the human genographic programme
28 Apr 2005
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In a privately funded project, Scientists are analysing DNA samples from 200,000 people in an ambitious project to unravel how humans came to inhabit the earth. For more information, visit the National Geographic Website or the Waitt Family Foundation Website
Population geneticists in the USA, Brazil, France, Lebanon, South Africa, United Kingdom, Russia, India, China and Australia will take part. The team expects to show how humanity has expanded since leaving Africa more than 50,000 years ago. One question the team hopes a large sample will answer, for example, is the timing and route taken by the first people to reach Australia and the Americas.
The project follows a similar effort, the publicly funded Human Diversity Genome Project, that foundered in the mid-'90s amid concerns about indigenous people's right to control of their samples and gene patents for use in medical research. The Genographic Project makes its data public and won't patent any genes. This privately funded project side steps the intractable bioethics issues that halted the Human Genome Project. For more info on this aspect, visit Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
"Who does it benefit and if it doesn't benefit the indigenous community, is it ethical to do the research?" asks intellectual-property expert Jane Anderson of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Wells counters that the project has enlisted the support of representatives of various indigenous groups from its start to deal with such concerns. Representatives from indigenous populations of Tanzania and Mongolia, as well as Native Americans, will take part in the launch of the project. The team hopes to highlight such groups' unique cultures, many threatened by increasing urbanization.
People who wish to participate in the Genographic project can buy a kit for $99.95 (plus shipping and handling) from the National Geographic.
Click to see: Questions sought to be Answered by the Project
Director and leading Scientist answer questions
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