On February 8, 2018, DTC personal genome service 23andMe announced a new Global Genetics Project. 23andMe's goal with the new Global Genetics Project is over the next two years to test over 5000 people whose recent ancestry is from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania covering over 61 qualifying countries.* It's FREE and totally worth sharing with all of your friends.
According to 23andMe, "This work will help 23andMe expand its reference data sets, improve the ability of our scientists to study groups who are currently underrepresented in genetic research and reveal new insights into patterns of human migration and genetic diversity." Read 23andMe's blog release here.
23andMe's Global Genetics Project takes off after the success of its 2016 African Genetics Project, which recruited people whose grandparents were born in certain West African countries connected to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. To this extent, 23andMe has been at the forefront of improving genetic diversity in genetics with such past initiatives as the Roots Into The Future Project and African American Sequencing Project.
Of course 23andMe's Global Genetics Project has rules (see Qualifications below), and one them is you must reside in the United States. Now some of you may wonder why 23andMe did not open the project to people who actually live in the qualifying countries,* but I suspect it is due to federal regulations, grant restrictions and avoidance of foreign government bureaucracy because health testing is involved.
QUALIFICATIONS
In order to join the Global Genetics Project you must:
- be at least 18 years of age
- reside in the U.S. and have U.S. shipping address
- be willing to have your entire genome sequenced for health research
- have all four grandparents born in one of 61 qualifying countries* (listed below)
KING GENOME'S TIP: If you've tested previously at 23andMe and you meet the qualifications then you can still join the Global Genetics Project for FREE (but you won't receive any health results). This is a great opportunity to retest on 23andMe's powerful new v5 chip (see my blog here).
*Qualifying Countries:
Angola
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo (Republic of Congo)
Cote d'Ivoire
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Fiji
Gambia
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Indonesia
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mongolia
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Niger
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Qatar
Samoa
Senegal
Sierra Leone
South Sudan
Swaziland
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Turkmenistan
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
ENROLL NOW IN THE Global Genetics Project.
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