Secrets in our DNA COPY TO CLIPBOARD. NARRATOR: Federal law prohibits most employers from using genetic data to make workplace decisions and prohibits health insurers from using it to change or deny coverage. It’s a place where anyone can search for matches, no matter what company they tested with. CHELSEA RUSTAD: People end up doing it, oftentimes, because, “I just want to learn about my ancestral background.” But then something else pops up that they really were not expecting at all, and that’s exactly what this was for me. SIGRID JOHNSON: She said, “I have three questions to ask you.” I said, “Okay.”, JUNE SMITH: I said, “Were you adopted?” She said, “I was.” I said, “Are you biracial?” She said, “I am.” I said, “Would your birth mother’s name happen to be Ann D’Amico?”, SIGRID JOHNSON: I said, “Yes, she, that was her name, my biological mother.” She said, “Are you Joan Moser?” And then I said, “That was the name on my birth certificate.”. BESSIE LAWTON: And after we receive the results, we bring you together. Major funding for "Secrets in our DNA" is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. GEDmatch shows Chelsea everyone else on the site who shares DNA with her. CHELSEA RUSTAD: It’s really upsetting, very distressing to think about. University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? She’s been shot in the head, and there’s evidence of rape. They look at every single base pair in genes, a process known as “sequencing.”. He worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. JUNE SMITH: Finding my sister gave me a sense of belonging. I really lucked out. In 2018, 23andMe agrees to share anonymized information about millions of its customers with GlaxoSmithKline to use in the development of new drugs. (University of California, San Francisco): I have the BRCA1 gene. You might share the same number with a cousin and a great-uncle, for example. JUNE SMITH (AncestryDNA Customer): I just couldn’t believe it. NARRATOR: But with the D.T.C.s, a relationship to someone can’t always be determined just by counting centimorgans, because the numbers fall within ranges. Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. NARRATOR: Tyquine Golden’s results from FamilyTreeDNA are very close to those he received from Ancestry. It looks at two genes called BRCA, or “braka” genes. And there are even darker secrets that sometimes come to light. I’ve always felt like I was just a general European mutt, and that’s pretty much what the map shows. But certain base pair variations derail the BRCA genes and make some cancers, such as pancreatic, prostate and especially ovarian and breast cancer, more likely. ANITA FOEMAN: Why don’t we all just take a minute and open your results, and take a look at the map for the first time. test. And that’s just not the way that human evolution works. It’s not a good thing if those people think they have been exhaustively tested, because they have not. NICHOLAS PASVANIS (Research Participant): I’m 45 percent Southeastern European, which is about what I expected. NARRATOR: But like a crime scene fingerprint, a crime scene S.T.R. Reviews 1 user. For decades, the profile in this case doesn’t match anyone known to the police. The so-called “Golden State Killer” was suspected of committing at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes during the 1970s and 80s. And he said, “No kind of sisters. We finally got this guy.”. She does have a BRCA2 mutation. It gave me a sense of saying, “Hey, you know, we got the same blood.”. And when I opened the door, they introduced themselves as investigators who are looking into a homicide that was a cold case from 31 years ago. ABOUT THE PROGRAM NOVA. Only a monster could do such things to people. My suspicions might lead me to say, somewhere in slavery, 20 percent might’ve came in and have been integrated with our DNA And that might not have been voluntary. ROBERT GREEN: So, it’s great for those people who were not even thinking they were carrying that mutation to pick it up with direct-to-consumer testing. According to one estimate, some one-million people have discovered from consumer DNA tests that the man who raised them is not their biological father, or that they have a half-sibling they never knew about. NOVA brings you stories from the frontlines of science and engineering, answering the big questions of today and tomorrow, from how our ancestors lived, to whether parallel universes exist, to how technology will transform our lives. But it’s not any of the three variants 23andMe tests for. ELLEN GREYTAK (Parabon NanoLabs): Just because you have an amount of shared DNA doesn’t mean you actually know, for sure, what that person’s relationship is. Police collect his DNA