This is the first in an occasional series of profiles introducing you to the people behind 23andMe’s content curation team. This team of 23andMe <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Robin-Smith-Photo-200x300.jpg" alt="Robin Smith Photo" class="alignright wp-image-21508" width="300" height="449" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Robin-Smith-Photo-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Robin-Smith-Photo.jpg 534w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />scientists has the unique job of determining which genetic associations will be reported to customers. Their rigorous process of combing through scientific literature, vetting genetic information and ensuring that published scientific findings meet our standards for inclusion, directly impacts what you see when you log into your 23andMe account. 
&#8220;The genome is vast, complex, and full of wonders waiting to be revealed.&#8221;

<h6>
How did you get into the field of genetics?</h6>

As a child I was always fascinated by stories of outer space, and thought my calling would be to design spaceships that would go to other planets. I enrolled in a program named &#8220;Engineering Science&#8221; at the University of Toronto that focuses on specialized engineering disciplines.
About midway through my second year I realized that Fluid Mechanics and Robotics were not nearly as fun as a class where we created beating cardiomyocytes out of stem cells, and the rest was history. I followed this up with a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Miami, where I was permitted to tinker at the lab bench but also write the odd computer program. My thesis work centered on genetic mechanisms that allow peripheral nerves (e.g. in your arm) to grow back in contrast to central nerves (e.g. in your spinal cord), which cannot. 


<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Robin Smith, PhD Health Content Scientist

From: Toronto, Canada

Education:

BS: Biomedical Engineering,University of Toronto

PhD: Neuroscience from the University of Miami

Post-doc: UCSF in the lab of Nadav Ahituv

Fun Fact: After Graduate School Robin took a year off to help produce an indie feature film, ending up with his first (but hopefully not last) IMDB credit.
</div>
&nbsp;
<h6>
What were you researching/doing before you came to 23andMe? </h6>

After my PhD I did a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF in the lab of Nadav Ahituv. We were interested in the 98 percent of the genome that doesn&#8217;t code for genes, so called DNA &#8220;dark matter&#8221;. It turns out that these regions of DNA are very important for telling genes when, where and how much to turn on to produce a living, breathing organism out of a single cell. My research focused on breaking apart these regions of DNA to figure out how they work.

<h6>
Why are you excited about genetics and 23andMe?</h6>

So much about who we are and where we come from is wrapped up in this little ball of DNA that we carry about in (almost) every single one of our cells. It&#8217;s right there, glaring at us; and thanks to modern science, now extremely accessible. It&#8217;s like someone dropped a big puzzle in front of you that has an amazing image embedded within it. All you have to do is figure out how to put it together.
At 23andMe, we have the unique opportunity to be able to translate science to everyone &#8212; a lot of people just aren’t aware of what’s out there. Being able to work with one of the biggest databases of genetic information in the world is also very appealing. It’s allowed me to broaden my knowledge set about how genetics impact health and ancestry.

<h6>
Tell us about one of your interesting findings at 23andMe, or in your previous scientific life. </h6>

In the past, determining whether a piece of dark matter DNA regulates gene expression required a series of lengthy procedures. My time at UCSF coincided with an advance in technology that allowed us to test thousands of such DNA pieces at the same time. My research, which was later published in the journal Nature Genetics, centered on the design of synthetic DNA sequences that mimicked natural DNA dark matter in an attempt to crack the &#8220;regulatory code&#8221;. We discovered several interesting features of the code that operates in liver cells, and that it resembles a grammar of sorts.

<h6>
Tell us about a recent breakthrough in genetics research that you think will have a big impact on the industry.</h6>

We seem to be at an inflection point where advances in Next-Generation Sequencing put it in reach of the consumer. I&#8217;m looking forward to the day when we all have our full, sequenced genomes in our pockets (or safe in the cloud). The implications for health and ancestry are immense: imagine intricate knowledge about why your sense of smell is different that your partner&#8217;s, or being able to trace your ancestry back to a particular village. I think the best discoveries are out there waiting to be found.
<h6>
Did you learn anything interesting from your 23andMe results? Did you make any changes as a result of taking the test?</h6>

I&#8217;ve learned a lot about the genetics of Hemochromatosis. A lot of our customers (including my family) have variants in the HFE gene, but only certain combinations lead to a risk for iron overload. I&#8217;m a carrier for H63D, which originally concerned me, but reading through the 23andMe report and also seeing all the various mutations that appeared in my family was helpful in putting this into perspective. 
 
