<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-15558 size-full" title="encode" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/encode.jpg" alt="" width="574" height="334" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/encode.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/encode-300x175.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px" />
Editor&#8217;s note: The post has been edited from the original to reflect changes in the product.
We’re a little late to the party, but yesterday a consortium of scientists, who are part of a project called The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, or<a href="https://www.genome.gov/10005107"> ENCODE</a>, came out with what some are calling a roadmap of the human genome.
<a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7414/full/489049a.html">It’s a big party.</a>
More than 400 scientists worked on the project, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health over the last five years at a cost of about $130 million. The announcement came with a blizzard of 30 papers in the journals Nature and Genome Research and many more are expected to come.
There has been some great coverage that explains both the background and gives some context, such as a nice piece by Nature writer<a href="https://www.nature.com/news/encode-the-human-encyclopaedia-1.11312"> Brendan Maher’s</a>. Discovery Magazine blogger Ed Yong did a yeoman’s job of the history of ENCODE’s work and what the future may hold. And <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/science/far-from-junk-dna-dark-matter-proves-crucial-to-health.html?_r=2&amp;hp">Gina Kolata’s article</a> in the New York Times includes our favorite quote. It came from Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute, who compared the data to a sort of Google Map of the genome and said it was a stunning resource for researchers.
“My head explodes at the amount of data,” Lander said. 
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PsV_sEDSE2o" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Us too, and the challenge is really giving people a sense of what it all means. Much of the work in genetics has been focused on the areas in our DNA that code for proteins, but this is a very small part – just 1 percent – of our genome. The ENCODE project is an attempt to map the other 99 percent, the uncharted “dark matter” of our genome.
There’s much that’s interesting there it turns out. And the work sheds some light on the importance of what once was labeled “junk DNA.” It turns out, unsurprisingly, that it’s not junk and the data from ENCODE provides evidence that many of those mysterious regions of the genome play important functional roles.
For us at 23andMe the <a href="http://regulomedb.org/">ENCODE data</a> sheds more light on some of the genetic variations (mainly single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs) scientists have associated with health conditions and traits. S
There are many SNPs in the 9p21 region associated with coronary heart disease, and based on the ENCODE data, it appears that this SNP and rs1333047 are the primary functional SNPs. Of the various SNPs in the region, <a href="https://genome.cshlp.org/content/22/9/1748.full">rs10757278 and rs1333047 are likely to affect the binding of transcription factors</a>  – proteins that bind to DNA and regulate the expression of genes. These two SNPs are perfectly correlated in people with European ancestry, and the G version of rs10757278 is associated with higher odds of coronary heart disease in people with European ancestry.
Another example is the SNP rs964184 located near the APOA5 gene, which has also been associated with cholesterol levels. The ENCODE data show that it likely affects binding of transcription factors and results in differences in expression of a &#8220;target&#8221; gene of those transcription factors. The G version of rs964184 is associated with higher odds of coronary heart disease in Europeans.
These examples highlight how this new data can inform the “why” and “how” of genetic associations. Where before scientists often had very little idea which exact SNP was involved and why it was associated with a disease, now we can narrow down the SNPs likely to be responsible and start looking at their biological impact. The ENCODE data show what Kolata describes as at least four million gene switches in our DNA that collectively control how the cells, organs and other tissues in our bodies develop and behave.
Though there’s still much to learn about this newly revealed and incredibly complex genetic circuitry, it’s clear that the data will be a resource for many scientists working in genetics including us here at 23andMe.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

A Map of the Uncharted Genome

Correction: Ouch! We mistakenly listed the wrong answer to the last question in the quiz. It has been corrected. Populations are more similar now than they were 500 years ago due to migration and intermixing. The correction did not change the results for the winner. 

