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    How to Open Dna-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses: Applying Your Communications Skills <Br>To Popular Health or Ancestry Issues <Br>In the News
    How to Open Dna-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses: Applying Your Communications Skills <Br>To Popular Health or Ancestry Issues <Br>In the News
    How to Open Dna-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses: Applying Your Communications Skills <Br>To Popular Health or Ancestry Issues <Br>In the News
    Ebook519 pages6 hours

    How to Open Dna-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses: Applying Your Communications Skills
    To Popular Health or Ancestry Issues
    In the News

    By Anne Hart

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Here's how to open your own online DNA-driven genealogy reporting/interpreting service business. You wouldn't do the actual DNA testing. The laboratory you contract with does the testing and sends you reports that you interpret for your clients.

    As a DNA-driven genealogist, you would prepare illustrated and text-driven reports, colorful CDs, brochures, press kits, covers, Web sites, and guides to interpreting the DNA-for-ancestry-based information. You would interpret tests for deep ancestry to your clients.

    What verbal skills and any other preparation would you need to empower consumers with knowledge from reports you receive from your partnering DNA-testing laboratory? Would you also interpret reports from genetics counselors testing for predisposition to diseases? Or emphasize only deep ancestry?

    Would you need a self-taught science background, a genealogy hobby, or only marketing and communications experience? Who does the actual interpreting? How would you contract with DNA laboratories to send reports and other information related to ancestry?

    You may be a genealogist, a personal historian, or a life story videographer thinking of partnering with a DNA-testing laboratory. Your business would be to make complex information easy to understand and interpret in plain language DNA reports from scientists to genealogy clients and surname groups. The DNA tests could be for ancestry and/or nutritional genomics issues.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateApr 2, 2007
    ISBN9781532000683
    How to Open Dna-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses: Applying Your Communications Skills <Br>To Popular Health or Ancestry Issues <Br>In the News
    Author

    Anne Hart

    Popular author, writing educator, creativity enhancement specialist, and journalist, Anne Hart has written 82 published books (22 of them novels) including short stories, plays, and lyrics. She holds a graduate degree and is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and Mensa.

    Read more from Anne Hart

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      How to Open Dna-Driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses - Anne Hart

      Copyright © 2007 by Anne Hart

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

      taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      ASJA Press

      an imprint of iUniverse, Inc.

      iUniverse

      2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

      Lincoln, NE 68512

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility

      for them.

      ISBN: 978-0-595-44278-2

      ISBN: 9781-5-320-0068-3 (ebook)

      Contents

      Introduction

      CHAPTER 1 How to Open Your Own DNA- Driven Genealogy Reporting and Interpreting Company

      CHAPTER 2 DNA Testing for Nutritional Genomics and Ancestry for Genealogists

      CHAPTER 3 Nutritional Genomics for the Consumer

      CHAPTER 4 Consumer Surveillance and Pet Cloning

      CHAPTER 5 Intelligent Nutrition or Smart Foods? Who Makes The Rules in Nutritional Genomics?

      CHAPTER 6 Food Technology, Research, and New Products of Interest to Nutritional Genomics Enthusiasts

      CHAPTER 7 DNA Testing DNA for Ancestry

      CHAPTER 8 Do You Eat for Your Paleolithic Homo Sapien Genes?

      CHAPTER 9 Consumers Can Use Genetic Tests to Identify At-Risk Relatives

      CHAPTER 10 Molecular Revolution Nutritional Genomics, Phenomics, and Archaeogenetics

      CHAPTER 11 How to Open Your Own DNA- Driven Genealogy Reporting Service Business

      CHAPTER 12 Using Your Own DNA Tests Results as Genealogy Tools

      CHAPTER 13 Always Check Facts

      CHAPTER 14 Human Genomic Project

      CHAPTER 15 What We’ve Learned So Far Genomics and Its Impact on Medicine and Society: A 2001 Primer

      CHAPTER 16 After the Human Genome Project (HGP) the Next Steps … Genomics and Its Impact on Medicine and Society: A 2001 Primer

      CHAPTER 17 Societal Concerns Arising from the New Genetics Genomics and Its Impact on Medicine and Society: A 2001 Primer

      CHAPTER 18 Intergenerational Interviewing Techniques

      CHAPTER 19 Working with Genetic Counselors and Genealogists That Research Cancer in Multi-Generations of Family History

      CHAPTER 20 What is the Family Historian’s Role in Genomics?