<h6> 
What&#8217;s one thing the average consumer should know about genetics?</h6>

There&#8217;s an amazing wealth of knowledge that scientists have built up over the years about how genetics influence traits and disease, but really we&#8217;ve just seen the tip of the iceberg. The genome is vast, complex, and full of wonders waiting to be revealed.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

A Conversation With Health Content Scientist Robin Smith

Another school year begins and 23andMe has your first assignment.<div id="attachment_21498" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21498" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Chromosomes-200x200.jpg" alt=" Photo by Quinn Walker" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-21498" width="200" height="200" />Photo by Quinn Walker</div><div id="attachment_21499" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21499" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Double_Helix_SFO-200x200.jpg" alt="Photo by Carmen Avram " class="size-thumbnail wp-image-21499" width="200" height="200" />Photo by Carmen Avram </div>
A picture is worth a thousand words, and we think that’s plenty enough to explain key terms in genetics.
So as part of our back-to-school, ah…celebration, 23andMe is having its first “Genetics Image Contest,” which is open to students 18 or older. The finalists will be showcased in the Genetics Gallery at <a href="http://www.thetech.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Tech Museum of Innovation</a> in San Jose, California.
If that’s not enough to make you interested, may we appeal to your thirst for knowledge?
Our Academic and Students Programs are all about advocating for improved genetic literacy. We know from research that imagery itself plays a huge role in science education, so this contest offers a great opportunity to not just learn a little something about genetics, but to pass on that knowledge to others.

<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Summary of Contest Rules 
&#8211; Participants must be 18 years or older and enrolled in a school within the territorial United States. 
&#8211; Images can be drawn by hand, photographed, or generated by computer software and must be in digital format (JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP). 
&#8211; Each image must have a title and a short (50 words or less) written description of how it conveys the genetic term(s) selected. 
&#8211; Works previously published will not be considered. 
&#8211; Images containing defamatory, obscene or inappropriate content will be automatically disqualified. 
&#8211; Contest concludes October 6 at 11:59PM. Go <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/?p=21500" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> for a complete description of the rules. Email questions about the contest to: geneticsimage2014contest@23andme.com
</div>
Interested? Here’s what you need to do: Simply select from our list of genetic vocabulary terms (DNA, chromosome, gene, allele, Heredity/Inheritance Pattern) and submit up to three original images, which capture the meaning of at least one of those terms.
These images can either be photographs or images you&#8217;ve drawn, painted or created with computer software. For inspiration, we have included some photos by a few of us here at 23andMe. You could create images that are literal interpretations, such as the example of the architectural designs of the double helix. You could also try a more metaphorical approach, or use your own artistic license, like the image of the stadium containing 20,000 spectators symbolizes the approximate number of genes in our genome. But whatever you do, be creative. You might be surprised what directions it leads you in. There are no mistakes in art.
The images you submit will be displayed in an album on 23andMe&#8217;s Facebook page, where you can encourage your friends to like and share them, and contribute to the overall evaluation of your image. Images will also be evaluated based on originality, visual impact, and the written description. Each of the three winners will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Finalists will receive 23andMe T-shirts. The three student groups, classes, or schools with the highest number of participants will receive a $300 prize to raise awareness of personal genomics through a journal club, a lecture or other learning events on campus, including the option to organize a Google Hangout or host an in-person event with a 23andMe scientist, depending on the location. Winners will be announced in the 23andMe blog post on the week of October 20.
You could also try a more metaphorical approach, or use your own artistic license, like the image of the stadium containing 20,000 spectators symbolizes the approximate number of genes in our genome. But whatever you do, be creative. You might be surprised what directions it leads you in. There are no mistakes in art. The images you submit will be displayed in an album on 23andMe&#8217;s Facebook page, where you can encourage your friends to like and share them, and contribute to the overall evaluation of your image. Images will also be evaluated based on originality, visual impact, and the written description.
Each of the three winners will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Finalists will receive 23andMe T-shirts. The three student groups, classes, or schools with the highest number of participants will receive a $300 prize to raise awareness of personal genomics through a journal club, a lecture or other learning events on campus, including the option to organize a Google Hangout or host an in-person event with a 23andMe scientist, depending on the location. Winners will be announced in the 23andMe blog post on the week of October 20.