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<h2>Okay students, pencils down!</h2>
Last <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/human-prehistory-101">Friday</a> we posted the first of a three-part series of educational courses in celebration of the Back-to-School season (see above). The entries are now in. You can see how you did by comparing with correct answers below. Also, a special congratulations goes out to  James  Gamble for being selected among all the entries. For the rest of you, you&#8217;ll have more chances to win an Amazon gift card as we post the remaining two quizzes in our series. For those who love learning for the sake of learning, the course is still available <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/human-prehistory-101">here</a>.
Prologue 
Question: When do scientists think the last common ancestor between the human and the chimpanzee lived? 
Correct Answer: 6.5 million years ago 
Despite any suspicions fostered by your last family reunion, scientists think that the last common ancestor between you and the chimp lived 6.5 million years ago.
Part 1: Out of (Eastern) Africa 
Question: The first humans reached Europe and Australia at approximately the same time. 
Correct Answer: True 
Around 45,000 years ago, humans, who had originated in Africa, were venturing into both Europe and Australia. Although the trip to Australia was longer, in some ways it was easier. The traveling to Australia meant coastal beaches and warm weather, whereas traveling to Europe meant harsh terrain and cold climates. Thus, our ancestors migrated along these two paths &#8212; paths of very different lengths &#8212; in approximately the same amount of time.
Part 2: Weathering the Storm 
Question: How much cooler (on average) was it during the ice age? 
Correct Answer: 15 ° F 
During the ice age, the thermometer (had thermometers been invented) would have stayed 15 F lower than it reads today. These cold temperatures meant that mile-thick glaciers covered much of Europe, North America, and Asia.
Part 3: Agriculture Rocks Our World 
Question: Which was not one of the principal food stables of Papua New Guinea? 
Correct Answer: guinea pigs 
Despite their name, guinea pigs were eaten in South America, not Papua New Guinea.
Epilogue 
Question: True or False: Ethnic groups are more distinct from each other than they were 500 years ago? 
Correct Answer: False 
Due to modern travel, more individuals are coming into contact with (and having children with) partners with ancestry different than their own.
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Back-to-School: Human Prehistory 101 Test Results

<div id="attachment_15498" style="width: 230px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15498" class="wp-image-15498 size-full" title="levine-ross" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/levine-ross.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="147" />Dr. Ross Levine</div>
Last year 23andMe launched a<a href="https://www.23andme.com/mpn/"> Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research Initiative</a> to study this group of rare blood cancers. We are now very close to reaching our goal of enrolling 1,000 patients and are encouraged by what we’ve already learned.
We’re also humbled that another star in the field of MPN research,<a href="http://www.mskcc.org/research/lab/ross-levine" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Dr. Ross Levine</a>, has joined our MPN Research Initiative as a research collaborator.
As with our other research communities, reaching a recruitment goal isn’t just about a number: It is about creating patient-powered research that allows participants to leverage their data and make a contribution to hastening discoveries about the causes and treatments for diseases.
We’ve already made some promising findings, including a novel finding that we’ll report in November at the 62nd annual American Society of Human Genetics meeting being held in San Francisco. 
23andMe researchers replicated an association between an inherited variation in the JAK2 gene and rare blood cancers linked to another JAK2 mutation that can appear later in life. To see more go to “Rapid replication of research in MPN” on our research findings page.
Encouraged by the results, 23andMe’s Dr. Kim Barnholt, the project manager of our MPN research community, had a message for all the people who’ve joined us to participate in the research.
“Thank you for your support and help to move this research forward at such an accelerated speed,” Kim said. “We are in the final days of study recruitment so please help spread the word to anyone who might be interested in this free genotyping and research opportunity before the enrollment period ends.”
This week Kim also shared the news about Dr. Levine.
A leading MPN physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Dr. Levine researches the genetic basis of certain types of blood cancers, focusing primarily on the role of genetic variants involved in the development of MPNs and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
As a fellow working with Gary Gilliland at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Levine played a critical role in identifying the  JAK2 V617F and other molecular abnormalities in patients with MPNs. His work in this area facilitated the development of the first FDA-approved drug to treat MPNs. Dr. Levine joins our current panel of MPN experts, including Dr. Jason Gotlib, Dr. James Zehnder, and Dr. Ruben Mesa, in a collaborative effort to guide the research discovery process and future project directions.
Stay tuned for many important research announcements throughout the fall, including updates on surveys, information about new research findings, and opportunities for more ways to get involved. As always, we are grateful for your partnership in this work and look forward to continuing with you on this journey.
&#8211;<a href="http://www.mskcc.org/research/lab/ross-levine/work"> An interview with Dr. Levine</a>

