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IBM and National Geographic have teamed up for a very cool project, and
you can participate/benefit...the perfect birthday present for the
bio-geek in your life.
Great web site with an interactive map of human migration.
http://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/journey.html
Eric Siegel
Executive VP
Programs and Planning
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
esiegel at nyscience.org
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers are aiming to learn more about how the
Earth was populated by collecting and analyzing genetic samples from
100,000 people around the globe.
The five-year Genographic Project, being announced Wednesday, will use
sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA to figure out the
patterns in which people moved from one part of the world to another.
It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society and IBM.
``We're trying to figure out where we came from. It's a very simple
human question,'' said Spencer Wells, the project's director and a
population geneticist known for groundbreaking work in this field.
Researchers plan to collect blood samples from 10,000 indigenous people
-- those whose ancestors inhabited a land before Europeans or other
outsiders arrived -- at each of 10 sites around the world. Because
indigenous people trace their ancestors back to the same land over
considerable time, their DNA contains ``key genetic markers that have
remained relatively unaltered over hundreds of generations,'' project
scientists said. That makes their genetics reliable indicators of
ancient migratory patterns.
Most of the work that's been done so far has been based on genetic data
from about 10,000 people, Wells said. That has helped establish that
people came from Africa within the last 60,000 years, but little is
known about what migratory routes they followed off that continent or
what happened over the last 10,000 years, he said.
Genetic fingerprints help establish the patterns, enabling scientists
to trace variations in genes to their origins, he said.
For instance, scientists are not sure how the Americas were first
populated, said Ajay Royyuru, the lead scientist for IBM. The first
people may have come from Siberia and eastern Asia, or they may have
been Europeans migrating over a frozen north Atlantic, he said.
``The goal of the project is to learn the journey that our ancestors
traveled and hopefully answer the question of who we are and how we
happened to be where we are,'' he said.
The project is also inviting participation from the general public, for
a fee. People may buy a kit for $99.95 (plus shipping and handling)
that will allow them to scrape the matter from the inside of their
cheeks and send it in. They will receive information about their own
migratory history, and their data will be included in the master
database. Participants will receive updates on the project and other
materials as well.
All information in the master database will be anonymous and
researchers promise to keep individual identities confidential.
Wells said he is not concerned that the database might be skewed with
samples from people who can afford to pay nearly $100 to participate,
saying even nonrandom data will help scientists understand migration
patterns.
Part of the proceeds will help fund the Genographic Legacy Project,
which will support education and cultural preservation efforts among
participating indigenous groups.
Project organizers said the result will include scientific papers,
educational programming and a public database that can serve as a
resource for scientists and researchers.
Blood samples will be collected from indigenous people by researchers
based at 10 sites around the world: Shanghai, China; Moscow; Tamil
Nadu, India; Beirut, Lebanon; Philadelphia; Johannesburg, South Africa;
Paris; Melbourne, Australia; Minas Gerais, Brazil; Cambridge, England.
The $40 million is being funded in part by the Waitt Family Foundation.
Eric Siegel
Executive VP
Programs and Planning
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
esiegel at nyscience dot org
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