Photogenetics: 23andMe’s Genetics Image Contest

It might not be genetic but there appears to be a clear association between having inflammatory bowel disease and having a damn good sense of humor.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IBD-IMage-.jpg" alt="IBD IMage" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21214" width="240" height="160">
IBD is a serious digestive disorder and is no laughing matter. The umbrella diagnosis includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and affects an estimated 1.4 million people in the United States alone. There are very few treatments for the condition, and the sometimes very painful symptoms can leave those with IBD feeling embarrassed, isolated and alone.
But looking at some great blogs by people with the condition, it’s easy to see that having a good sense of humor certainly helps get you through the hard times. How can you not at least crack a smile at titles like “<a href="http://crohns-leavingtheseatdown.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leaving the Seat Down</a>”, or “Blood, Poop &amp; Tears?” By writing about the condition and its symptoms with sometimes blunt humor, these bloggers are going a long way toward removing any stigma around the disease.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Eligible Individuals 
1. You have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis by a qualified physician. 
2. Your willingness to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing and complete online surveys related to your condition. 
3. You have access to the internet. 
4. You are at least 6 years old (those under 18 require a parental consent to enroll). 
5. You are not a current 23andMe customer.* 
6. You reside in the United States.*If you are a current 23andMe customer, learn how you can participate here.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21220" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg" alt="Learn More" width="300" height="99" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More.jpg 744w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<h6>IBD Study</h6>
23andMe recently launched <a href="https://23andme.com/IBD/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a new study of IBD</a> in collaboration with Pfizer Inc. to learn more about what role genetics and environment play in the development of IBD as well as how the condition progresses.
Reading through blogs about individuals who struggle day to day, can also inform and motivate what we do.
<h6>Recommended Reading</h6>
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are some of the IBD blogs that made us want to read more.
&#8211; <a href="http://www.inflamed-and-untamed.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inflamed and Untamed</a> – Blogging since 2008, Sara Ringer mixes girl power, fashion and her own poignant personal struggles – including having her large intestine removed – all while advocating for others with IBD.
&#8211; Blood, Poop &amp; Tears – Like a lot of good IBD bloggers, Jackie is both blunt and funny. In her 20s, she’s been blogging since 2010 about her own struggles with ulcerative colitis.
&#8211; <a href="http://crohns-leavingtheseatdown.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leaving the Seat Down</a> – Living with Crohn’s since 1988, Vern is an IBD veteran. A former competitive figure skater and soccer player living in British Columbia, Vern also paints and is known for his Crohnie adages: 
“If you hold the world record for the amount of times going to the bathroom in an hour; you might be a Crohnie.”
&#8211; <a href="http://intenseintestines.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Intense Intestines Blog</a> – Brian Greenberg is both a blogger and the founder of the Intense Intestines Foundation. He has also been dealing with his own Crohn&#8217;s diagnosis since he was just a kid.
&#8211; <a href="http://www.jpouch.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">J-pouch Life</a> – With a more somber but measured tone, this blog collects stories from people who have gone through surgery or are considering going through surgery to remove their colon. This site has become a great resource for people struggling with determining their best option. It’s a serious decision and the site neither makes light of it nor overly dramatizes it.
&#8211; <a href="http://www.brightsideofcrohns.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Bright Side of Crohn&#8217;s</a> – You’ve got to give it up to any blogger referencing, knowingly or not, Eric Idle’s comedy song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” But Canadian blogger “Brightside,” is a working mom who writes to stay positive.
&#8211; The Great Bowel Movement – The tagline for this blog is “making Crohn’s and Colitis cool since 2010.” The posts on this blog run the gambit from fitness, nutrition to the latest in drug treatments and other interventions.