      CHAPTER 21 Finnish Genes

      APPENDIX A Genome Glossary and Acronyms

      APPENDIX B Name Frequency in the US

      APPENDIX C Ethnic Genealogy Web Sites

      APPENDIX D Bibliography

      APPENDIX E Where to Find Speech Transcripts

      APPENDIX F DNA-Testing Firms

      APPENDIX G Permissions

      Introduction

      Here’s how to open DNA-driven genealogy reporting and interpreting service businesses. This book is meant for genealogists, family historians, personal historians, oral historians, social historians, DNA-driven genealogy and ancestry researchers, surname group administrators and members, and anyone interested in researching the techniques and strategies of opening a home- based, online service business linking DNA-testing laboratories with genealogy research groups and entrepreneurs. Your business would show clients how to interpret their DNA tests for ancestry.

      Use this guidebook as your gateway to further research into what the market requires and requests in the way of interpretation of DNA tests for family history, ancestry—deep or recent, in plain language. Are you interested in opening a business that shows people from all walks of life and all educational backgrounds how to interpret the DNA tests for ancestry and family history that they receive?

      Would you prefer to not discuss genetics and other sciences, but stay firmly in genealogy for ancestry with an emphasis on designing colorful reports in easy-to-understand language for your family history clients or enthusi- asts—but are willing to add DNA testing for ancestry to the reports that go into your time capsules or genealogy services? Are you a personal historian focusing on video recording life story highlights? Do you want to go a step further into DNA-driven genealogy and family history reporting as a service business?

      Are you willing to learn the difference between HLA tissue typing tests done by anthropologists and white blood cell tests done by health care professionals? Are you willing to take your interest in genealogy beyond written records to look at deep or recent ancestry? Are you interested in finding out the new advances in DNA testing for ancestry?

      Or perhaps you’d like to expand your knowledge to reporting findings on nutritional genomics—how your genetic signature reacts to foods, medicines, and your environment? Whatever avenues you choose, DNA-driven genealogy begins where written records stop.

      Do you enjoy documentaries and educational videos where geneticists and archaeologists join hands with genealogists and travel around the world? Do you like the idea of archaeogenetics joining family history?

      If you wondered how to interpret DNA tests for ancestry and family history, you’ll find that opening a reporting service to interpret DNA tests to the public is another way of expanding the reach of personal history journalism and videography as a documentarian or reporter. Would you like to report in plain language how and what the human genome shows about your deep past before written records or your recent ancestry?

      Or perhaps you’d like to write reports for DNA—driven genealogy clients on how their genetic signature reacts to food, medicine, or city air? DNA- driven genealogy gives you the opportunity to interpret DNA tests that also point to possibilities where your genes have been geographically in the deep past and the present.

      E-Letter from Bryan Sykes:

      From: Bryan Sykes

      To: Anne Hart

      Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 4:28 PM

      Subject: Re: Thank you for starting us to search for English ancestors

      Dear Anne

      Well I suppose that’s what academics are for. I’m so thrilled that my research has led to something useful. It certainly didn’t seem so at the time.

      On a serious vein, what has happened in ‘genetic genealogy’ is extremely unusual. Blue sky scientific research has opened up a field which is now being championed by yourself and others. The research that counts is now being done by enthusiastic practitioners—mainly unpaid. It is the return of the long forgotten 19th century paragon—the amateur scientist. I feel a ponderous and pompous article coming on!

