With one very important exception Tibetans and their Han Chinese neighbors are genetically very similar, but that one difference makes all the difference.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/tibetanwoman-228x300.jpg" alt="tibetanwoman" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6826" width="228" height="300" />
In the breathlessly thin air of the Himalayas, Tibetans have a genetic variant that makes them keenly well adapted to living on the “roof of the world.” And <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13408.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fascinating new findings by researchers at UC Berkeley</a> indicate that Tibetans can thank an ancient human cousin for that advantage.
<h6>Ancient Human Cousins</h6>
There is much about this research that is exciting for us here at 23andMe. (We have a thing about <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/tag/neanderthal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ancient humans</a>.) But the findings are especially thrilling because this is the first time scientists have found a specific trait inherited from ancient humans that is so clearly vital for a modern human population to thrive.
The ancient humans in question are the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/analysis-of-ancient-dna-suggests-the-existence-of-previously-unknown-type-of-extinct-human-ancestor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Denisovans</a>, who scientists only became aware of four years ago after sequencing DNA from bone fragments discovered in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisova_Cave" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a cave</a> in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. 

<div id="attachment_6209" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6209" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/6Denisova_cave-199x300.jpg" alt="The cave in Siberia where the Denisova bone fragments were found." class="size-medium wp-image-6209" width="199" height="300" />The cave in Siberia where the Denisova bone fragments were found.</div>
<h6>Hybrid Vigor</h6>
As modern humans migrated out of Africa about 100,000 years ago, we intermingled with archaic humans such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans, and possibly other not-yet identified human cousins. <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/recommended-reading/a-gift-to-humanity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neanderthals</a> and the Denisovans went extinct about 30,000 years ago but their DNA lives on in modern humans. What role their DNA played in our evolution is difficult to discern.

There are many theories. For instance, Peter Parham, a geneticist at Stanford University School of Medicine, suggested a few years ago that that intermixing gave modern humans a sort of <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/476136a.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“hybrid vigor.”</a>

<h6>Disease Resistance Question</h6>
It could be that interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans also gave humans an evolutionary shortcut. Allowing them to quickly adapt to new environments as they spread across the globe. Indeed in the case of Neanderthals, there is some evidence that their DNA may have contributed to modern humans&#8217; resistance to certain diseases.

But it <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110809/full/476136a.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cuts both ways.</a> There is evidence suggesting that in some cases Neanderthal DNA, which helped humans adapt, may now contribute to risks for certain diseases like diabetes and Crohn’s.

“Now that we can estimate the probability that a particular genetic variant arose from Neanderthals, we can begin to understand how that inherited DNA affects us,” said Harvard Medical School geneticist David Reich, earlier this year after publishing a paper on Neanderthal genetic contributions to modern humans in the journal Nature.

<h6>The Denisovans</h6>
The same statement could apply to Denisovans. Remnants of their DNA is found in people with ancestry from areas of Oceania, Papua New Guinea and parts of Asia. Now this study has made an important and clear link between Tibetans’ adaption to high altitude and the Denisovans.

Eric Durand, a senior computational biologist at 23andMe, said the study was a rare case of an informed hunch panning out perfectly for the researchers. Eric previously developed statistical methods to look at the connection between Neanderthal and Denisovans and modern humans. He said the researchers at UC Berkeley discovered a few years ago that it was a variant in the EPAS1 gene allowed Tibetans to thrive in the oxygen thin air on the Himalayan plain. The question for researchers was how did that variant get there.

<h6>EPAS1 and High Altitude</h6>
Looking at the haplotype structure around EPAS1, as well as the fact that the haplotype is extremely rare in Han Chinese, researchers struggled to explain the genetic adaptation. They thought that perhaps this special adaptation came from somewhere else.Maybe more appropriately stated, someone else. So researchers began comparing Tibetan genetic signatures with that of other populations.

Among those was the Denisovan sequence published by Svante Paabo. An evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Paabo is the first scientist to have sequenced the Neanderthal genome.

“It’s very satisfying to see that gene flow from Denisovans, an extinct group of archaic humans which we discovered only four years ago, is now found to have had important consequences for people living today,” Svante said recently.