Gut Check – A Short List of IBD Blogs

Neanderthals, our ancient cousins whose DNA is still found in traces in modern humans, faded away in Europe about 10,000 years earlier than scientists once <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Neanderthal_model.jpg" alt="Neanderthal_model" class="alignright size-full wp-image-20253" width="260" height="270" />thought, according to a new study by <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-08-20-neanderthals-overlapped-modern-humans-5400-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">researchers at Oxford</a>.
Using an improved method for radiocarbon dating, the researchers took samples from about 200 artifacts found at 40 Neanderthal cave sites across Europe. The tests determined that Neanderthals likely disappeared around 40,000 years ago, or earlier than previously thought.
The new timeline also indicates that Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans coexisted in neighboring communities throughout Europe for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/science/neanderthals-in-europe-died-out-thousands-of-years-sooner-than-some-thought-study-says.html?_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as long as 5,000 years</a>. That gave them plenty of time to intermix. While there is not yet evidence of Neanderthals and modern humans living in integrated societies, they do appear to have exchanged more than just artifacts. 
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OcEzIgMOxTc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
From one percent to four percent of the DNA in modern humans originated from Neanderthals. The timeline shows that Neanderthals and modern humans had ample time to interbreed, and even if this happened rarely, it happened enough to explain the traces of Neanderthal DNA found in modern humans. 
The timeline also indicates that Neanderthals did not suddenly die off, but appear to have slowly faded away and were likely overwhelmed by their modern human neighbors who reproduced at a much faster rate.
<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>!

Neanderthal Fade Away

Since announcing our new study on Inflammatory Bowel Disease, we’ve received questions not just about the study, but about the disease itself.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 240px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Eligible Individuals 
1. You have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis by a qualified physician. 
2. Your willingness to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing and complete online surveys related to your condition. 
3. You have access to the internet. 
4. You are at least 6 years old (those under 18 require a parental consent to enroll). 
5. You are not a current 23andMe customer.* 
6. You reside in the United States.*If you are a current 23andMe customer, learn how you can participate here.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21220" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg" alt="Learn More" width="300" height="99" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More.jpg 744w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
IBD – which includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – is often difficult to diagnose. The symptoms can sometimes be confused with other conditions.
The symptoms can also come and go making arriving at an accurate diagnosis very difficult.
Recently, Dr. Jennifer Choi, the Associate Director of UCLA’s Center for IBD, gave a detailed talk on the condition. Neither Dr. Choi nor the UCLA Center is involved with 23andMe’s study, but they are a great resource for information about the condition.
While the video of that presentation is long, and is sometimes graphic, Dr. Choi very clearly explains everything from the anatomy involved to the differences between Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.
It’s a helpful primer both for those who have the condition and people who care about them, who are trying to understand what they are going through.
We’ve included the video below, but be forewarned that there are some graphic photos in the presentation that may be disturbing for some.
 
<iframe loading="lazy" width="300" height="169" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vJ-nLpAFHd8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