and run an S.T.R. Previous All Episodes (914) Next Add a Plot » Star: Chelsea Rustad. NARRATOR: That’s what Dani Shapiro was shocked to discover. What are … One of its pioneers is a retired patent lawyer named Barbara Rae-Venter. NARRATOR: Dani gives the half-sister’s file to her husband. NARRATOR: But most women who have BRCA variations don’t have any of the three that 23andMe tests for, women like Pamela Munster. Science. NARRATOR: And there are also concerns about how test takers’ data is used. When you’re dealing with such a new technology, I think the full implications can’t possibly be understood by consumers because things are just too new. NARRATOR: On November 18th, 1987, two young Canadians—Jay Cook, 20 years old, and his girlfriend, Tanya van Cuylenborg, 18—leave their hometown, a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, heading to Seattle, to run an errand for Jay’s dad. The amount that is shared is measured in a unit called centimorgans. I was on the phone with my oldest sister. Chelsea Rustad, who works as an I.T. NARRATOR: …and ship the samples off to Houston. And another worry: consumer DNA companies, like any that collect data, are vulnerable to hackers. TV Schedule ABOUT PROGRAM VISIT WEBSITE . Most of those tests look only at selected SNPs and ignore the rest of the genome, where other risks may be lurking, risks that they will inevitably miss. And this is it, a small piece of glass called a SNP chip. And I would go on websites, I would do all kind of people searches looking for Joan Moser. The question they’re asking is, “How does DNA testing affect our understanding of who we are, and also, our ability to understand what makes us different?”. Chelsea’s experience will make headlines, but most DNA test takers just want to know, “What are my roots?” A seemingly simple question that often leads to its own set of mysteries. Some 30 million people have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Skip to Main Content. NARRATOR: But as difficult as determining ancestry may be, the toughest challenge the D.T.C.s are taking on may be assessing our genetic disease risks, because when it comes to the accuracy of those tests, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Scientists look to geoengineering and other methods to cool the planet. JACQUIE HAGGARTY (Privacy Officer, 23andMe): We do not sell data. JESSICA ALGAZI: My gynecologist said, you know, “Jess, you got to do something now. Major funding for "Secrets in our DNA" is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. With a swab or a bit of spit, some 30-million of us have turned over our most personal information, hoping to discover what’s hidden inside us. Barbara agrees to help. From the crime scene DNA, a SNP profile is made, and then uploaded to GEDmatch. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? BESSIE LAWTON: So, we have a research protocol by which we collect data for this particular project. But what happens once the … Major funding for "Secrets in our DNA" is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Watch Full Length. Secrets in our DNA NOVA Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. CECE MOORE (Genetic Genealogist): We inherit our DNA from both of our parents: 50 percent from mom, 50 percent from dad. HANA WIESSMANN (Research Participant): I mean, I have just these giant bubbles, and they’re like, “You’re super Asian.” Like, I kind of already knew that, so…. NARRATOR: On GEDmatch, Chelsea sees an aunt whom she knows, but no new close relatives. ANITA FOEMAN: I thought looking at our DNA was a really interesting way to approach this whole conversation about race and diversity, in a way that was not going to make people defensive. NARRATOR: Several of the D.T.C.s now offer testing for genetic health risks. In 2019, FamilyTreeDNA apologized for letting the FBI search its database for people who share DNA with crime scene samples without customers’ permission. NARRATOR: And yet it is true that certain SNP patterns are more prevalent in some places than others. She searches the internet and sees a video of him giving a talk. BESSIE LAWTON: It makes people think of their stories in relation to other people in the whole story of human migration. Season 48 Episode 1 | 53m 26s | Video has closed captioning. Three years go by. And then, on the evening of May 17, 2018, Chelsea gets some unexpected visitors. June has never learned the identity of her father. PAMELA MUNSTER: And the way that my cancer looked under the microscope, I had the sense that this breast cancer was associated with a BRCA mutation. National corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Draper. Those patterns are compiled into a database. We couldn't