Fighting Rare Blood Cancers

Soon children will be filling their backpacks with new notebooks and pencils and piling into yellow school buses.   Even if your school days are long past, you need not be left behind.
Learning is life-long, and you can continue your education using 23andMe&#8217;s short animated guides to human prehistory.
Distributed on-line both on our website (just the first three videos) and at the <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Khan Academy</a> (all five videos), watching these free educational videos couldn&#8217;t be easier.
To learn a little more about genetics you don&#8217;t even need to get on a bus, just your computer.  It is time to go back-to-school!
To take the 23andMe course in Human Prehistory 101, watch the following five videos below. This is the first of three educational courses we&#8217;ll be posting in honor of the &#8220;Back-to-School&#8221; season.
You can check how well you really were paying attention by trying our &#8220;quiz&#8221; after the videos (and you stand a chance of winning a $25 Amazon Gift Card).   We&#8217;ll be announcing the correct answers and the winner of the contest on Wednesday, September 5th. Upon completion, you can take pride in your new knowledge by printing out a certificate that signifies your new human prehistory expert status!

<table id="movies" border="1" width="603" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="20">
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<td style="padding: 15px;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15085 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Prologue-300x235.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="235" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Prologue-300x235.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Prologue.jpg 542w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></td>
<td style="padding: 15px;">
<h3>Prologue</h3>
Description: 
This <a href="https://youtu.be/Mm-IxK1GrYE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">first video</a> sets the stage. You&#8217;ll learn about our ancestors and evolutionary cousins &#8212; who they were and how they lived.
 Time: 
4 min 41 sec</td>
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<td style="padding: 15px;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-15124 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part11-300x228.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="228" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part11-300x228.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part11.jpg 603w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></td>
<td style="padding: 15px;">
<h3>Part 1: Out of (Eastern) Africa</h3>
Description: 
In this<a href="https://youtu.be/8183HPmA2_I" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> second video</a> learn about the birthplace of humanity &#8212; Africa &#8212; and why non-Africans may be descended from as few as 100 travelers.
 Time: 
5 min 35 sec</td>
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<td style="padding: 15px;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-15092 alignleft" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part2-300x232.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="232" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part2-300x232.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part2.jpg 586w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></td>
<td style="padding: 15px;">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Part 2: Weathering the Storm</h3>
Description: 
Hot weather got your down?   This <a href="https://youtu.be/T9Nw66RCMhg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">third video</a> is sure to cool you off.
 Time: 
3 min 25 sec</td>
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<td style="padding: 15px;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-15093 aligncenter" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part3-300x211.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="211" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part3-300x211.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Part3.jpg 736w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></td>
<td style="padding: 15px;">
<h3>Part 3: Agriculture Rocks Our World</h3>
Description: 
In this <a href="https://youtu.be/IVHD9wGlbho" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fourth video</a> you learn about how agriculture not only changed our diets but also many social aspects of human society.
 Time: 
7 min 00 sec</td>
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<td style="padding: 15px;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-15094 aligncenter" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Epilogue-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="202" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Epilogue-300x202.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Epilogue.jpg 732w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></td>
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<h3>Epilogue</h3>
Description: 
This <a href="https://youtu.be/F-zRXHAo4-U" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">last video</a> tells the story of how humankind is being reunited.
 Time: 
2 min 45 sec</td>
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Update: This quiz is officially over! <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/human-prehistory-101-results">Check out the answers here.</a> 
<div style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 5px; font-style: italic; margin: 15px; width: 550px; float: center;">
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-12163" style="float: left; margin-right: 15px;" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/JRBgdIBXKIeVIdETJrxYIw_ttam_logo.jpg" alt="" width="24" height="40" />You have now completed the entire 23andMe Human Prehistory course, the first in a three-part Back-to-School educational course series! Click on the certificate below get a larger image which you can print out and display it with pride.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-15149 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PreHistoryPostCertificate-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PreHistoryPostCertificate-300x199.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PreHistoryPostCertificate-768x509.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PreHistoryPostCertificate.jpg 852w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Want to continue your education? You can learn about <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">your self from both a health and ancestry perspective </a> on 23andMe. Not yet a customer? Visit our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store/cart/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">store</a>.
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Back-to-School: Human Prehistory 101

