The Genographic Project

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It's possible that this has been posted before, and if it has been, I do apologise.

"The Genographic Project's directors emphasise that the information in the database will be made accessible to scientists studying human migrations."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4435009.stm

The idea is similar to the Human Genome Project.

I look forward to the results. It can shed light on the true origin of populations.

More on the subject:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/g...rticipate.html (on how to participate, it's relatively cheap, but I would want more info. It would be useful to know the amount of STR markers in their test)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/em...ncerWells.html
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives/news/genographic.shtml
(see Participation and Awareness Campaign)

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The kit includes the following
elements: • Buccal swab kit
• Multimedia DVD
• Exclusive National Geographic
Genographic Map
• "Quick Start" card
• Genographic Project Brochure
• Self-addressed envelope
• Confidential Genographic Project
ID Number (GPID)

The purchase price also includes the cost of the testing and analysis. International participants please see note below.

Public participation, including yours, is critical to the Genographic Project's success. Here's how you can get involved:

Purchasing a Public Participation Kit will fund important research around the world—and open the door to the ancient past of your own genetic background.

With a simple and painless cheek swab you can sample your own DNA. You'll submit the sample through our secure, private, and completely anonymous system, then log on to the project Web site to track your personal results online.

This is not a genealogy test and you won't learn about your great grandparents. You will learn, however, of your deep ancestry, the ancient genetic journeys and physical travels of your distant relatives.

To insure total anonymity you will be identified at all times only by your kit number, not by your name. There is no record, no database that links test results with the names of their contributors. If you lose the kit number there will be no way to access your genetic results.

As your own genetic ancestry is revealed you'll also see worldwide samples map humankind's shared genetic background around the world and through the ages.

If you'd like to contribute your own results to the project's global database you'll be asked to answer a dozen "phenotyping" questions that will help place your DNA in cultural context.

This process is optional and completely anonymous, but it's also important. Each of us has a part in the ancient story of humankind's genetic journey. Together we can tell the whole story before it's too late.

Order a Kit
The Participation Kit costs U.S. $99.95 (plus shipping and handling and tax if applicable). The kit includes:

1. DVD with a Genographic Project overview hosted by Dr. Spencer Wells, visual instructions on how to collect a DNA sample using a cheek scraper, and a bonus feature program: the National Geographic Channel/PBS production The Journey of Man. 2. Exclusive National Geographic map illustrating human migratory history and created especially for the launch of the Genographic Project. 3. Buccal swab kit, instructions, and a self-addressed envelope in which to return your cheek swab sample. 4. Detailed brochure about the Genographic Project, featuring stunning National Geographic photography 7. Confidential Genographic Project ID # (GPID) to anonymously access your results at this Web site

The purchase price also includes the cost of the testing and analysis—an expensive process—that will take place once your sample is sent in.

Return Your Kit
Once you have completed the cheek scraping process, you will secure the scrapers inside the transport tubes, sign the informed consent form and mail the tubes and form off to the lab.

That's it! In about 4 to 6 weeks—the time necessary for the laboratory to correctly analyze your DNA—your results will be ready. In the meantime, visit the Web site to see where your sample is in the analysis process.

Get Your Results
Samples will be analyzed for genetic "markers" found in mitochondrial DNA and on the Y chromosome. We will be performing two tests for the public participants:

Males: Y-DNA test. This test allows you to identify your deep ancestral geographic origins on your direct paternal line.

Females: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This tests the mtDNA of females to identify the ancestral migratory origins of your direct maternal line.



To be clear—these tests are not conventional genealogy. Your results will not provide names for your personal family tree or tell you where your great grandparents lived. Rather, they will indicate the maternal or paternal genetic markers your deep ancestors passed on to you and the story that goes with those markers.

Once your results are posted, you will be able to learn something about that story and the journey of your ancestors. The genetic profile you receive is more than a static set of data. It is like an ongoing subscription to your genetic history. Your profile might become more detailed as the Genographic Project amasses more data from around the world, so be sure to return to the Genographic Project Web site for project updates.

Public participation is critical to the Project's success. By purchasing a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit, you will not only contribute to the impact of this great endeavor, but you may discover something about your own genetic past as well.

A Note on Privacy
To ensure the privacy of participants, we have built an anonymous analysis process. Your Participation Kit will be mailed with a randomly-generated, non-sequential Genographic Participant ID number (GPID). Although we will have mailed a Participation Kit to your address, we do not know the random code included in the Kit. When you send in your DNA sample with your consent form, they will only be identified by your GPID. Therefore, your cheek cells will be analyzed completely anonymously.

In order to access your test results, you will need to access the Genographic Project Web site and enter your GPID, so it is very important that you do not lose your GPID. See the Genographic Project Terms and Conditions for more information. Also, be sure to visit our FAQs.