Sometimes looking back can do more than just help scientists understand the past. It can also give them insight into the present.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Breathless Over New Finding Using Ancient DNA

There are red states and blue states in the United States, but there are also leafy green states and red meat states, according to 23andMe survey data.
We’ve previously written about how traits vary by state, but one of our researchers, Emma Pierson, decided to look a little deeper at those differences.
Emma checked 23andMe’s anonymous survey data against another totally unrelated dataset – the state-by-state patterns of billions of Google searches that anyone can tap into using a tool called Google Correlate. What she found was both fascinating and enlightening and offers another bit of evidence indicating the reliability of the data customers share with 23andMe researchers.
“On a whim I put in 23andMe survey responses to &#8216;How often do you eat leafy greens?&#8217; and was amazed to find that, out of the billions of possible Google searches, one of the strongest associations was with ‘raw kale,’” Emma said. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-300x300.jpg" alt="kale" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21200" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-1180x1180.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/kale.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> 
Before you shrug and say “Yeah, so?” think about this for a moment: In these totally separate datasets one can see some of the same patterns. So, for example, where we see states with high fractions of morning people also tended to have many people Googling “coffee.” Emma also found states with high fractions of 23andMe customers with coronary artery disease also tended to have high numbers of Google searches for statin drugs.
“There’s a larger point here,” Emma said. “You can have more faith in your data if you find the same patterns in very different datasets.”
And what of 23andMe’s data?
We ask customers all sorts of questions from the one about eating your vegetables to whether your hair is curly to even things like whether you can do a cartwheel. We ask about your health history and drug prescriptions. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-300x300.jpg" alt="State Correlations Exercise" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21201" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-1180x1180.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/State-Correlations-Exercise.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />The answers to those questions and dozens of others like them combined with genetic information give 23andMe researchers tremendous insight into the biology behind human <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">traits and health conditions</a>. In turn, the information can also improve the quality of what 23andMe reports back to customers, offering them another way to engage in their own exploration of genetics.
But this isn’t the traditional way of collecting data for research so we are often asked, can scientists really rely on a bunch of people answering a few questions online to inform them about important research into genetics research?
Yeah, they can.
23andMe has explored this much more rigorously, by comparing the results of genetic analysis based on our online surveys to previous genetic analysis based on data collected through more conventional techniques. So what Emma did was simply put 23andMe’s data to another kind of test.
Given the billions of Google searches and the thousands of 23andMe survey responses, the fact that Emma found these kinds of shared patterns gives us more confidence in the data.
“This is especially important today, when we use big data to map out human lives as never before,” Emma said. “To paraphrase Thoreau, different datasets are merely different perspectives on the same truth: only by combining them can we form the complete picture.” 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ExerciseChestPainCorrelation-640x448.jpg" alt="ExerciseChestPainCorrelation" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-21204" width="640" height="448" />

Where In the Kale?