      Best wishes—and a very happy Christmas.

      Bryan

      1

      How to Open Your Own DNA- Driven Genealogy Reporting and Interpreting Company

      Can and should genealogists, social scientists, genetic counselors, and family or personal historians open DNA-driven genealogy reporting and interpreting service businesses? Who should regulate these businesses? Who watches the watchers that try to locate and link deep ancestry or lost relatives?

      You wouldn’t do the actual DNA testing. The laboratory you contract with does the testing and sends you reports that you interpret for your clients.

      As a DNA-driven genealogist, you would prepare illustrated reports and guides to interpreting the DNA-for-ancestry-based information. You would only interpret the tests for deep ancestry to your clients.

      What preparation would you need to empower the general consumer with knowledge about DNA testing for predisposition to diseases or for deep maternal and paternal ancestry when written records are absent?

      Would you need a science background or marketing experience? Who would do the actual interpreting? How would you contract with DNA laboratories to send you the reports and other information related to ancestry?

      You may be a genealogist, historian, or entrepreneur with no science background. That’s okay as long as your laboratory contacts or partners are scientists. The most important contact and contract you would have would be with a DNA testing laboratory. Your business would be to report the interpretations from the scientists in plain language to your genealogy or surname group clients. The DNA tests are for ancestry or genealogy, such as checking surname groups.

      Find out who your competitors contract with as far as testing laboratories. For example, Family Tree DNA at the Web site: http://www.familytreedna.com/faq.html#q1 sends its DNA samples to be tested by the DNA testing laboratories at the University of Arizona.

      Genealogy researcher, Bennett Greenspan, President and CEO of Family Tree DNA founded Family Tree in 1999. Greenspan is an entrepreneur and life-long genealogy enthusiast. He successfully turned his family history and ancestry hobby into a full-time vocation running a DNA testing-for-ancestry company. Together with Max Blankfeld, they founded in 1997 GoCollege.com a website for college-bound students which survived the .COM implosion.

      Max Blankfeld is Greenspan’s Vice President of Operations/Marketing. Before entering the business world, Blankfeld was a journalist. After that, he started and managed several successful ventures in the area of public relations as well as consumer goods both in Brazil and the US. Today, the highly successful Family Tree DNA is America’s first genealogy-driven DNA testing service.

      At the University of Arizona, top DNA research scientists such as geneticist, Mike Hammer, PhD, population geneticist Bruce Walsh, PhD, geneticist Max F. Rothschild, molecular anthropologist, Theodore G. Schurr, and lab manager, Matthew Kaplan along with the rest of the DNA testing team do the testing and analysis.

      So it’s important if you want to open your own DNA for ancestry testing company to contract with a reputable laboratory to do the testing. Find out whether the lab you’re going to be dealing with will answer a client’s questions in case of problems with a test that might require re-testing. Clients will come to you to answer questions rather than go to the busy laboratory. Most laboratories are either part of a university, a medical school, or are independent DNA testing laboratories run by scientists and their technicians and technologists.

      Your business will deal with genealogy buffs testing their DNA for ancestry related to surnames. Decide whether you will contract with a laboratory that specializes in testing DNA only for deep or recent ancestry, or whether you will contract with a laboratory that specializes in testing specific genetic markers primarily for predisposition to disease, or risk from diet and lifestyle. One purpose of nutritional genomics testing is to tailor special diets, medicines, anesthetics, foods, or skin care products to someone’s genetic signature.

      For example, laboratories test certain genetic markers to see how fast your body metabolizes medicine or anesthetics. As a reporting service, you’d work closely with genetics counselors if you specialize in reporting and interpreting genetics tests for predisposition or risk or for nutritional genomics testing.