More On Inflammatory Bowel Disease

This past weekend, 23andMe’s Joanna Mountain and Christine Moschella, attended
<div id="attachment_21379" style="width: 309px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21379" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/J-C.001.jpg" alt="Joanna Mountain, 23andMe's Research Director, and on the right Christine Moschella, 23andMe's Community Manager." class="size-full wp-image-21379" width="299" height="233" />Joanna Mountain, 23andMe&#8217;s Research Director, and on the right Christine Moschella, 23andMe&#8217;s Community Manager.</div>
the <a href="http://i4gg.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2014 Institute for Genetic Genealogy Conference</a> at the <a href="http://www.4hcenter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National 4H Center</a> just outside Washington, DC. The conference offered a great opportunity to connect again with genetic genealogists and learn from other experts in the field.
Over the three days Joanna, 23andMe’s Director of Research, and Christine, our Community Manager, shared details of some of our ancestry and genealogy features. But the pair were also there to hear feedback directly from our customers, and to answer questions about topics ranging from where things stand with the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/update-on-the-regulatory-review-process-with-the-fda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FDA regulatory process</a> to tips on using our saliva kit.
<h6>
Using DNA Relatives 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/African-American-Example1-300x220.jpg" alt="African American Example" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19805" width="300" height="220" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/African-American-Example1-300x220.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/African-American-Example1.jpg 661w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></h6>
Joanna presented an overview of two of 23andMe’s most popular tools – <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/23andme-ancestry-basics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DNA Relatives and Ancestry Composition</a>. She went over &#8211; their origins, methodologies, and history &#8211; highlighting both the science behind these features and how they have been improved over a relatively short time.
The purpose for attending the conference was not only to share information with genetic genealogy enthusiasts but also to get feedback about how these customers are currently using the service and to hear ideas for improvements.
In numerous presentations and conversations with attendees, we heard about some of the creative ways customers are interacting with the information provided by 23andMe, and learned more about what kind of tools and information genetic genealogists in particular find most important.
<h6>Feedback</h6>
We also got some feedback about which features could be improved. In some instances, we are already in the process of making those improvements, which we are very excited about. We hope the community continues to provide the kind of constructive feedback that they’ve always given as we improve our ancestry features.
Overall it was a fun and intense three days for Joanna and Christine, who said they loved meeting some of our most passionate customers in person. It’s always motivating to hear about the difference that 23andMe has made for customers and how excited they are about what more we could do. It’s an excitement we share. Thank you <a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CeCe Moore</a> and <a href="http://www.timjanzen.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tim Janzen</a> for organizing the conference, with plenty of help from their family members; we hope that they will organize another such event in the future!

Tools For Genetic Genealogists

Last week, 23andMe launched a new research initiative to study <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/l_smarr_2x-221x300.jpg" alt="l_smarr_2x" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21362" width="221" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/l_smarr_2x-221x300.jpg 221w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/l_smarr_2x.jpg 314w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px" />
Along with collaborating with Pfizer on the study, 23andMe has also enlisted the help of five scientific advisors, who each bring deep expertise that will assist our scientists in analyzing data and developing surveys for the study.


One of those advisors, <a href="http://lsmarr.calit2.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Larry Smarr</a>, PhD, who is the founding director of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technolgy (Cali2), said this study could illustrate the power of the 23andMe research model.


“I believe that a more accurate stratification of IBD disease states will result from classifying based on combinations of (genetic markers) than on symptoms,” said Larry. “23andme is the best way to quickly get a large number of people classified to test this hypothesis.” 
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Eligible Individuals 
1. You have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis by a qualified physician. 
2. Your willingness to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing and complete online surveys related to your condition. 
3. You have access to the internet. 
4. You are at least 6 years old (those under 18 require a parental consent to enroll). 
5. You are not a current 23andMe customer.* 
6. You reside in the United States.*If you are a current 23andMe customer, learn how you can participate here.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21220" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg" alt="Learn More" width="300" height="99" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More.jpg 744w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<h6>
 Self Tracking</h6>

Larry, who also holds the Harry E. Gruber professorship in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, has over the last decade tracked everything from his weight to his sleep patterns to his caloric intake. He even tracked the microbes in his stool to learn about his own health.
But what had started as a simple effort to track weight loss soon became a focused effort to apply all his scientific skills to manage his own health and his own struggle with what he later learned was IBD.
Larry said he sees huge potential in gathering together many people with IBD.
“The study will be successful if it results in a large number of people classified with both (genetic markers) and phenotypes,” he said. “This will immediately yield a first cut at the emerging IBD stratification landscape.”

He knows why he is so interested in participating as a scientific advisor, but he also knows what might motivate someone with IBD to enroll.


“By participating in this study you will help accelerate research toward a new approach to understanding IBD,” he said. “And hopefully to creating more personalized therapy approaches.”

