deCODE You

We have just made some updates to the deCODEme ancestry service. Now you have more power and flexibility when you compare your genome with that of friends or individuals from different populations around the world.

Your genome can be viewed as a mosaic or tapestry made up of fragments of chromosomes from your ancestors. Fragments of chromosomes inherited from very recent ancestors, say grandparents, are expected to be large – typically tens of millions of nucleotides in size. As ancestors become more ancient, then the size of the chromosome fragments inherited from them become smaller – down to a few thousand or hundred nucleotides for ancestors born thousands of years ago.

Our new and improved genome comparison tool enables to you compare your genome with another individual in order to determine which chromosome fragments you share and to see how much of your genome is shared. The fascinating thing about this analysis is that each shared fragment represents a common ancestor. The number of shared fragments and their size reflects the number of common ancestors and how far back in time they are found. In other words, you can see how closely you are related.

Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists at deCODE genetics Genetic Service Facility lab in Iceland

The number of companies offering genetic tests to the public is large and growing. But there are vast and very real differences in the quality, purpose and price of testing services out there. So how do you tell the difference between them? And how do you decide which to use?

Knowing what you want

First and foremost, you need to think about what sort of information you hope to gain from your genome and how accurate you want the results to be. Are you taking the test only for fun, perhaps hoping to talk about your results on Facebook? Read the rest of this entry »