      If you have no science background or read DNA-driven genealogy publications as a hobby and want to emphasize marketing communications within the field of DNA-driven genealogy, your reporting service would specialize in interpreting DNA tests for ancestry instead of genetic tests for nutritional genomics purposes. Your goal would be to deliver test results to clients that interpret the test results in plain language for the general public.

      Clients would come from genealogy and family history-related surname groups and various genealogy associations or would be individual clients interested in finding out how many people have similar DNA sequences to themselves, which could show a deep, ancient common ancestry, perhaps in certain geographic areas. If you’re an entrepreneur in marketing communications emphasizing genealogy/family history/personal history, you decide whether you want to focus on DNA-driven genealogy test interpretation reporting (in plain language) or nutritional genomics reporting to your clients.

      Many independent laboratories do test genes for the purpose of tailoring diets to genes. The new field is called nutrigenomics. Check out the various Web sites devoted to nutrigenomics if you’re interested in this type of DNA testing business. For example, there is Alpha-Genetics at http://www.Alpha-Genics.com.

      According to Dr. Fredric D. Abramson, PhD, S.M., President and CEO of AlphaGenics, Inc., The key to using diet to manage genes and health lies in managing gene expression (which we call the Expressitype). Knowing your genotype merely tells you a starting point. Genotype is like knowing where the entrance ramps to an interstate can be found. They are important to know, but tell you absolutely nothing about what direction to travel or how the journey will go. That is why Expressitype must be the focus. You can contact AlphaGenics, Inc. at: http://www.Alpha-Genics.com or write to: Maryland Technology Incubator, 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850.

      Why open any kind of a genealogy-related DNA test reporting business? It’s because the entrepreneur is at the forefront of a revolution in our concept of ancestry, diet, and medicines. Genes are tested to reveal how your body metabolizes medicine as well as food, and genes are tested for ancient ancestry or recent relationships such as paternity. Genes are tested for courtroom evidence.

      Each of us is a unique organism, and for the first time in human history, genetic research is confirming that one diet is not optimum for everyone, says Abramson. Because your genes differ from someone else’s, you process food and supplements in a unique way. Your ancestry is unique also.

      For genealogists seeking to expand into putting the ‘genes’ in genealogy, clients would receive a report on only surnames and ancestry connections. You would be the middle person who interprets the DNA-driven genealogy reports. This means explaining how the surname is related or not related to the maternal and/or paternal sequences. For a woman, it’s the mtDNA that’s tested. You’re testing the maternal lineages. It’s ancient and goes back thousands of years. For the man, you can have a lab test the Y-chromosome, the paternal lineages and the mtDNA, the maternal lineages.

      What you supply your clients with is a printout report and explanation of the individual’s sequences and mtDNA group called the haplogroup and/or the Y-chromosome ancestral genetic markers. For a male, you can test the Y- chromosome and provide those markers, usually 25 markers and the mtDNA. For a woman, you can only test the mtDNA, the maternal line for ‘haplo- group’ letter and what is called the HVS-1 and HVS-2 sequences. The Lab testing DNA and matching them to surnames will define these terms that also are found genetic terminology glossary, free online at The Human Genome Project at: http://www.genome.gov/glossary.cfm.

      MtDNA haplogroups show sequences of the maternal lineages back thousands of years. Y chromosome haplogroups and haplotypes show the paternal sequences of ancestors who lived thousands of years ago in specific geographic areas. To get started, look at the Web sites and databases of all the companies that test for ancestry using DNA.

      What most of the DNA testing entrepreneurs have in common is that they can do business online. People order the DNA testing kit online. The companies send out a DNA testing kit. The client sends back DNA to a lab to be tested. The process does not involve any blood drawing to test for ancestry. Then the company sends a report directly to the customer about what the DNA test revealed solely in regard to ancient ancestry—maternal or paternal lines.