Science Advisor, Larry Smarr

Jeremy Kuykendall grew up in Texas, went to college there and settled down. He has a good job, is happily married and has two daughters. His life is pretty normal.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-300x225.jpg" alt="Jeremy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21349" width="300" height="225" />
“I’m just a middle class family man,” said the 38 year-old IT worker.
But the regular trajectory of Jeremy’s life took an extraordinary turn after testing with 23andMe. His results connected him for the first time with a guy named Steven, a man he’d never met, who just happened to be his biological father.
“I am awed by how this happened,” Jeremy said. “The chances of us ever meeting and learning about how we are related would have been impossible without a service like 23andMe.”
<h6>Connecting</h6>
Steven is single, 58, and lives in Fort Worth. His life – working dozens of different jobs, serving in the Army and moving around the country before settling into a job with the Veterans Administration in Fort Worth – has been anything but ordinary. Yet even Steven says connecting with Jeremy has been one of the craziest things that’s ever happened to him.
“I remember telling him on the phone once that I don’t know what to say to him or how to feel,” Steven said. “We’re in uncharted territory here. I know I can’t be a father to him. The best I can do is to be his friend.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-Steven-300x169.jpg" alt="Jeremy &#038; Steven" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21352" width="300" height="169" />
And the two men – who are strangers although they are father and son, have gotten to know each other – they’ve started to become friends.
<h6>Creating a Family Connection</h6>
This sudden connection has probably been most jarring for Steven. While Jeremy always knew he’d been adopted, Steven never knew he’d even fathered a child, and long ago given up on the idea of ever having a family.
“I never got married, never thought about having a family a whole lot honestly,” he said. “I just never got to that point. I was engaged once but I got cold feet and called it off.”
So it was a surprise when he got his results from 23andMe. He’d signed up because he wanted to use 23andMe for his genealogy research, but his results were unexpected.
“It said I had a DNA match with someone who is identified as my son,” Steven said. “It was a shock.”
23andMe’s DNA Relative feature matches customers with other 23andMe users who share DNA. Customers can choose not to take part in DNA Relatives, remain anonymous or opt-out of viewing close relatives. Both Jeremy and Steven had opted in. When Steven saw that he and Jeremy shared 47.5 percent of their DNA, he decided to send him a message via 23andMe.
“I didn’t say much, I think I said ‘it appears as though we’re related and I was wondering where you were born.’”
Steven misread Jeremy’s profile and thought Jeremy was ten years younger than he is. Doing the math, Steven knew he lived in California when at the time Jeremy would have been conceived. Thinking back he tried to figure out who the mother might have been and was at a loss, so he wasn’t sure if the match was real.
While Steven anxiously waited for an answer to his message, Jeremy was suspicious about who he was. Jeremy always knew he’d been adopted, but he’d waited until he was in his 30s, when he was having children of his own to try and make any contact with his biological mother, who he did meet. They got to know each other. He learned she’d gotten pregnant in high school. She’d given Jeremy up for adoption because she was just too young to raise him on her own. But she’d watched him grow up from a distance. Occasionally seeing his sports or school achievements in the local paper. Jeremy’s adoptive mother worked as a nurse in the clinic that his biological mother went to for care, although she never identified herself as his biological mother.
“Our relationship has been positive and amicable,” said Jeremy, who has since also met his two half-sisters.
His mother also shared with him as much information about his biological family as she knew, including, he thought, the name of his biological father, a man she identified as Wayne.
“The stories she told me were not very flattering,” Jeremy said.
Based on all that, Jeremy decided not to reach out to him.
“It was enough to have this good interaction with my ‘Bio-Mom,’” he said.
Then all a sudden Jeremy gets a message from a guy named Steven.
Jeremy had tested with 23andMe because he wanted to know more about his ancestors and from where they came. He didn’t expect anything else, so the message from Steven caught him off guard. He was a bit suspicious.
“I responded: ‘What do you want dude?’”
Before getting the response, Steven had almost given up hope of hearing from Jeremy, he said.
“When I didn’t get an answer back I thought, you know, maybe he already knows who I am or maybe he didn’t know his real father was not his real father or a dozen other reasons why he wouldn’t want to talk to me,” Steven said.
He tried to be philosophical about it, telling himself that, “whatever happens, happens.” But that was easier said than done.
“Anyone would be really curious,” he said. “It would drive you crazy wanting to know.”
Although they both were skeptical that they were indeed father and son, they connected through 23andMe nonetheless. Steven had thought he was in California at the time of Jeremy’s birth, which was in Texas. That was until he learned that Jeremy was born in 1976, 10 years earlier than he thought.
Steven explained to Jeremy that when he was 19 he’d lived in Dallas for nine months and during that time spent about a month in Menard, Texas.
“Now you’re freaking me out,” Jeremy told Steven. “I was born in Menard.’”
He sent Steven an old photo of his birth mother. Steven thought he recognized her, but he wasn’t sure. Jeremy’s mother doesn’t remember Steven, but the dates and timing of everything matched up.
“Look I was a product of my time, a real wild child,” said Steven. “It’s not something I’m proud of, but it’s just the way it was.”
Jeremy and Steven have since met in person. Jeremy looks more like his biological mother, but Steven can see some of his brother in Jeremy.
“They have the some of the same mannerisms,” he said. “He’s real gentle and hardworking like my oldest brother.”
Steven said he’s still trying to get his head around meeting a son he didn’t know he had.
“It’s certainly not a bad thing, mainly because he’s such a wonderful person, highly intelligent, very successful and a great family and everything,” Steven said. “You can tell. He had wonderful adoptive parents.”
And while Steven knows he could never be a true father to his son, he said he thinks the two men will be friends, and that he could get to know his family and Jeremy’s two young children.
“I’d like that,” Steven said.
For Jeremy the experience has reminded him how lucky he was to have had such supportive adoptive parents. But the experience has also left him wondering more about what makes him who he is – how much a role genetics plays versus the environment he grew up in.
“It’s been very positive,” he said. “But I’m struggling with this whole nature versus nurture thing and how much of what we are is genetic and how much is you know influenced by our environment. I’m amazed by how much comes from my blood.”

