[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #460: DNA for genealogy (and other things, too)

Wed Oct 21 10:30:17 EDT 2015

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OPLIN 4cast #460: DNA for genealogy (and other things, too)
October 21st, 2015

[image: Sepia toned picture of a family from an earlier time] Users of
libraries in Ohio have free access to Ancestry Library Edition, "powered by
Ancestry.com" and paid for in part by OPLIN, so some recent stories about
DNA data collected by Ancestry.com naturally caught our attention. Ancestry
has been actively selling DNA kits
<http://corporate.ancestry.com/press/press-releases/2012/05/ancestry.com-dna-launches/>
to genealogy customers since 2012, "...with the aim of providing exciting
insights into their ethnic backgrounds," and now claims to have DNA data
from over 1 million customers. But it turns out this data has more uses
than just family history research. Who knew genealogy could be so
controversial?

   - How private DNA data led Idaho cops on a wild goose chase and linked
   an innocent man to a 20-year-old murder case
   <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/how-private-dna-data-led-idaho-cops-wild-goose-chase-and-linked-innocent-man-20>
   (EFF Deeplinks blog | Jennifer Lynch) "Ancestry.com offered to disclose
   this information in response to a simple subpoena, but the police got a
   search warrant instead. This is when the case starts to sound like
   something out of the TV show 'CSI.' Ancestry.com linked the crime scene DNA
   to DNA from a man born in 1952. That man didn't fit the age profile of the
   murderer, so the investigators used the genealogical information to trace
   his male descendant line and find his son, Michael Usry Jr., born in 1979.
   Then the cops searched Usry's Facebook page and found he had some Facebook
   friends who lived somewhat near Idaho Falls. And *then* through Google
   searches, the police learned Usry was a filmmaker who had been involved in
   making a few short films that had homicide or killings in the story line."
   - Your relative's DNA could turn you into a suspect
   <http://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/>
   (Wired | Brendan I. Koerner) "California, Colorado, Virginia, and Texas
   have detailed policies regarding how and when familial DNA searches can
   take place; Maryland and the District of Columbia explicitly forbid the
   technique. Elsewhere in the nation, cops are largely free to search as they
   see fit, which is why Idaho Falls police decided it was OK to sift through
   an Ancestry database of genetic data from thousands of people with no
   criminal records. Familial DNA searching is only going to get more
   prevalent as the cost of rapid DNA analysis plummets and the size of
   genetic databases swells."
   - Ancestry.com is talking to the FDA about using DNA to estimate
   people's risk of disease
   <http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/12/9487685/ancestry-com-dna-test-kit-disease-risk-fda>
   (The Verge | Arielle Duhaime-Ross) "For years, 23andMe sold and advertised
   - quite loudly
   <http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/5/4590314/23andme-first-television-commercial-dna-analysis>
   - a DNA kit that the company claimed could tell people if they were at a
   higher or lower risk of developing a disease. But in 2013, the FDA ordered
   it to halt the sale of its DNA kit
   <http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/25/5143464/fda-orders-23andme-to-stop-selling-dna-test-kit>
   because the genetics company had failed to demonstrate the validity of its
   product. There just wasn't enough data to support 23andMe's medical claims.
   The FDA also faulted the company for failing to provide customers with a
   doctor's support - support that could have helped people avoid treating a
   disease that they might never develop. Because of these issues, the FDA
   concluded that 23andMe was putting people's health at risk. That's the kind
   of controversy that Ancestry now hopes to avoid."
   - The rise of DIY genetic testing
   <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/rise-diy-genetic-testing-180956889/>
   (Smithsonian.com | Emily Matchar) "That route would look something like
   this: I'd order a $99 autosomal DNA test through a site like 23andMe
   <https://www.23andme.com/> or Ancestry.com <http://www.ancestry.com/>,
   which promise to tell you your ethnic heritage, but are currently barred
   by the FDA <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1316367> from
   giving almost any medical analysis. [...] I would then take my raw DNA data
   and upload it to one of several third-party 'interpretation only' web
   services. These web services, a couple of the most prominent being
   Promethease <https://promethease.com/> and LiveWello
   <https://livewello.com/>, interpret your data for you, spitting out
   information in a format a layperson can (in theory, at least) understand.
   This is the outlaw edge of the genetic testing world."

*Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - A new use of 'race': The evidence and ethics of forensic DNA ancestry
   profiling.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=97332944&site=ehost-live>
   (*Journal of Applied Philosophy*, August 2014, p.237-253 | Matthew Kopec)
   - The politics of DNA.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=99831694&site=ehost-live>
   (*Natural History*, Dec.2014/Jan.2015, p.22-27 | Christine Kenneally)
   - Fast individual ancestry inference from DNA sequence data leveraging
   allele frequencies for multiple populations.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=102597404&site=ehost-live>
   (*BMC Bioinformatics*, 2015, p.1-11 | Vikas Bansal and Ondrej Libiger)

------------------------------
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