A landmark study in Nature Communications identifies Chlamydia pneumoniae as a major driver of Alzheimer’s pathology.

The Strategy: By persisting in the retina and brain, this common bacteria fuels the production of toxic amyloid plaques. The goal for 2026? Using high-tech retinal imaging to spot the infection early and treat it before the brain is lost. 🧬👁️

What would you do if you came to know from your DNA that you are not just Irish, but connected to Ulster Irish who came in droves to America or came from an African American group in Maryland who left rural areas to put roots in cities or maybe the heir of French who brought the French culture and language to Louisiana. What would you do if you can see the places, people, and migration paths in your family history?

Genetics has been used to understand human migration and history. But, due to the insufficient samples or methods, few of these have thrown light into recent human history over the last several hundred years. With years of hard work and applying the same statistics, Ancestry developed a novel scientific methodology that looks at how particular groups of people are related or connected through their DNA or can get the answers the places ancestors called home, the migration paths they followed to get there enabling genetics to expose the history in the current time-period than ever before.

Today, our work on searching finer grain population structure was issued in Nature Communications, and over 770 thousand genomes exposed the post-colonial population organization of North America. The new research holds knowledge on the powerful combination of family history and genetic data unique to Ancestry to surface a more solid and detailed genetic portrait of how our current ancestors responded to historical forces, like war, politics, famine, immigration, and more.

Allocation of Ancestral birth locations in North America connected with IBD clusters

These points show lineage birth locations that are asymmetrically assigned to each cluster. The birth location with OR>x within mentioned generations yz are plotted, in which the limits x, y, x   are chosen separately per cluster to imagine better the cluster’s historical geographic concentration, proper distribution of ancestral birth locations in America, Europe, and worldwide are given in figures 18.20. For every cluster, points are separately scaled by the number of lineage annotations. You can check figure 2 and table 1 for more details. You need to remember that clusters are divided into two maps only for clarity.

How does Science work?

First, you need to create a network of genetically identified relationships based on DNA alone- amongst over 7,00,000 individuals who gave consent to research. Using Network analysis techniques, We recognized clusters of individuals in the network: a group of individuals who are somewhat more associated with one another than individuals outside their cluster. From genetic data, Ancestry can quickly identify novel population structures in different groups of individuals within a greater population.

Having such a bigger genetic dataset allows Ancestry to uncover these communities or clusters that would not have other ways been possible. We then add circumstances to these clusters of genetic communities to family tree data to know the origins of these groups of people and expose the groups' migration patterns and ancestries. Ancestry exposed the historical explanations for the patterns noted in the genetics. For example, a particular group of individuals matched to descendants of French Canadian immigrants to America and Scandinavian, and Ancestry have identified groups of family of settlers such as the individuals with Ancestry in New Mexico and Appalachians who is veteran cultural and geographic isolation within America. The data also portrayed settlements and movements across north-south and east-west incline within America and notably matches’ known history.

Genealogical data by generation track migration of French Canadians to the America and Origins of Acadians in Atlantic Canada. Map locations are plotted if OR> 10 within the stated range of lineage generations. Points are mounted by the number of lineage annotations, individually for each of the six maps. Note that not all existing political borders are shown.

What does this research mean to me?

The research has exciting consequences for current and capable future customers of Ancestry DNA. Remember that this research identified genetic communities and clusters of individuals and their histories, where their ancestors lived, where they migrated from, their names, and many more. It simply signifies that we can identify the genetic communities that DNA belongs to. Also, we use an individual's DNA to give them a highly detailed historical portrait of the lives of some of their forefathers or ancestors. For example, we can tell someone where their ancestors might have lived and moved throughout their lives and capable historical reasons for those migrations, which happened in the last several hundred years. All this was possible by the contributions of the researchers who have done deep research on their family trees, taken the Ancestry DNA test, and decided to participate in scientific research. Ancestry is excited to share their research or findings with you in a personalized experience in the coming months.

Tips to Feature in Ancestry Commercial

Have you ever excited or get inspired by Ancestry DNA results to travel places or achieve something great? Ancestry is currently searching for the most convincing and unique customer stories to feature in Ancestry commercials. You need to visit the Ancestry page and submit a short video containing your introduction and the exciting discoveries you have made with Ancestry.

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