Yesterday, my father emailed me a link to the Iranian Genome Project that caught my eye. Ironically, Razib over at Gene Expression also highlighted this project in a recent post. Much like the intentions Harappa & Dodecad ancestry projects, of which I’ve participated in by submitting my 23andme data, the Iranian Genome Project aims to enlighten Iranian heritage and health. As an Iranian American who follows population genetics regularly, I am very keen on intersection of these two topics.
I’ll be following the project, but honestly I don’t have high hopes. I would love to be proven wrong. It seems lofty, using a lot of high yield buzzwords. My first impression was if this nothing more than a CV booster … Especially since it hasn’t been updated since last September. I guess it can’t be completely an empty shell because they have an impressive member on research team, Pardis Sabeti.
You can learn more about this project by checking out their site, watching the following video and following them on Twitter: @irangenes. If you want, you can participate in the project by filling out this survey.
Filed under: Blog, Physical Anthropology Tagged: 23andMe, Biology, DNA, gene expression, Genome project, Iranian Genome Project, pardis sabeti, population genetics