For International Participants (outside the United States and Canada)
Public participation may be restricted in some countries where the export of genetic material requires government approval. China is one country that has such restrictions in place. The Genographic Project will work with the relevant authorities to achieve the broadest level of public participation possible.

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/g...rticipate.html

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By collecting blood samples from thousands of men living in isolated tribes around the world and analyzing their DNA, 34-year-old geneticist Spencer Wells and his colleagues discovered that all humans alive today can be traced back to a small tribe of hunter-gatherers who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago.
Following this genetic trail, Wells has charted the ancient journey of our ancestors as they populated the planet, continent by continent. The story is told in the 2002 National Geographic documentary The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey and the book of the same name.


Growing up in Texas, Wells was captivated by history and science, dual interests fueled by viewing the treasures of King Tutankhamun's tomb and watching James Burke's acclaimed 1979 PBS science and technology documentary Connections. Hanging out with his mother in the lab as she pursued a Ph.D. in biology also helped awaken his interest in using hard science to study the past. A child prodigy, Wells entered the University of Texas, Austin, at 16. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1988 with a degree in biology. In 1989 he was accepted to pursue a doctorate in biology under evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin at Harvard University.

At Harvard, Wells became obsessed with the question of whether the story of human origins and migration could be discovered by analyzing tiny changes in DNA. After receiving his doctorate in 1994, he headed to Stanford University in California.

Working with population geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza at Stanford, Wells learned to decipher human history by reading the "documents" encoded in the DNA of living humans. Combining his research with that of archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, paleoclimatologists, and linguists, he began to get a sense of how modern humans came to populate the planet. In 1998 Wells left Stanford to collect blood samples from isolated tribes in the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia for DNA analysis.

Wells later worked at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University in England, then as a research director of a biotechnology company in Massachusetts, and finally as an unusual mixture of scientist, writer, and filmmaker. Throughout these pursuits, Wells pieced together the story of The Journey of Man.


http://www.nationalgeographic.com/em...ncerWells.html

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Global Gene Project to Trace Humanity's Migrations

Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News

April 13, 2005
New DNA studies suggest that all humans descended from a single African ancestor who lived some 60,000 years ago. To uncover the paths that lead from him to every living human, the National Geographic Society today launched the Genographic Project at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The project is a five-year endeavor undertaken as a partnership between IBM and National Geographic. It will combine population genetics and molecular biology to trace the migration of humans from the time we first left Africa, 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, to the places where we live today.

Ten research centers around the world will receive funding from the Waitt Family Foundation to collect and analyze blood samples from indigenous populations (such as aboriginal groups), many in remote areas. The Genographic Project hopes to collect more than a hundred thousand DNA samples to create the largest gene bank in the world. Members of the public are also being invited to participate.

"Our DNA tells a fascinating story of the human journey: how we are all related and how our ancestors got to where we are today," said American geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells, the project leader. "This project will show us some of the routes early humans followed to populate the globe and paint a picture of the genetic tapestry that connects us all."

Wells, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, feels a certain sense of urgency. Wars, environmental disasters, and increasing globalization are causing more people to move, and the world is gradually becoming less culturally and genetically diverse.

"We need to take a genetic snapshot of who we are as a species before the geographic and cultural context are lost in the melting pot," Wells said. He cites language as a measure of the disappearance of cultures. "There are around 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, and by the end of the century, between half and 90 percent of those are going to be gone."

IBM, as the technology partner of the project, will participate in collecting the data, storing it, and analyzing it.

"We have some indications, from prior studies about the migration of people, how the diversity and similarity that we see in peoples of the world might have happened in the last 50,000 to 10,000 years," said Ajay Royyuru, a senior manager of IBM's Computational Biology Center. "But what is missing is the detail, the ability for everyone on the planet to be able to see, understand, exactly how they got to be where they are."

Tracking Genetic Markers

Each human parent contributes half of a child's DNA, which combines with the other parent's DNA to form a new genetic combination. This so-called recombination gives each of us a unique set of attributes: hair, eye, and skin color; athleticism or lack thereof; susceptibility to certain diseases; and so on.

However, the chunk of DNA known as the y chromosome, which only males possess, is passed from father to son without recombining. The y chromosome, therefore, remains basically unchanged through generations, except for random mutations. Similarly, women pass mitochondrial DNA, which also does not recombine, on to both their sons and daughters.

Random mutations to DNA, which happen naturally and are usually harmless, are called markers. Once a marker has been identified, geneticists can go back in time and trace it to the point at which it first occurred. This way, they are able to determine when and where a new lineage began.

If they can be traced to a particular region, these lineages can be used to track prehistoric migration patterns. However, indigenous identities are being lost as more and more people move from their ancestral villages.