David was 17 when a few words change him forever.
His mother and father were having a bad patch and his mom had had a little bit too much to drink when she let something slip.
<div id="attachment_21151" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21151" class="size-medium wp-image-21151" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-300x225.jpg" alt="David, left, in his graduation picture. His biological half brother Kevin at around the same age. The two only recently met." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />David, left, at 17. His half brother Kevin at around the same age.</div>
She told David he was her favorite child and then slipped in something that it was “because she wasn’t sure if I was my father’s child,” David said.
The next day she tried to backpedal, chalking her to having too much to drink.
“But you can’t take something like that back,” David said.
Now 54, David, who owns a small construction company in Colorado, said he could never shake what his mother said.
“This was the most devastating news I had ever heard in my young life,” he said. “I had a very loving dad who would do anything for his children. He is my hero. My mom, she did the best she could.”
But what his mother told him triggered a flood of questions. If it was true, David wanted to know who his biological father really was. He felt he needed to know so he could make sense of some of the differences he could already see that set him apart from his siblings, but for 20 years his mom wouldn’t discuss it, leaving him with one question:
“Who am I?”
<h6>Finding Out</h6>
It wasn’t until he tested with 23andMe last year that David got closer to answering some of those questions. The experience changed him for the better, he said.
“The biggest thing I learned is that distance, time and environment cannot change the traits you were born with,” said David.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21157" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Taz-Tattoos-300x214.jpg" alt="Taz Tattoo's" width="300" height="214" />
But David’s journey to get to that point was a long one. His mother’s revelation changed how he saw himself. Even though what she said also seemed to explain a lot, it also set him apart from his family. And it left him feeling angry.
It took David another 20 years before he could confront his mother about what she’d said. But even then, she gave him a false lead and until the day she died ten years later, told him nothing more about it.
“I gave up all hope of ever finding out the truth,” he said.
Then late last year he tested with 23andMe, and he was matched with a first cousin named John. Then one of David’s brothers tested. The results showed that the two were actually half brothers, confirming what his mother told him so many years before.
“I wasn’t really shocked,” David said.
But seeing that result helped David identify that he and his first cousin, John, were related paternally. Now David knew that he was on the right path to identify his biological father. But he needed more information.
<h6>A Hunch</h6>
David grew up near the border between Michigan and Wisconsin where hunting is a big deal and where out-of-towners often came during hunting season. David knew he was conceived around that time, so on a hunch, he asked John whether any of his uncles were hunters.
“He had an uncle who was,” said David. “The problem was, his uncle was married at the time of my conception.”
It would be a delicate thing to ask about, but John talked to one of his uncle’s sons, who agreed to test. Waiting to learn the results were “the longest of my life,” David said.
“I had to prepare myself for the possibility that I may of found out who my father was or that I had a brother I never knew of!” David said.
He also had to prepare himself to be disappointed or rejected, he said.
Meanwhile, John wanted to make sure his cousin understood what it might reveal.
For David the days of waiting were unbearable. He fretted that maybe he’d pushed too hard.
But then he got a late-night text from John.
“David, let me be the first to welcome you to the family,” it said.
David couldn&#8217;t believe his luck: “I can’t describe the emotions that were flooding through me.”
<h6>So Much In Common</h6>
He learned that his biological father was still alive and that he had two brothers and they wanted to meet him.
“I was thankful that they didn’t “kick me to the curb,”” David said.
When he first talked to his brother Gregory, he was dumbfounded.
“NEVER did I expect to be speaking to my brother,” David said. “We spoke to each other for over an hour and a half. We had so many things in common! We liked the same things. We thought the same way.”
And after sharing some photos they saw that they also looked alike. David then talked to his other brother Kevin. Kevin and Greg invited him to visit them in Chicago and meet their dad, David’s biological dad. Excited David made arrangements to travel to Chicago from his home in Colorado.
<h6>Talking to His Dad</h6>
But before he went to Chicago to meet his biological dad, David traveled back home to Michigan to talk in person to his father, the man who raised him.
“I told him that I have always loved him and always will but, he was not my biological father,” said David. “He immediately hugged me and said ‘I knew that David. I was never going to say anything because I don’t want to hurt you.’”
It was as if a huge weight was lifted from David&#8217;s shoulders. His father told him he was happy that he was able to learn the truth.
“He is an amazing man,” David said of his father. “The love and respect I feel for my Dad is immeasurable!”
<h6>Brothers Meet</h6>
When David arrived in Chicago he first met with his brothers.
“I felt from the moment I met my brothers an immediate connection to them and they said the same thing,” he said.
<div id="attachment_21152" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21152" class="size-medium wp-image-21152" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Peterson-Group-300x168.jpg" alt="From left David, John, David's 1st cousin, his half-brothers Kevin and Gregory, and Harry, David's biological father. " width="300" height="168" />From left David, John, David&#8217;s 1st cousin, his half-brothers Kevin and Gregory, and Harry, David&#8217;s biological father.</div>
They noted not just the physical likenesses but other things. They shared some of the same personality traits and oddly both David and one of his brothers had a Tasmanian Devil tattoo on one of their arms.
<h6>Call Me Anything You Want</h6>
Meeting his biological father also proved to be beyond words, David said.
His biological father told him: 
‘Wow, this is something. Now I got three sons. Can I call you son?’”
“You’re my father,” David told him. “You can call me anything you want.”
His biological father was most distraught that he had a son for all these years who he knew nothing about. And he was upset that he couldn’t remember David’s mother. But it didn’t hold him back from welcoming David into the family.
“I was welcomed with open arms by my father’s family,” he said. “I can’t remember ever feeling the love that I had felt those four short days I was visiting.”
<h6>Making Up For Lost Time</h6>
One of his brothers soon came to Colorado for a visit and now they plan on making up for the lost time.
For his part, David is still shocked that this mystery that nagged at him for most of his life has been solved. But he’s also fascinated by how even without ever meeting his brothers or his father, that he can still be so much like them.
“How does one explain how much a person has in common with a sibling or father they have never met?” asked David. “I have always wondered why I did the things I did, who I looked like… now I have my answers.”