      Reports include the possible geographic location where the DNA sequences originated. Customers usually want to see the name of an actual town, even though towns didn’t exist 10,000 years ago when the sequences might have arisen. The whole genome is not tested, only the few ancestral markers, usually 500 base pairs of genes. Testing DNA for ancestry does not have anything to do with testing genes for health risks because only certain genes are tested—genes related to ancestry. And all the testing is done at a laboratory, not at your online business.

      To get started, contact genealogists and genealogy online and print publications. You’d focus on specific ethnic groups as a niche market. The major groups interested in ancestry using DNA testing include Northern European, Ashkenazi, Italian, Greek, Armenian, Eastern European, African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern.

      Many successful entrepreneurs in the DNA testing for ancestry businesses started with a hobby of looking up family history records—genealogy. So if you’re a history buff, or if your hobby is family history research, oral history, archaeology, or genealogy, you now can turn to DNA testing.

      What you actually sell to customers are DNA test kits and DNA test reports. To promote your business, offer free access to your Web site database with all your clients listed by important DNA sequences. Keep names private and use only assigned numbers or letters to protect the privacy of your clients. Never give private and confidential genetic test information to insurance companies or employers. Clients who want to have their DNA tested for ancestry do not want their names and DNA stored to fall into the wrong hands. So honor privacy requests. Some people will actually ask you to store DNA for future generations.

      If you want to include this service, offer a time capsule. For your clients, you would create a time capsule, which is like a secure scrap book on acid-free paper and on technology that can be transferred in the future when technology changes. Don’t store anything on materials that can’t be transferred from one technology to another. For example, have reports on acid-free paper.

      You can include a CD or DVD also, but make sure that in the future when the CD players aren’t around any longer, the well-preserved report, perhaps laminated or on vellum or other acid-free materials that don’t crumble with age can be put into the time capsule. You can include a scrap book with family photos and video on a CD if you wish, or simply offer the DNA test report and comments explaining to the customer what the DNA shows.

      Use plain language and no technical terms unless you define them on the same page. Your goal is to help people find other people who match DNA sequences and to use this knowledge to send your customers reports. If no matches can be found, then supply your clients with a thorough report. Keep out any confusing jargon. Show with illustrations how your customer’s DNA was tested. In plain language tell them what was done.

      Your report will show the results, and tell simply what the results mean. You can offer clients a list of how many people in what countries have their same DNA sequences. Include the present day city or town and the geographic location using longitude and latitude.

      You’re going to ask, with no science background yourself, how will you know what to put in the report? That’s the second step. You contact a university laboratory that does DNA testing for outside companies. They will generate all the reports for you.

      What you do with the report is to make sure the language is easy to understand by non-scientists and promote it by making it look visually appealing. Define any words you think the customer won’t understand with simpler words that fully explain what the DNA sequences mean and what the various letters and numbers mean. Any dictionary of genetic terms will give you the meaning in one sentence using plain language. Use short sentences in your reports and plain language.

      Your new service targets genealogists who help their own customers find lost relatives. Your secondary market is the general public. Most people taking a DNA test for ancestry want information on where their DNA roamed 20,000 years ago and in the last 10,000 years. DNA testing shows people only where their ancient ancestors camped. However, when sequences with other people match exactly, it could point the way to an ancient common ancestor whose descendants went in a straight line from someone with those sequences who lived 10,000 years ago to a common ancestor who lived only a few generations ago.

      Inside, you’d have maps, charts, and locations for the client to look at. Keep the material visual. Include a CD with the DNA sequences if you can. The explanation would show the customer the steps taken to test the DNA.

      Keep that visual with charts and graphs. Don’t use small print fonts or scientific terminology to any extent so your customer won’t feel your report is over his or her head. Instead use illustrations, geographic maps. Put colorful circles on the cities or geographic locations where that person’s DNA is found.

      Put a bright color or arrow on the possible geographic area of origin for those DNA sequences. Nobody can pinpoint an exact town for certain, but scientists know where certain DNA sequences are found and where they might have sat out the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago, and survived to pass those same DNA sequences on to their direct descendants, that customer of yours who has those sequences.

