatments for IBD.
Observational studies (where no drugs or treatments are involved) such as our IBD study play an important role in providing a basic understanding of the disease. We hope the results of this study will directly inform Pfizer’s drug development efforts and help us move just a step closer to the future of precision medicine approaches in IBD.

Drug Development’s Long And Winding Road

The author <a href="http://www.christinekenneally.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Christine Kenneally</a> – who wrote the wonderful book The <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21767" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Invisible-History-of-the-Human-Race-199x300.jpg" alt="Invisible History of the Human Race" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Invisible-History-of-the-Human-Race-199x300.jpg 199w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Invisible-History-of-the-Human-Race.jpg 230w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Invisible History of the Human Race – graciously agreed to participate in a Twitter chat we are hosting on January 21st at 4pm EST.
Her book had some delightful insights into how our DNA, our personal history and our environment shape us. Using personal stories, including her own, she conveys the complicated history of genetic science.
A former academic Christine, who has written for the New Yorker and is a contributing editor at Buzzfeed, said she became a journalist, in part, because it allowed her to expand the kind of questions she was exploring as a scientist.
“I became increasingly frustrated by the narrowing of interests that my academic career seemed to require,” she said. “Journalism allowed me to keep asking the questions that interested me, all the big and the little ones.” 

The beauty of her book is that Christine uses personal stories including her <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-books-blog/2014/nov/06/christine-kenneally-i-was-thrilled-to-find-out-im-a-convict-princess" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">own family’s story</a> to explain some of the issue around genetic testing.
“I knew that I cared deeply about some topics that many other people found pretty dry, and I wanted to understand why they mattered to me,” she said. “Asking that question led me into the past and back to my family. I also wanted to find a way to connect with readers who wouldn’t normally be interested in science. Working out why I cared helped me think about the ways that they might.”
But her book also looks at how the advances in genetics broadens our understanding of biology, evolution and medicine.
“DNA won’t change everything about medicine, but I do think it is going to have a huge impact on much of it,” Christine said. “I feel deeply excited that my children are going to be able to access medical information that may help them make choices about their (health). I hope I live long enough to see what happens. It’s so fascinating.”
Join what promises to be a stimulating and interesting conversation with Christine. We want to hear from you. So ask Christine a few questions or simply track our chat on Twitter with the hashtag #23BookClub. You can enter for a chance to win a copy of the book.

Let’s Talk

In the fading black-and-white photo Diane Silberman Berger is about four years old and walking next to her mother along a sidewalk in downtown Spokane.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22106" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane-300x216.jpg" alt="Diane" width="300" height="216" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane-300x216.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane-768x554.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane-1024x739.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane-880x635.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane-1180x851.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Diane.jpg 1930w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


Taken by a street photographer in the late 1930s, the picture shows Diane holding tightly to her mother’s hand as they talk. It’s one of the few reminders Diane has of her mom.


“My mother died when I was nine years old,” she says holding the edge of the snapshot.


A profound loss, but it was made that much worse because Diane also lost complete contact with her mother’s family – all the aunts, uncles and cousins who made up some of the happy memories of her early childhood.
Despite decades of trying, Diane was never was able to find her mother’s family and reconnect.
Eventually, Diane gave up looking, thinking that perhaps that connection was lost forever.
Then one day her daughter looked at her 23andMe results, and that 70 years of longing to find her family ended.


“It’s just a miracle, it’s an absolute miracle,” said Diane. “I cry tears of happiness all the time now.”
<div id="attachment_22104" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22104" class="size-medium wp-image-22104" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Barrie-and-Diane-300x200.jpg" alt="Diane and her daughter Barrie." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Barrie-and-Diane-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Barrie-and-Diane-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Barrie-and-Diane-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Barrie-and-Diane-880x588.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Barrie-and-Diane-1180x789.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Diane and her daughter Barrie.</div>
<h6>The Separation</h6>
Diane’s story starts back in the middle of the Depression, when her mother and father were forced to move the family from their home in Connecticut to Washington State for a job. Diane’s mother had a big family, and Diane remembers visits with her aunts, uncles and cousins.  Her mother was close to her siblings, but when her mother died suddenly in 1941 Diane lost contact.
The reasons were in part because of geography, but also because of the war and because Diane’s father remarried. Diane loved her stepmother and she had a stepbrother with whom she was close, but she said she always felt that something was missing.
“People who have family don’t know what this is like,” Diane said, “(but) I sort of felt like an outsider sometimes.”
<h6>Starting the Search</h6>
As an adult Diane started searching for her mother’s family on her own with the information that she had. It wasn’t much, a name of one of her uncles, Sam Kaplan.
“Over the years we hired detectives and genealogists to try to track the family down but my mom had so little information, we eventually gave up,” said Diane’s daughter, Barrie.
And that would have been it if Barrie hadn’t tested with 23andMe. An early adopter, Barrie had tested out of curiosity. It had been awhile since she’d looked at her results when in 2014 she logged in, and noticed she’d gotten messages from someone inquiring about a close relative match. Sending messages back and forth, Barrie and her close match – Bram Boroson –tried to figure out how they were related.
<div id="attachment_22102" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22102" class="size-medium wp-image-22102" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram-300x229.jpg" alt="Bram Boroson" width="300" height="229" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram-300x229.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram-768x585.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram-1024x780.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram-880x670.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram-1180x899.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bram.jpg 1680w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Bram Boroson</div>
<h6>Finding Bram</h6>
Bram, who is a physics professor, said he signed up mostly because he was simply interested in getting a DNA test from a scientific point of view.
“Only later did I find out about this whole social aspect of it,” he said. “That you could be connected with people who are related to you. ”
It fascinated him. And seeing the connection with Barrie, who is a first cousin once removed, made him want to know more.
“I just saw that there was someone out there who was sharing, you know, more chunks of DNA than anyone else,” said Bram.
<h6>Making Connections</h6>
So he reached out. He and Barrie began exchanging bits of information trying to learn more about their family connection. They told each other a little bit about their family histories, where family members had lived over the generations. It’s when they shared some of their family names and Bram mentioned the name Kaplan that Barrie’s heart skipped a beat. She called her mom.
“What was your mother Martha’s last name?” Barrie asked. “Kaplan.”
Barrie didn’t want to jump the gun. She wanted to be sure. She got some more information from Bram and learned from Bram that his mother’s maiden name was the same as her grandmother’s maiden name.  Then she talked to Bram’s mother, Rebecca who remembered her father talking about Barrie’s grandmother, Diane’s mom. That’s when she knew, said Barrie. She called her mom.
“Are you sitting down?” she asked. “I found them.”
<h6>Elation</h6>
Diane was overwhelmed.
“Are you sure?” she asked.

