26 August 2014

Imagine: DNA analysis at a family history conference

Walk into any major family history conference and you'll see a research room with free access to commercial genealogy and newspaper databases. If you're fortunate you'll walk out with new leads on your ancestors. For most of us that was unimaginable 20 years ago.
What you can't do, yet, is walk in, spit in a tube, and walk out with a list of possible relatives based on a DNA analysis. Imagine finding yourself linked to a cousin also at the conference. It's not a question of if, but when that will come.
You likely will not want to read the article Sequencing at sea: challenges and experiences in Ion Torrent PGM sequencing during the 2013 Southern Line Islands Research Expedition but if the capability existed in 2013 to perform real-time DNA sequencing on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean how far down the road can it be to human genome sequencing in a conference environment?


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