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The Genographic Project

The Genographic Project, launched in April 2005, is a five-year genetic anthropology study that aims to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.

Overview
Criticism
See also
Notes
External links

Overview

Field researchers at 10 regional centers around the world collect DNA samples from indigenous populations. The company also sells self-testing kits: for US$100 anyone in the world can order a self-testing kit from which a mouth scraping (buccal swab) is obtained, analyzed and the DNA information placed on an Internet accessible database. The genetic markers on mitochondrial DNA (HVR1) and Y-chromosomes (12 markers) are used to trace the customer's distant ancestry, and each customer is provided with their genetic history. As of April 2008, more than 250,000 people have bought a test kit.

The US$40m project is a privately-funded, nonprofit collaboration between the National Geographic Society, IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation. Part of the proceeds from the sale of self-testing kits support the Genographic Project's ongoing DNA collection^[1], but the majority are ploughed into a Legacy Fund to be spent on cultural preservation projects nominated by indigenous communities.

Prominent team members are:

Spencer Wells, project director (National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence)
Jin Li, principal investigator, East Asia
Fabricio Santos, principal investigator, South America
Jaume Bertranpetit, principal investigator, Western and Central Europe
Pierre Zalloua, principal investigator, Middle East and North Africa
Himla Soodyall, principal investigator, Sub-Saharan Africa
Simon Longstaff, advisory board chair (director of the St James Ethics Centre)
Meave Leakey, advisory board member
Merritt Ruhlen, advisory board member
Colin Renfrew, advisory board member
Wade Davis, advisory board member
Ajay Royyuru, head of computational biology, IBM

The Genographic Project is undertaking widespread consultation with indigenous groups from around the world. The Advisory Board includes Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, the geneticist who originally proposed the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP).

Criticism

See also: Archaeology of the Americas, Models of migration to the New World

Shortly after the announcement of the project in April 2005, the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, (IPCB), released a statement protesting about the project, its connections with the HGDP, and called for a boycott of IBM, Gateway Computers, and National Geographic. Around May of 2006, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recommended suspending the project.

As of December 2006 some federally recognized tribes in North America have declined to take part. "What the scientists are trying to prove is that we?re the same as the Pilgrims except we came over several thousand years before,? said Maurice Foxx, chairman of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs and a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag. "Why should we give them that openly?"^[2] However, more than 30,000 indigenous participants from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe had joined the project as at January 2008.