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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Family-Tree1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22113" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Family-Tree1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Family-Tree1-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Family-Tree1-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Family-Tree1-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Family-Tree1-980x980.jpg 980w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
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				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22113'>
				Filling in the family tree.
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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-family-tree-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22114" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-family-tree-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-family-tree-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-family-tree-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-family-tree-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-family-tree-980x980.jpg 980w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
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				Diane, second from right, with her cousins from right Marilyn, Rebecca and Miriam on her right.
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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-looking-at-old-photo-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22115" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-looking-at-old-photo-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-looking-at-old-photo-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-looking-at-old-photo-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-looking-at-old-photo-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-looking-at-old-photo-980x980.jpg 980w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
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				Diane, left, with her cousins Marilyn and Miriam.
				</dd></dl> <dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hands-Diane-Rebecca-Miriam-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22116" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hands-Diane-Rebecca-Miriam-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hands-Diane-Rebecca-Miriam-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hands-Diane-Rebecca-Miriam-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hands-Diane-Rebecca-Miriam-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hands-Diane-Rebecca-Miriam-980x980.jpg 980w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22116'>
				Cousins, Rebecca, Diane and Miriam at the Kaplan reunion in New York City.
				</dd></dl><dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22117" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cousins-980x980.jpg 980w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22117'>
				Rebecca, Diane and Miriam.
				</dd></dl><dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Old-photos-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22109" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Old-photos-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Old-photos-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Old-photos-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Old-photos-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Old-photos-980x980.jpg 980w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22109'>
				Kaplan family photos.
				</dd></dl> 
		</div>

Barrie was sure, and she walked her mother through the connections. She told her mom what Rebecca, Diane’s first cousin and Bram’s mother, had said. Rebecca had said that her dad described Diane’s mother as his “favorite sister.” And Diane and Barrie learned that during all those years, it wasn’t just Diane who was looking for her mother’s lost family; they were looking for her too. Rebecca’s sister Miriam tears up when she talks about it.
“My sister and I grew up knowing that we had people in Seattle, or in Washington State,” Miriam said. “We only knew that my father told us that his sister Martha had a child before she died.”
<h6>Comfort in Knowing</h6>
But they didn’t know how to find Diane. Hearing all this helped Diane. Diane also learned more about her mother’s family and she got to see photos of her mother and her mother’s siblings. She was so young when her mother died that she actually didn’t know for sure how many aunts and uncles she had. It turns out her mother had six brothers and sisters. And they each had children of their own, who are now spread across the country. The oldest first cousin is 87, just a few years older than Diane – the youngest, a 22 month-old second cousin. Barrie said she’d always thought she had a small family.
“But I guess I was wrong,” she said. The “Kaplan Kin” set up a Facebook page to connect all the branches of the family and then in November of 2014, just before Thanksgiving, they gathered in New York City. They invited Diane and Barrie to come.
“It’s not really a reunion for us, but a union because we were meeting for the first time,” said Barrie. Diane and Barrie met Bram, his mother Rebecca and Miriam, Rebecca’s sister.
The Kaplans welcomed Diane, Barrie and extended Seattle relatives into the family.
“That desire for a connection was there but without the DNA it wouldn’t have happened,” said Bram.
At the cafe in New York where they met, the family members sat and talked about their parents and grandparents who had long ago passed away. They tried to fill in the some of the gaps in the family history, mapped out the family tree and took snapshots of their own. For Diane who had yearned for so long to reconnect with her family, it was a miracle of science.
“We have this family now, this big welcoming family,” she said.

I Found Them

This week 23andMe announced a collaboration with Pfizer Inc, allowing researchers with the drug maker to leverage 23andMe’s unique platform to conduct genome-wide associations studies, surveys and clinical trial recruitment.
The news follows a collaboration begun over the summer between 23andMe and Pfizer to enroll 10,000 people in a study to explore the genetic factors associated with the onset, progression, severity and response to treatment for <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ibd/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inflammatory Bowel Disease</a>.
The collaboration with Pfizer – as well as work with academic researchers and other companies such as Genentech, <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reset-therapeutics-announces-expansion-of-its-drug-discovery-platform-via-an-agreement-with-23andme-incorporating-the-genetics-of-circadian-rhythms-300017159.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reset Therapeutics</a> and others – is part of an effort by 23andMe to offer qualified and approved scientists outside of 23andMe a chance to leverage our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unique research platform</a> for discovery.

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