Can I Call You Son?

By Kathy Hibbs, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer, 23andMe


A few days ago the US Food and Drug Administration accepted for review 23andMe’s submission for a new 510 (k) application. This submission is for one health report, and <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg" alt="23andMe_Logo_blog" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6586" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog.jpg 350w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />is part of the FDA&#8217;s regulatory review of our health product.


Although the submission focuses on a single rare but serious inherited condition we report to customers – <a href="http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/bloom-syndrome" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bloom syndrome</a> – it is an important step in our work with the FDA in the coming months.
Once cleared, it will help 23andMe, and the FDA, establish the parameters for future submissions.
More importantly, for our customers, it marks a baseline on the accuracy and validity of the information we report back to them. The submission includes robust validation data covering major components of our product such as the genotyping chip, software and saliva kit.


While we are still in the very early stages of this regulatory review process, we remain committed to transparency and keeping our customers as informed as possible. This by no means is the end of the process even for this one condition. It is likely that 23andMe will hear back from the FDA regarding the material we gave to them, and, we in turn will have to respond to those questions as we move forward.
We are pleased to be moving forward with the FDA and committed to our company mission of empowering individuals with their genetic information.


If you would like to know more about the 510 (k) process, you can read more on the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/HowtoMarketYourDevice/PremarketSubmissions/PremarketNotification510k/default.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FDA’s website</a>.

Kathy Hibbs

Update On The Regulatory Review Process With The FDA

Two new studies done by researchers in France and the United States connect the dots between the number of moles women have and their risk for developing breast cancer.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole-300x300.jpg" alt="Mole" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21125" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mole.jpg 693w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Published last week in PLOS Medicine, the large studies, both found a connection. One study was done by researchers at <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001660" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">France’s Université Paris Sud.</a>  The other was conducted by scientists at <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001659#abstract1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brigham Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School</a> – 
<h6>The Two Studies</h6>
The French study – which used a cohort of about 89,000 women teachers studied over 18 years – found that premenopausal women with “many” moles were 34 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those with none.
The US study – which includes a cohort of about 74,000 women nurses studied over 20 years – found that women with 15 or more moles were 35 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those women without moles.
That corresponds to about an 8 percent risk of developing breast cancer for those women without moles and an 11 percent risk for those with 15 or more moles.
<h6>23andMe Researchers Take a Look</h6>
In another illustration of the power of 23andMe’s database our researchers were able to very quickly look at our own data to see if we could find the same association between the number of moles and risk for breast cancer. We did. As with the two recent studies, our data also showed that the more moles a woman had, the higher their risk for breast cancer.&#8221;
So why look at moles when studying breast cancer?
<h6>A Possible Connection with Moles</h6>
Moles are typically associated with the risk for <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/snpwatch/snpwatch-genetic-variant-contributing-to-melanoma-risk-has-different-effects-on-mole-count-depending-on-age/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">skin cancer</a>, but researchers decided to look at their possible connection to breast cancer because the production of moles is associated with higher levels of estrogen and progesterone.
Those two hormones may also be associated with the development of breast cancer. Several studies have found a hormonal influence on whether women develop breast cancer. And, as the editors of the study noted, women who don’t have children or have the late in life, are at “a higher breast cancer risk than women who have several children when they are young because pregnancy alters sex hormone levels.”
So researchers thought that the number of moles may help be a predictor for breast cancer risk. The data seem to indicate that is true.
Both studies are illustrative of the power of being able to look at seemingly unrelated traits to learn more about the underlying biology of disease.