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-15370" title="Classroom Hands picture" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Classroom-Hands-picture-300x211.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="211" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Classroom-Hands-picture-300x211.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Classroom-Hands-picture.jpg 413w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Editor&#8217;s note: This post has been edited from the original to reflect changes in our product.
If you want to stir up trouble, start talking about genetics&#8217; role in intelligence.
First, there’s the question of what you’re talking about: Is intelligence measured through mathematical skills, problem-solving, perceiving emotions, or a raw score from an I.Q. test?
<h2>Complex Traits</h2>
Not to be glib, but understanding intelligence – how to measure, define, and figure out what can influence it – takes some brainpower. It’s complicated. Innumerable factors influence intelligence – a layered mix of biology and environment. Access to education, your economic well-being, and even the prevalence of parasites in your community impact IQ scores.
That said, there’s good evidence that some differences in measurable intelligence, such as your IQ score, can be chalked up to genetics. While IQ tests don’t consider essential life skills – things like your powers of persuasion or your ability to build consensus and feel empathy – the tests are valuable nonetheless. At the very least, your IQ score is a pretty good predictor for how well you’ll do in school.
<h2>IQ Score Not Always the Right Measure</h2>
As Richard Haier of the University of California at Irvine said to Carl Zimmer in a Scientific American article, IQ score doesn’t tell you everything about how smart someone is.
But it’s like many other measurements that can be useful in the right context.
“When you see your doctor, what’s the first thing that happens? Somebody takes your blood pressure and temperature,” Haier said. “So you get two numbers. No one would say blood pressure and temperature summarize everything about your health, but they are key numbers.”
So, as we begin a series of “Back to School” posts, we’re going to take a moment to look at the genetics surrounding this one measure of intelligence. By the way, there will be a test—actually, three of them—in this series of posts.
<h2>Genetic Factors</h2>
As for measures of intelligence, recent studies estimate that in early childhood about 25-to-40 percent of individual variation in measurable intelligence can be attributed to genetics. In adults, this number increases to about 80 percent.
A study of Dutch families found that the SNP is associated with &#8220;performance IQ&#8221; (i.e., nonverbal IQ). Each A at increased subjects&#8217; performance IQ by an average of three points compared to those with no copies. The authors estimated that this accounts for 3.4% of the variation in performance IQ between people.
While the association between differences in IQ scores is significant, its overall effect is minimal, a difference of just three points on average.
It’s also important to note that no single gene has an inordinate impact on IQ scores. Instead, hundreds of genes impact intelligence with a cumulative impact on IQ scores. In a recent study, researchers <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22504419" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> another variant, this one in the HMGA2 gene, that also has a small effect on IQ scores.
Although the HMGA2 gene has been associated with height, it also influences the size of the brain. Researchers also found that the C version of was also associated with a very slight increase in IQ. We wrote about this in the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/head-size" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blog in April. </a>

