The Downfall of 23andMe: Why the DNA Testing Company is Doomed to Fail

23andMe, once a pioneer in the DNA testing industry, is facing an uncertain future. Despite its early success in offering affordable and accessible genetic testing to consumers, there are several reasons why the company is destined for failure. Privacy Concerns: One of the biggest issues surrounding 23andMe is the privacy of genetic data. Customers who

Reconstructing the first Levites

The biblical Levites were a group of people from the tribe of Levi set apart for religious service in ancient Israel. The most famous Levite was Aaron, Moses’s big brother and the first priest. The Levites played an important role in the worship and rituals of the Israelites. Their duties included serving as priests, caring

Unearthing Biblical Ashkenaz, the motherland of Ashkenazic Jewry and Yiddish

For the past 1,000 years or so, the search for the land of Ashkenaz — thought to be the birthplace of Ashkanazic Jews and the Yiddish language — is one of the longest quests in human history. It is perhaps second only in length to the search for Noah’s Ark which began in the 3rd century AD.

How math was recruited to invent the Jewish people

Who is a Jew is a debate that finds its roots in the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah and its conquest by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The Hebrew word ‘Yehudi’ (Jew in English) has been used at least since 539 BCE to refer to the inhabitants of the conquered Kingdom, now called Yehud. ‘Yehud’ contributed

Is this the end of the booming genetic genealogy industry?

I have never hidden my opinions or mellowed my criticism on the genetic genealogy industry, even though I am a part of it. I designed the first dedicated microarray (chip) for genetic genealogy – The GenoChip. The GenoChip was designed for National Geographic’s Genographic Project. I also designed the online tests. National Geographic cashed in

Dating ancient genomes with TPS

Half of the ancient genomes are poorly dated, which limits their usefulness. In other words, scientists spend a lot of time digging, finding skeletons, extracting the DNA from bones, sequencing it, and cleaning it, but in half of the cases … Continue reading →

Why LivingDNA must die?

Living DNA was set up by David Nicholson and Hannah Morden in 2016. The firm is based in Frome, Somerset, UK. They had an average of three employees in the year ending December 2017. Now they have four. Since LivingDNA wants you to think it is a big player it constantly pushes its name to

The Forward is puzzled why 23andMe does not investigate Jewish origins. Here is why.

It is not fair to pick on journalists especially not when genetics is involved. Genetics is a complex subject involving math, statistics, biology, bioinformatics, and, unfortunately, a substantial amount of emotions. Journalists are not scientists, they don’t claim to be scientists, and are not required to be scientists. They probably do not read Ken Weiss’s blog nor

GPS Origins results for four participants

In the previous post I discussed the results of an Ashkenazic Jew produced by GPS Origins. As more and more people take the GPS Origins ancestry test that my lab built (Disclosure: I consult DDC) and make them public, we have a chance to take a glimpse at what these results look like. As with all tools, GPS Origins also worked

The origin of Ashkenazic Jews according to GPSOrigins

Recently, we completed development of GPS2, an extension of the GPS tool (see FAQ here) that predicts the geographic origins of two-ways mixed individuals (e.g., an individual with British and Chinese parents). The genetics company DDC (conflict of interest statement: I consult DDC) incorporated the GPS2 engine into their new website and tool called GPSOrigins (https://gpsorigins.com).