Over the last couple of months, a number of articles have appeared in the media and blogosphere highlighting the issues of data ownership and privacy in relation to direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic ancestry testing.
Today, DNA ancestry testing is big business. Companies now claim to reveal our ancestral origins and ethnic mixture with pinpoint accuracy and at affordable prices. But how do these tests work? And is identity really all in the genes? In this public talk for the 2017 Pint of Science festival in Cambridge, Hannes Schroeder and Sarah Abel explore what genetics can tell us about who we are and where we come from, by taking a look at the science and social uses of DNA ancestry testing.
CitiGen is an international research project that aims to study how modern and ancient genomic data are being used to shape public understandings of the past.
Headquartered at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, CitiGen involves academic partners from Iceland, Ireland, and the UK, as well as non-academic partners from the fields of genetic ancestry testing, family tree research, and public engagement with science.
The project is funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Joint Research Programme “Uses of the Past”.
