The world’s first personalised DNA service that allows users to discover how their worldwide ancestry has evolved over history has been developed by a Frome firm.
Living DNA has worked in close collaboration with some of the world’s top genetic scientists and academics from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford, Bath, Sydney and University College London to develop its new product, which allows anyone to explore their ethnic background across 80 worldwide population groups, including 21 regions of the UK.
The firm, run by husband-and-wife team David Nicholson and Hannah Morden, pictured right, already employs more than 35 people and is now competing against big players in the fast-growing sector such as Ancestry.com and Google-owned 23andme.
Hannah’s father, former London advertising creative director Alan Morden, is also actively involved in the business, leading the overall look and feel of the new company and service.
While global interest in personal ancestry has soared in recent years, fuelled by popular TV shows such as Who Do You Think You Are? according to Living DNA most ancestry tests offer a limited amount of detail, simply telling people if they may have British ancestry and not linking to robust academic research to give the results meaningful context.
According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) and other sources, close to five million people worldwide are now estimated to have taken a DNA ancestry test, and the market is growing rapidly.
science entrepreneur David Nicholson, the firm’s managing director, said: “A Living DNA ancestry test is like a high definition view of someone’s family history, compared to the standard resolution other companies provide.
“By combining the latest DNA testing technology with the most robust academic studies, we can give people an unrivalled picture of their past.”
The ability for people to explore how their extended ‘ancestry family’ has changed over time is a key feature of the new product, according to Mr Nicholson:
“Our understanding of where we come from as individuals depends entirely on how far back in history we look. Our goal is to put people’s past into context in a way that has never been done before, and let people view their ancestry throughout history, to show how everyone in the world is ultimately connected.”
Living DNA has worked with more than 100 world leading experts on genetics to develop its new DNA ancestry test.
Key among them has been Dr Dan Lawson from the University of Bristol, one of the authors of The People of the British Isles Study 2015 – the first fine-scale genetic map of the British Isles. He has been instrumental in helping develop Living DNA’s ground-breaking algorithm which can now match an individual’s DNA to one of 21 regions in the UK for the first time.
Dr Lawson said: “This is a whole new approach to DNA ancestry testing, and it is highly personal. No other method – either in scientific literature or in the field of personal genomics – can identify the ancestry of a single person to the level of regions within the UK.”
A lifetime membership to Living DNA costs £120, including a swab kit, the DNA test itself and access to a personalised, interactive results platform. Test results typically take eight to 12 weeks before they are available, and a bespoke coffee table book of the results costs an additional £39 plus postage and packing.
Membership also includes free lifetime updates to people’s results as new ancestry research and population groups are added to the platform and as science evolves.
Pictured below: The Living DNA team
