The Genographic Project
The Genographic Project was started in April 2005 by the US National Geographic Society and IBM in cooperation with the University of Arizona and Family Tree DNA and is a five-year anthropological study with the aim of mapping the historical migration movements of mankind . For this purpose, DNA samples are to be collected from over 100,000 people on all five continents.
What is unique about this project is that the public can also take part. For US $ 100 (2009 price, plus customs duties and shipping costs), you can have a self-test package delivered all over the world and send a swab of the oral mucosa you have taken to National Geographic. After the analysis, the result is published anonymously in an internet database. One uses genetic markers to the mitochondrial DNA ( HVR1 ) to determine the relationship in the maternal line and on the Y chromosome (12 microsatellite markers and Haplogroups - SNPs ) to determine the relationship in the paternal line. Each participant in the study can thus find out their own genetic origin and the relationship in the maternal and paternal line. By April 2009, had participated in more than 300,000 interested people and on 30 August 2009, the National Geographic Channel showed under the title The Human Family Tree (about the human family tree ) documentation that was created using the far present results.
The $ 40 million project is a privately funded collaboration between National Geographic, IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation . All surpluses from the sale of the self-test packages should go to a fund for cultural protection projects proposed by the indigenous people.
Prominent members are Spencer Wells (project leader, scientist from National Geographic), Himla Soodyall (scientist), Ajay Royyuru (head of bioinformatics, IBM).
Comments and criticism
The Genographic Project is often compared to the failed Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) from the 1990s, which failed after a dispute over how to manage DNA information. The leaders of the new project want to make their information available to the public and promise comprehensive advice to the indigenous people. Some of the leading members of the Genographic project were also members of the HGDP. For example, the Chairman of the Advisory Board, Luigi Cavalli-Sforza , is the geneticist who originally proposed the HGDP.
Shortly after the Genographic project was announced in April 2005, the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism protested the project, its links to the HGDP, and called for a boycott of IBM, Gateway Computers and National Geographic. IPCB Councilor Marla Big Boy , a Lakota tribesman , said, “Our creation stories and languages carry information about our genealogy and ancestors. We don't need genetic tests to know where we come from ”. (Orig .: "Our creation stories and languages carry information about our genealogy and ancestors. We don't need genetic testing to tell us where we come from.")
The discussion of the results and assumptions on the basis of this study is comparable to the criticism and approval of Professor Bryan Sykes , a pioneer in the use of mitochondrial DNA in the analysis of maternal relationships. Sykes documented his scientific work in his book The Seven Daughters of Evas , which, in addition to the provable content, also contains explanations and assumptions in an entertaining and scientifically unprovable form.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Homepage of the Human Genome Diversity Project
- ↑ Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism Statement of April 13, 2005 (English)
Web links
- Official Homepage (English)
- CNN article dated April 14, 2005.