New Studies On Breast Cancer Risk

Earlier this month Joanna Mountain, 23andMe’s senior director of research, spoke during a panel discussion at the annual Genealogy Jamboree hosted by the <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21119 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Joanna_and_Blaine_Bettinger-e1402696162448-300x288.jpg" alt="Joanna_and_Blaine_Bettinger" width="300" height="288" />
Starting in 2013, the four-day conference has included a day devoted to the use of genetic testing to inform the search for family history and ancestry.
This year, Joanna participated in a discussion about what the future might hold.
“People are going to start seeing how they’re related to one another,” Joanna said, and then looking around at the audience she added, “Maybe at one of these conferences, they’ll put up on the screen how all attendees are related.”
<h6>More Commonplace</h6>
Most of the other panelists –  which included Bennett Greenspan, the president and CEO of FamilyTree DNA, Jake Byrnes, of AncestryDNA, and the genetic genealogist, Diahan Southard – agreed. As more and more people are tested, as genetic databases grow, tracing relationships between people will become more commonplace.
Moderator <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-5404 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-208-300x225.png" alt="Don't just settle for two branches of your family tree..." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-208-300x225.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-208.png 408w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“It could be terribly convenient for those of us who are studying genealogy,” said Blaine.
<h6>World Family Tree</h6>
While a world family tree isn’t necessary for the effective use of genetic genealogy, it is a way to merge genetic information with information from <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/ancestry/family-tree/">family trees</a> and research documents to inform people about their family history.
“I see a universal world tree emerging from the combined efforts of everyone in this room and at companies,” Joanna said in Burbank. “It’s already happening to some extent – kind of a crowd-sourcing effort.”
<h6>Sharing</h6>
This is happening because individuals are sharing information, but also because companies like 23andMe are allowing developers to create APIs that will offer consumers more tools to use in their searches.
But Joanna also reminded those in the audience that people test for many reasons. They might want to know about their family’s or their own risk for disease, or see traits they might pass onto their children, but in testing they might learn something they didn’t know about their ancestry. 23andMe is trying to allow consumers to explore their DNA through all those facets, she said. They might also learn that their ancestry makes them more or less prone to certain health conditions.
“We’re looking for ways to integrate both the health side and the ancestry/genealogy side (because those) go hand-in-hand,” she said.

The Future of Genetic Genealogy

23andMe cofounder and CEO Anne Wojcicki took a few moments to talk to interviewer Hayley Goldbach at Stanford’s recent <a href="http://bigdata.stanford.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Big Data in Biomedicine</a> conference.
The annual conference, which seems to get a little bigger each year, focuses on a sweet spot for 23andMe, the promise that the vast ocean of digital information can help drive breakthroughs in drug development and the personalization of medicine.
Here’s Anne’s interview. 
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Anne Wojcicki Interview At Big Data Conference

If your eyes are brown, or you can wiggle your ears, or you love black licorice, it’s likely you should be thanking your dad.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-large wp-image-21078" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/06092014_FathersDay_Infographic_large-301x768.jpg" alt="06092014_FathersDay_Infographic_large" width="301" height="768" />
As we near Father’s Day 23andMe wanted to take a look specifically at fathers, and the traits they are likely to have in common with their children.


While we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that a parent’s traits are often seen in his or her child, it’s interesting to learn that the odds a child will get a trait are different depending on which parent has that trait.
We recently wrote about our research that shows that while we get traits from both our fathers and our mothers, certain traits are more strongly associated with your mother.
But in some cases, whether or not a child has a certain kind of trait – brown eyes, for example – is more likely if their father has that trait.


23andMe researcher Emma Pierson calculated the odds of whether a son or daughter shared certain traits with their fathers. To figure that out she looked at 15,000 anonymous mother-father-child “trios” among 23andMe’s customers who consented to research.


Emma discovered that like with mothers, there are certain traits that if a father has them, their child is more likely to also have them, and often the odds differed between sons and daughters. So if a father has brown eyes his son is only six times more likely to also have brown eyes, while his daughter is 10 times more likely. She discovered that if your father is a morning person, his son is 1.9 times more likely to also like getting up early, while his daughter is almost two-and-a-half times as likely to be an early bird.


Why this is has to do with many factors. Some traits are clearly genetic, the color of your eyes, some of your food preferences, for example. Other traits are more complicated and may have more to do with socialization, as well as cultural and environmental influences.