      For example, when I had my mtDNA (maternal lineages) tested, one report from Roots for Real included my DNA matches by geographic coordinates. The geographic center is 48.30N 4.65E, Bar sur Aube, France with a deviation of 669.62 miles as done by Roots for Real, a London company that tests DNA for ancestry. The exact sequences are in the Roots for Real Database (and other mtDNA databases) for my markers. Applications for testing genetic signatures are growing, since this science is still in its infancy in regard to applications of genetic and genomic testing.

      Look at the laboratories listed in Appendix F of this book that test DNA only for ancestry and genealogy, including surname group project DNA and racial percentages testing. Also look at the other DNA-testing companies mentioned in this book that test DNA, genes, and markers for how your individual genetic signature responds to what you put into your body—food, medicines, skin-care products, supplements, or other personalized medicine and nutrigenomics, or pharmacogenetics. Some DNA-testing companies test you for genetic risk so you can plan your lifestyle and what you eat or put into your body.

      What to Expect When You Open a DNA-Driven Genealogy Reporting Business

      If you open a DNA-driven genealogy service business, you will not be contracting with a laboratory to test DNA for disease or genetic risks. In the earliest days of DNA testing, some types of DNA tests for disease used to require a blood sample taken anonymously at a clinic, but for DNA tests for ancestry, you don’t need to use a blood sample. Today, you can take a DNA test at home with a kit sent to you in the mail by just swapping the inside of your mouth (cheek) and sending the swab in a plastic bag or tube and regular padded mailing envelope.

      The Brigham Young University (BYU) study used to have participants give blood (of which HLA typing is possibly involved). Nowadays, they use mouthwash collections. As Ugo A. Perego, MS, Senior Project Administrator, Molecular Genealogy Research Project, BYU emphasizes, We stopped using blood a few years ago. All our collections are now based on a simple 45 seconds rinse using mouthwash.

      DNA for ancestry doesn’t test for disease. You can take another type of DNA test for diseases. You also take a different type of DNA test that examines different genetic markers for tailoring your nutrition or medicines to your genes and metabolic responses to the particular item to which you are testing your reaction.

      The HLA system can provide information or guides to genetic disposition to disease. Given the apprehension about giving a cheek swab to be ‘DNA tested’ for the Y-chromosome, having HLA alleles typed, compared, and possibly posted to the net would discourage most people looking for genetic tests for ancestry only. So HLA testing is used by anthropologists and medical personnel for research in such topics as genetic drift or molecular anthropology.

      If you ever need a tissue donor or have to get your tissue typed for medical reasons, that’s when the HLA genes play a major role in tissue typing. Interestingly, when small communities are isolated for long periods of time, and bottlenecks pare down the population to only a few founders, genetic drift may occur. That’s when the anthropologists and evolutionary biologists look at the HLA genes.

      With some DNA testing companies offering racial percentages tests, Y- chromosome tests, and mtDNA tests, what is being done with mtDNA testing for maternal lineages? How can we trace female relatives or ancestors who leave no written records of their name or existence?

      Will studies of HLA genes be used by others in various fields as research now is used by anthropologists studying genetic drift, scientists studying tissue differentiation, or physicians looking at how white cells fight infection?

      Dr. Peter Reed has a PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Oxford and was a pioneer in the use of STR genetic markers in medical research. He explains here that HLA genes primarily determine how our blood cells recognize and react to other cells present in our bodies. In particular, this makes HLA genes important in how our body responds to ‘foreign bodies.’

      For example, the HLA genes as white blood cells fight infection. When bacteria or viruses enter our bodies, the HLA genes are there to do battle. When organs or tissue are transplanted, HLA genes have to be considered.

      They would attack the foreign tissue placed in the body. When people talk about blood typing or tissue matching, on the whole, they are referring to determining some aspect of the set of HLA genes, says Reed. HLA genes are perhaps the most variable of all human genes. Across the population, some HLA genes have dozens of different forms of genes or ‘alleles.’