Back to School Smarts and Genetics

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-15055" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/autisticSign-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/autisticSign-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/autisticSign.jpg 283w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Autism spectrum disorders include everything from the relatively mild Asperger syndrome (characterized by more mild social and language impairments) to full-fledged autism (characterized by severe social and communicative handicaps, limited interests, and repetitive behaviors).
<h2>The Genetics of Autism</h2>
Austism is relatively common, and in the United States it is estimated that one out of every 54 boys is affected (the frequency in girls is considerably lower, averaging one affected girl out of every 252).
Although genetics certainly plays a role in these conditions, exactly how is not fully understood, and this newest  <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22843504" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a>, led by Richard Anney (Trinity College of Dublin) and Bernie Devlin (University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine), is the next a long line of scientific inquiries to this point.
Their study, known as the Autism Genome Project (AGP), was conducted in two stages. The first stage of consisted of a genome-wide association study using genetic data from 1400 families affected by autism; the second stage checked the associations discovered in the first stage using the genetic data from an additional 1301 autism-affected families and included another new genome-wide association study which combined the study subjects from both stages.
<h2>A Lack of Common SNPs Associated with Autism</h2>
When all the analyses were said and done, no SNPs (common genetic variations) were significantly associated with austism. Furthermore, when some of the SNPs that had been identified in the first study as possibly associated with autism were tested in the second-stage families, the associations failed to hold up.  This lack of common SNPs associated with autism is both disappointing and enlightening.
Knowledge of what is not true, paradoxically, is knowledge of what is true.  For instance, if I tell you that my pet Tyger is not a dog, you are one step closer to knowing Tyger’s a cat.  Most of science progresses through “not trues” &#8212; the failed hypotheses that bring us closer to real understanding. A perfect example of this mode of scientific progress is this recent genetic study.   Their lack of findings was quite a finding.
The fact that no SNPs were associated with autism in such a large study suggests that the effect of any one common SNP is quite small. Even when all the SNPs were used together to predict whether a study subject would have autism, the model explained less than 1 percent of differences in risk for the condition.
<h2>Heritability</h2>
The fact that these common SNPs have little power to predict autism does not mean that genetics is unimportant.
Twin studies suggest that autism is at least moderately heritable, suggesting that genetics does play a role.  This current study’s lack of findings supports the idea that common genetic variations may play a smaller role than rare mutations or copy number variation (the number of copies of a given gene) in autism risk. Thus, the lack of autism associations today has, hopefully, brought us closer to tomorrow&#8217;s discoveries.

Autism Study Reveals No Genetic Associations

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-15308" title="HighlightedGraph" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HighlightedGraph-300x298.jpg" width="300" height="298" />Click on the image above for the interactive visualization.
Some things just go together – peanut butter and jelly, cheese and crackers, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango_%26_Cash" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tango and Cash</a>. Other things not so much, or, at least, not until you dig into the connections a little deeper.
In health, the connection between two or more <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">health conditions</a> is often intuitive. If you grind your teeth, it stands to reason that you would have pain symptoms around the jaw. It makes sense that a person who has eczema might also have other skin conditions like dandruff or psoriasis.
But the connection between other health conditions isn’t always so obvious. Digging into those connections, finding out if they are real, and, if they are real, why they might be related, can tell us a lot of about disease.
With that in mind, we’ve created a visualization of several dozen self-reported health conditions from more than 38,000 members of CureTogether, which<a href="../news/curetogether-with-23andme/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> 23andMe acquired in early July</a>. CureTogether is a free resource for people to share information about diseases and treatments. This kind of data can be helpful to both members interested in comparing their own health issues with others, and researchers looking for a deeper understanding of illnesses.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-15307" title="smallHighlightedGraphic" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/smallHighlightedGraphic.jpg" width="281" height="185" />
“(It) can give insights into the underlying biology of the conditions,” said Emily Chang, a scientist on 23andMe’s Science Content and Curation Team. “Perhaps there are genetic factors or environmental factors that predispose a person to both conditions.”
One condition might be a symptom of the other, but whatever the connection, exploring why two or more conditions might be related is essential.
“Accurate knowledge of a condition&#8217;s symptoms can aid biological understanding and improve diagnosis,” Emily said.
Daniel Reda, CureTogether’s co-founder and now a 23andMe Senior Product Manager worked with Emily to create the visualization. The two compiled more than 4.4 million points of data to show conditions and symptoms that have a statistically strong connection to each other.
“As we accumulate more data, we can replicate this type of analysis and this should help reveal which of the associations may be spurious and which are probably real,” said Daniel.
What Daniel and Emily have created is a sort of Wheel of Conditions. It shows connections between different conditions, diseases, and symptoms. Selecting a condition will highlight other conditions that are most likely to occur in common.
What you’ll see very quickly is that some of the connections, as we’ve said, just go together. Others, at first blush, may make you scratch your head, but digging a little may help explain the connection.
For example, why would anemia have a connection with infertility?
“(It) makes intuitive sense to me from an evolutionary perspective,” said Daniel. “The body would want to avoid the huge energy investment of pregnancy if the blood has potentially insufficient oxygen-carrying capacity. In ancestral times, vitamin deficiency from food scarcity would have caused anemia, so it would make sense for the body to be able to turn off its reproductive potential until conditions improved.”
The wheel also shows some conditions, fibromyalgia, for instance, are hubs for many others.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-12163" title="small_23andMe_logo" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/JRBgdIBXKIeVIdETJrxYIw_ttam_logo.jpg" width="24" height="40" />
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Emily suggests that in some cases a condition may have a broad range of symptoms – pain, depression or fatigue – accounting for multiple connections.
“A large number of causes, the large number of symptoms and the difficulty in accurately diagnosing the conditions probably all contribute to many connections between these conditions and others on the chart,” she said.
What’s exciting is that this is just a first step. Integrating 23andMe’s genotypic and phenotypic data may be able to reveal a deeper understanding of the causes of these conditions.
“Hopefully, (it will) lead to more insights,” Emily said. “With a larger database we will be able to be more accurate making connections and also will be able to make more connections. Genotypic information can add still more.”
Combining genetic and phenotype data from these two large data promises to bring new understanding to disease.