"And when they do [leave], their kids [absorb] the dominant culture in that [new] city and lose touch with the old ways," Wells said. "So what we lose is the context in which their genetic diversity arose. The genes are still going to be there, but without the geographical context, we can't infer anything historical from the genetic data."

Battur Tumer, a descendant of Genghis Khan and one of the participants at the project launch today in Washington, D.C., exemplifies the importance of finding indigenous populations in their ancestral lands.

Wells's team collected y chromosome data in a region of Asia once ruled by the 13th-century Mongolian warrior. Their analysis identified a marker that originated about a thousand years ago and was carried by about 8 percent of the men living in the region. The marker was found in only one population outside of Asia—the Hazaras tribe in Pakistan. The Hazaras have a long oral tradition that says they're Khan's direct descendants.

Tying the marker to a geographic location and looking at the region's history—Genghis Khan's armies often raped the women of vanquished villages, and his descendants later expanded the empire—suggests that today roughly 16 million men carry a genetic mutation that probably originated with Khan's great-great-grandfather.

The spread of that particular mutation was the result of a cultural artifact—military success combined with a culture in which men could have many wives and concubines—but it exemplifies much of the impetus of the Genographic Project.

"The shared marker was identified because a focused effort was made to sample specific populations, going after populations like the Hazara, who have this oral history and want to test it to see if it's true," Wells said.

"In addition, the people in the region had lived there for centuries, and enough samples were collected to do an analysis. The indigenous groups participated because the wanted their stories told."

Public Participation

The Genographic Project is designed to tell everyone's story, though, not just the stories of indigenous cultures. What is unique about this project is the extent to which it relies on public participation.

"Most research happens through the hands of researchers, and the public at large gets to hear about it and learn about it on occasion, but there isn't a way for them to participate. This project is actually inviting individuals all over the world to be sort of associate researchers," Royyuru said. "Success is actually going to be determined by how many and how diverse the people are that participate, which is a fascinating thing."

The DNA data being collected places a person in a "haplogroup"—a lineage or branch on the human family tree that is defined by a set of genetic markers. Haplogroup R, for instance, is identified by a y chromosome mutation known as M173. Roughly 70 percent of English men have this lineage, 95 percent of Spanish men, and 95 percent of Irish men.

"The reason a lot of western Europeans have it is because it defines an expansion in the end of the last ice age as people moved north out of Iberia [ancient Spain]," Wells said. "The cool thing is that the penultimate marker—if you go back one step from M173—is M45, which arose in Central Asia, so it tells you about this journey your ancestors took through the steppes of Central Asia hunting mammoths and so on. Before that they were down in the Middle East."

The Middle Eastern marker, M89, represents a wave of migration out of Africa that occurred around 45,000 years ago. The Haplogroup R lineage ultimately traces all the way back to marker M168.

"Every non-African has M168, which appeared in eastern Africa around 60,000 years ago," Wells said.

"Some geographies have been better studied than others," Royyuru said. "In Europe we have a much better understanding of the genotypic diversity that exists and how that population happens to be so diverse—who came from where at what point in time. That is not the case with a large majority of Asia and Africa. There is certainly some understanding of the possible waves of migration and the routes that people might have traveled to populate North and South America, but even those are not definitive."

Should you want to get an idea of your own origins, National Geographic is selling kits that allow an individual to take a cheek swab, send it to a laboratory in Arizona, and then track the information on the Genographic Project Web site.

The kits will sell for U.S. $99.95 plus shipping and handling. The net proceeds from sales of the kits will fund additional research and the Legacy Project, which will aid indigenous cultures.

Legacy and Controversy

"The three main pillars of the project are field research, public participation and communication, and the Legacy Project," Wells said. "We see this as a collaborative effort with the indigenous populations."

The Legacy Project will provide indigenous groups participating in the Genographic Project with direct help through development projects, education, and public-awareness campaigns aimed at preserving traditional cultures.

The idea of creating the world's largest DNA database and collecting blood samples from indigenous groups could raise objections.

Genographic was specifically designed to dispel many of these concerns. The kits are designed so that there's no way to tie a kit's identification number to a specific individual.

Wells emphasizes the public nature of the project.

"We want this to be a very open project. We want to tell the public what it is we're doing, the goals, the methods, and we want to explain the results," Wells said. "We're not doing anything medically relevant, not patenting anything," he added.

"We see this as information that's part of the [common heritage] of our species. It's going to be released into the public domain, and people can go back and reanalyze it and query it and learn about it. We're hoping to create a virtual museum of human history."



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...nographic.html

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The Genographic Project Video



http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/heal...l?g_type=pspot

High bandwidth version
http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/heal...282016105.html

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FTDNA Genographic FAQ