      The result is that two randomly chosen people are unlikely to share identical HLA genes. Even within families, there is a good chance that each family member has a different set of HLA genes, says Reed.

      That’s why finding a ‘suitable match’ for a transplant can be difficult.

      It’s also the reason why we all react differently to infections. On the plus side, HLA genes (white blood cells) can deal with all the different infections we get during our lives, usually without being aware of them.

      Apart from the obvious medical importance of a role in responding to infection and transplantation, there is another role. It’s perhaps one of the primary reasons that HLA genes are some of the most intensely studied of all human genes.

      This relates to the role HLA genes play in determining how our blood cells respond to the other cells of the body, says Reed. In certain circumstances, some of a person’s own cells are mistaken as ‘foreign bodies.’ These cells are responded to as if they were an infection. The technical jargon for this is called auto-immunity.

      This can result in disease. This sort of problem is believed to be one of the underlying causes many fairly common diseases, more appropriately termed ‘conditions’. Such conditions include Rheumatoid Arthritis and Juvenile Diabetes, says Reed. A connection between particular types of HLA genes and certain conditions was first recognized more than thirty years ago. Since then many connections between HLA and human conditions have been identified.

      These genes are obviously very important in human health, and are often suspected as being the major genetic causes of numerous conditions. Consequently, there are a number of clinical programs where HLA genes are screened (particularly in children) to research and even determine the risk of later disease.

      One aspect of the high variability of HLA genes, is that certain types (alleles) of certain HLA genes have been found to be geographically/ethnically distributed, says Reed. For example, some alleles of some HLA genes may be more frequent in Japan than in England. Therefore there is some possible utility in the use of HLA genes in determining ancestry from different geographical locations. However, because the HLA genes are only a small fraction of all our genes, examining HLA genes alone is not likely to be very informative.

      Because HLA genes, like almost all our other genes, are shuffled and mixed as they are passed on from parents to children, it’s difficult to determine the exact set of HLA genes of even one or two generations previous, Reed says. So they have little utility in determining recent ancestry.

      There could be some utility of HLA for genealogy. This could be so in certain circumstances, Reed explains, but the hurdles mentioned above will need to be overcome. I’m exploring this further.

      To learn more details about how to interpret DNA tests for ancestry, I highly recommend an excellent book by Ann Turner and Megan Smolenyak titled, Trace Your Roots with DNA: Use Your DNA to Complete Your Family Tree.

      According to Turner, This HLA Web site diagrams the inheritance patterns. It says HLA is on gene 6, but it means chromosome 6, reports Turner. You also can learn about linkage disequilibrium at this site. Some genes in the HLA system are close to one another. That makes the alleles, which are a form of a gene, also linked together closely and inherited as one unit, or haplo-type.

      That’s the original context for the word ‘haplotype.’

      2

      DNA Testing for Nutritional Genomics and Ancestry for Genealogists

      What does ancestry have to do with how your genes respond to food or medicine? Certain ethnic groups or ‘races’ respond in different ways to different medicines, dosages, foods, exercise, illnesses, lifestyle changes, and stress. Since most people have a mixture of genes from several races or ethnic groups going back to prehistoric times, only a DNA test of specific genetic markers or genes can reveal what you’re are at risk for regardless of your dominant ethnicity. The genes respond in specific ways to chemicals in the environment and other factors.

      That’s why you can interpret a report, talk it over with your physician, and tailor what you eat, what drugs you take and the dosages for your condition, to what your genetic expression requires to be healthy. It’s looking at you at the cellular level, the molecular level. Most people don’t even know what DNA is or have no science background, so they need an easy to understand consumer’s guide to nutritional genomics and pharmacogenetics. Consumers want to know how their individual, specific genes and possibly their ancestry respond to food—selected foods tailored or prescribed to nourish your individual genetic profile known as your genetic expression. Consumer involvement in nutritional genomics is important as it is in pharmacogenetics. How many products need to be tailored to your genes? Food? Medicines? Cosmetics? What else? Let’s look at the issues.

