From the Ancestry.com Blog: Developed by a team of genetic scientists, bioinformaticists and data scientists, the AncestryDNA test provides users with a personalized genetic ethnicity estimate from 26 global regions and also connects them to a growing network of genetic cousins and their family histories.
The test analyzes a person’s genome at over 700,000
marker locations and provides customers with an easy and affordable way to help
explore their ancestral background and discover their family’s past. AncestryDNA
also cross-references an extensive worldwide database of DNA samples with
documented family histories. This reference collection, acquired by the Sorenson
Molecular Genealogy Foundation, includes samples from more than 100 countries on
six continents, which enables new levels of discovery about people’s family
backgrounds.
The growing database and network effect has enabled AncestryDNA to begin constructing a genetic graph of the US population. To date, the Company has identified more than 15 million cousin relationships across the 400,000 members. This includes 3 million relationships where a distant shared ancestor has been identified.
For example, the grandfather of Senator Henry Clay who ran for President twice and negotiated the treaty of Ghent, is the shared common ancestor of more than 280 AncestryDNA members. This genetic graph is expected to be a unique and valuable resource that will become the cornerstone of future product developments and differentiation for AncestryDNA in the market.
Quotes:
- Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com: ”We’re excited with the growth of AncestryDNA. In less than two years we have built a database of 400,000 customer samples, and with that scale and growing network effect, we’ve created a product that is really valuable to our existing subscribers while also providing new users a fast and easy way to start learning about their family history. AncestryDNA is emerging as an essential part of our core value proposition and an incredibly engaging new way for us to deliver on our mission to help everyone discover, preserve, and share their family history.”
- Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com: “While we’re thrilled with our early success with AncestryDNA, we’re even more excited about how we anticipate advancing and improving this service going forward. We’re at the very beginning of a revolution in personal genomics, and we think that AncestryDNA can become one of the more interesting consumer genomics applications worldwide.”
