Genographic Project

[Johnserrat]

Genographic Project

Perhaps FTDNA should give customers the option of making their data available to researchers for various worthwhile projects. It could be done on a study-by-study basis. Those who would not wish to have their results used or sample made available for testing could simply not opt in. This could potentially make a wealth of data available to researchers that could otherwise only be obtained at significant cost.

John

[dapike]

I see on the National Geographic website that FamilyTreeDNA will be processing the samples for the Genographic Project. In the FAQ, there's a note that participants will have the opportunity to contact FTDNA for followup testing.

My hunch is that the Genographic Project Y-DNA samples will have the 12-marker test run on them (along with a haplogroup prediction), and that the opportunity for followup testing would involve refinements to 25 or 37 markers.

As yet there's no press release on the FTDNA website about this... I imagine/hope that there will be one soon.

In addition to Timothy's question about whether existing FTDNA customers can elect to have their data included in this new project's database, I would add this question: will participants of the Genographic Project be informed by FTDNA at some stage about surname projects that are underway? I'm thinking that this could be a great way to recruit additional participants to surname-based DNA projects.

- David.

[T E Peterman]

I read with interest at CNN.com that Spencer Wells, with the cooperation of the National Georgraphic Society and IBM, has launched a 5 year study called the Genographic Project.

This is an attempt to get the most comprehensive worldwide database of DNA samples ever developed. This sounds like a good idea.

I wonder if data from existing DNA databases (like that at Family Tree DNA) will be included in this study??

Timothy Peterman