      Nutritional genomics, often abbreviated as ‘nutrigenomics’ is about increasing that success rate. How will science working together with the consumer tackle the issues confronting us as the population ages? Consumer involvement can democratize the science of nutritional genomics by improving diets for better health. You can ask to work on ethics boards or create your own. How is discovering deep ancestry through DNA testing related to the ways that food affects your health?

      Ancestry and diet are linked by biology, culture, and choices. It’s all about collaborating with your genes. Do you choose your food by habit or biology? Consumers need a guide to DNA testing for nutritional genomics as well as for ancestry and family history. Specific genetic variants interact and relate to nutrition.

      Learn to interpret the expression of your genes before you count your calories. If you’re supposed to eat ‘bright’ for your ‘genotype,’ then you begin by mapping your genetic expression and learning how the raw data applies in a practical way to what you consume. This means genetic testing, interpretation, and application to food.

      Are you having your DNA tested to see how your genetic signature responds to the medicines you take? What’s your genetic response to food, medicine, exercise, or nutraceuticals? If you’re concerned about adverse reactions, are you having your genes screened, particularly CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19—to see what your particular response is to prescription medicines? What about the food you eat? Can you tailor what you eat to your genotype?

      Does Your DNA Have a Core Identity That’s Both Cultural and Biological?

      Not only can you trace your family history and ancestry with molecular genealogy or gene testing. You can create a DNA and genealogy time capsule. What are the relationships between your deep, ancient ancestry, your DNA, migrations, and how you customize what you eat to your genetic signature or how you tailor any medicine or supplements you take to specific genes and markers?

      Are you interested in foods tailored to your genotype and have no science background? Curious about pharmacogenetics—exploring how your doctor tailors your medicine to your genes? Thinking about eating bright for your genotype? What about DNA and Ancestry? Or perhaps you would like to find out the definition of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, or lipidomics? How far can we take familiar genealogy and oral history techniques and link them to

      DNA testing for a variety of reasons from tailoring what you eat to your DNA to customizing what over-the-counter and prescription drugs your physician wants you to take? Before you take anything, ask your physician how your genes will respond to what you put into your body. What DNA and other tests can you take that will be responsible, credible, and appropriate measures for your present or future needs?

      Genetic Testing and Your Doctor’s Response to Questions

      Back in 1995, as a medical journalist completing an independent writing assignment for Internet World magazine on healthcare research online, I felt curtailed by various physicians’ responses to my questions regarding what was then standard synthetic hormone therapy treatment methods for my very slight symptoms of menopause. I was in my early fifties then, and before DNA testing was readily available to consumers, I decided to do my own research to find answers to questions. The commonly prescribed one-size fits all estro-gen-progestin pills I received from my primary care physician at my HMO as I entered menopause was prescribed with the words, If you go off your HRT, it would be like a diabetic going off insulin. I didn’t quite believe those words, but that’s what the doctor said when I asked about when I could go off the HRT. So I took my pills like he said, and within a few months, my cholesterol levels changed for the worse.

      The pills worsened my genetic hypertension. Still, the doctor insisted I not stop taking the HRT. I went to another doctor who changed the routine. Instead of taking an estrogen and a progestin pill each day, he prescribed estrogen some days of the month and progestin other days of the month and warned that, I’d better do something about my hypertension or I’ll have to go on ‘meds.’ And still, I felt worse on the estrogen and progestin the more months that passed. After eleven months, I dumped the HRT and didn’t go back to the HMO. It was time to do some research and become more involved in my own healthcare as a consumer.

      At that time, around 1996, all those Web articles on the dark side of soy didn’t yet come to my attention. The

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