Crowdsourcing Health Conditions

Three Degrees of 23andMe

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-421 size-full" title="Neanderthal" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/neanderthaler2.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="266" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/neanderthaler2.jpg 400w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/neanderthaler2-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />
Did they really “do it?&#8221;
We’re not talking about actress Kristen Stewart and her “Snow White and the Huntsman” director; We’re talking about Neanderthals and modern humans. 
Without meaning to get all People magazine on you, the question about whether modern humans and Neanderthals hooked up has again become a subject of scientific debate.
The short answer is yes, they had sex. At least, based on the science it certainly appears there was indeed “interbreeding” between modern humans and Neanderthals. 
But a counter argument published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/08/14/1200567109">PNAS</a>, asserts that the shared DNA found in both modern humans and our Neanderthal cousins may have come from common African ancestors. Since the paper’s publication there has been a lot of coverage in the<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/14/study-doubt-human-neanderthal-interbreeding"> popular press</a>, as well as<a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/neanderthal-sex-debate-highlights-benefits-of-pre-publication.html"> science-centered publications</a>.
Several researchers have said the model supporting the theory that the shared DNA comes from a common African ancestor is wrong. Beyond that, the science done to support the theory of interbreeding actually took into account the idea that is the cornerstone of their theory and debunked it. 
Or as Discovery magazine blogger Razib Khan observed, “One could say that the appropriate follow up paper to the PNAS contribution was actually published before it.”
23andMe scientist Eric Durand, a computational biologists who helped work on the<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/neandertal/"> first draft of the Neanderthal genome</a> and on analysis of<a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7327/abs/nature09710.html"> the Denisova genome</a>– another of our early human cousins – said much the same thing.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-15111 size-medium" title="Got Neanderthal?" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal-300x206.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="206" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal-300x206.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Got-Neanderthal.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“It is surprising that such a paper got published – and received so much press coverage – as the<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/328/5979/710.full"> initial paper</a> explored such a demographic model of ancient structure and wrote in the main text that it could explain the data,” Eric said. “At this time we simply regarded this model as less parsimonious than the recent admixture model, because the ancient structure model implies that barrier to gene flow consistently separated highly adaptable hominins for hundreds of generations.”
Beyond that paper published in Science two years ago, Eric worked with others from UC Berkeley on a<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22513287"> paper published earlier this yea</a>r, using another statistical approach that also undercuts the theory that a common African cousin explains the shared DNA between modern humans and Neanderthal.
What’s more exciting for Eric is that this more recent paper uses a new methodology to estimate that the interbreeding occurred between 37,000 and 86,000 years ago, or about the time when modern humans began their slow migration from Africa to Europe.
The estimate “actually coincides pretty well with the estimated time of the ‘out-of-Africa’ event,” Eric said.
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