It’s important to note that Emma looked only at biological fathers because of the nature of the data. These “trios” are anonymous and we are only able to show their father-mother-child connection through their genetics.
Obviously parenting is about much more than biology, and, as these traits show while genetics clearly plays a role it only explains some of why some traits are passed to a child and others aren’t.

Thanks Dad

There are few places as far removed from Manhattan than vast tundra and cold forests that make up the land of the Sami, but for Laura, a full-fledged New Yorker, there was no place she felt more connected.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-300x300.jpg" alt="Laura G." class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21064" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G..jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
After venturing into the vast region that covers the artic north of four Scandinavian countries to form the cultural region also known as Sami or Lappland, Laura was hooked.
“The draw to this part of the world became irresistible,” said the writer and media consultant.
<h6>A Connection with Scandanavia</h6>
And it wasn’t just the otherworldly beauty of the place that pulled at her. Laura felt another bond she couldn’t quite explain. That deeper connection became clear only after testing with 23andMe. It’s what ultimately triggered a life-changing decision that also altered how Laura thought of herself.
“Everybody has a tribe and we’re all connected to other people and that’s an unassailable fact of science,” Laura said. “But to have a sense that you belong and are connected is an amazing and profound thing.”
For ten years Laura was a successful media consultant in the media capital of the world, New York City. She lived in Chelsea and was comfortable in the bustle of a city of eight million people. Austere and cold northern European landscapes were not on her radar.
“But I was sent to Sweden on a work trip and I felt this weird connection,” she said.
<h6>A Fascination with the Place</h6>
She remembered visiting a park there that had a reindeer enclosure. She kept coming back, sometimes in the evening just to look at the animals. She didn’t know what it was that fascinated her or why she fell completely in love with the place.
“It was strange,” she said.
At this part of her story, Laura takes a moment to explain that for much of her life she felt she was missing something. Her biological mother had died when Laura was three, and that experience was always with her. Although her dad remarried a caring woman who adopted and raised Laura – the only mother she’s known – Laura always felt a need to know more about her biological mother and where she came from.
“As with many children that lose a parent early, I developed an insatiable appetite for anything related to history, and background,” she said.
<h6>Looking Deeper</h6>
In essence, she wanted to look backward to find out more about her mother and in doing that learn more about herself. Although she went on to become first a journalist and then a writer and media consultant, Laura was always drawn to history. And growing up as the child of a doctor, she was also drawn to science. Then about three years ago she learned about 23andMe and using DNA to explore her own ancestry. For her, it was a perfect mix of cutting-edge science that also gave you insight into your family’s genetic history.
So she got tested.
“That was probably the most important thing that has ever happened to me,” Laura said. “When I took the test I was shocked to discover that I shared DNA with the Sami people of the northern Arctic.”
<h6>The Sami</h6>
That strange connection when she felt, suddenly made sense. Laura started to make more regular visits to the region so she could learn more about the culture and the people.
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sami</a> are the oldest indigenous culture in Northern Europe. Their people live across stretches of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. A reindeer herding culture, the Sami have had a cultural rebirth establishing a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1mi_University_College" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sami University College</a>, to teach the language and maintain the traditions of the people.
Laura made several visits to the region and with each one her affinity with the Sami grew, she said.
“It was shocking to see people who looked like me,” said Laura, who is blond but with almond-shaped eyes, common among the Sami.
<h6>Taking a Leap</h6>
Her visits became more focused on an area in northern Norway around Kautokeino. Then last summer she took an even bigger step, she packed up everything she owned, put her two cats in pet carriers, and moved to the Norwegian Arctic and the heart of Sami reindeer herding country. There she enrolled in Sami University to study the language.
Her visits had been an effort to understand the genetic connection she had with the place, even cataloging her exploration in a blog called “Genetic Nomad.” She wanted to learn as much as she could about the Sami.
“I came to the tundra for a visit, and another visit, and another, and fell in love with the people and culture,” she said.
Even after a harsh winter, the draw of the place hasn’t changed, she said. Her connection to the place and the people has only grown stronger, she said. Laura said she marvels that a simple DNA test could have had such an impact on her life, and she believes it could do the same for others.
“I found my tribe,” Laura said. “I don&#8217;t think I could ever properly express my gratitude or how powerful I believe the ancestry portion of this test can be for humanity or for people who felt they had no history.”

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