An Extraordinary Turn

For people battling <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21215 size-large" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IBD-Image-325x768.jpg" alt="IBD Image" width="325" height="768" /> – it’s easy to feel isolated and alone.


There currently are very few medicines to treat the condition, which affects an estimated 1.4 million people in the United States.  
Those with IBD often feel embarrassed by their symptoms, enduring on their own severe abdominal pain, cramping, inflammation, and diarrhea that often accompany the condition.
23andMe wants to change that with its <a href="https://23andme.com/IBD/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new study of IBD</a>.
23andMe is collaborating with Pfizer Inc. to learn more about what role genetics and environment play in the development of IBD as well as how the condition progresses. We hope this research will give scientists new insight into the disease.
“We are excited to team up with Pfizer to take an innovative, consumer-centered approach to understanding the fundamentals of inflammatory bowel disease and the variability of treatment response,” said 23andMe CEO and Co-Founder, Anne Wojcicki. 

<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Eligible Individuals</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
1. You have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis by a qualified physician.</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
2. Your willingness to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing and complete online surveys related to your condition.
</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">3. You have access to the internet.</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
4. You are at least 6 years old (those under 18 require a parental consent to enroll).</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
5. You are not a current 23andMe customer.*</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
6. You reside in the United States.</div>
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">*If you are a current 23andMe customer, learn how you can participate here.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21220" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg" alt="Learn More" width="300" height="99" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More-300x99.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Learn-More.jpg 744w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>

23andMe is using the unique research model that it developed to study other diseases. Our research model is different in that it allows people to participate from home and to do so anonymously. Traditional research often involves travel to clinics or research facilities, blood tests, and even drug trials. Because individuals can participate from home using internet access, 23andMe’s research offers people who might not be able to participate otherwise a simple and non-intrusive way to get involved in important research.
Our goal is to enlist 10,000 people in this effort. To those who participate we will give updates not just on the progress of our recruitment efforts but on the status of the research as well. 23andMe can’t promise that this work will lead to a cure or to new treatments but our researchers do pledge to keep participants informed of our work.


You can learn more about this research or how to participate <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ibd/">here</a>.  
Participants do not just help drive important research — they can also explore their own genetic information using 23andMe’s unique tools.

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