do it without you. It’s a very powerful technique, because, with enough locations, you can do an identity match with very high probability, because of these slight differences one person to the next. ROBERT GREEN, M.D. What can DNA testing companies reveal about our ancestry and health, and at what risk? I recalled that a number of years ago she had done, I think, 23andMe®. ELLEN GREYTAK: People have control over whether their DNA is used in these investigations. One day, when she’s playing golf, she gets an email. NARRATOR: Cherry Richardson is taking part in a research study, at West Chester University, in Pennsylvania. CECE MOORE: The more centimorgans two people share, the closer they are related. JUNE SMITH: She said, “Your mother was a white woman.” And I said, “A white woman?” Which was totally shocking to me. 3. “This is wonderful. NARRATOR: Anita was inspired to start the project because of her experiences as a diversity trainer. Lab supervisor Lisa Collins asks him to wait. NARRATOR: Once bound, the identity of the SNP is revealed by a fluorescent dye. Discover the fascinating chemistry that makes our world and everything in it—including us. SHIRLEY WU (Director, Health Product Science, 23andMe): What these variations mean for someone’s risks is very, very well understood. NOVA explores the power of genetic data to reveal family connections, ancestry, and health risks—and even solve criminal cold cases. To which site did Chelsea Rustad upload her raw DNA? Nova explores the power of this information and the unintended consequences that can arise from sharing our data with these rapidly growing online databases. The DNA of people who lived in a place long ago, your ancestors, may be different from the DNA of the people in the reference groups who live there today. There’s a match.” And I couldn’t believe it. Today, DNA testing is so exact that Ancestry’s data analysis can pinpoint a person’s background to any one of 380 regions in the world. And it felt to me like my identity was in pieces. January 13, 2021. NARRATOR: FamilyTreeDNA has given Nick Pasvanis, whose parents trace their ancestors to Greece, Germany, England and Scotland, a detailed breakdown. Six days later, Tanya’s partially clothed body is found by the side of this road in Skagit County, Washington. NARRATOR: But there’s little regulation, and policies vary. But alongside the benefits of these rapidly growing genetic databases are serious unintended consequences. And this is something that’s truly new. It’s a process that also centers around SNPs, those places in our DNA that most frequently vary between people. Together, all the cars on Earth would leave quite the pile of carbon behind—every day. TYQUINE GOLDEN: They got everybody. When June was 16, growing up in Philadelphia, the woman she knew as her mother revealed a secret. NOVA “Secrets in Our DNA” Premieres Wednesday, January 13, 2021. The case goes cold, until the day when Chelsea Rustad uploads a DNA file to GEDmatch, where it becomes a clue that will eventually lead the police to a major break in the case. CHERRY RICHARDSON (Research Participant): ’Cause there are so many kids I’m growing up with who are all in the same situation. But then you get those critical places where, if you’ve made that specific change, the protein simply doesn’t work anymore. Secrets in our DNA Caught up by an explosion of popular interest in genealogy research, more than 12 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA, hoping to obtain hidden clues to family origins and forecasts of their future health. JOAO BARRETO (Research Participant): ...the north of Africa, Middle East, the western Europe, but I was…. She happens to be an oncologist, in San Francisco, who specializes in breast cancer. To her amazement, they tell her that her DNA has led them to a suspect. The risks inherent in new technologies often become obvious only in hindsight. Maybe not. The police follow him. The company compares your SNPs with those of people in what are called “reference groups,” people alive today whose DNA has been tested and who share patterns of SNPs that scientists have found to be typical for the region in which they live. Now, he is 55, a truck driver. It’s very, very difficult. NARRATOR: People like Sigrid and June can be connected by the D.T.C.s thanks to an amazing recent discovery about DNA We’ve known for a long time that the DNA molecule, which we carry in almost every cell in our body, contains the code that directs our lives. Its title: Inheritance. Absolutely, yes. DANI SHAPIRO: I knew what I was seeing. Some of them are called “single nucleotide polymorphisms,” or SNPs. And scientists can count the number of times they repeat. NARRATOR: 23andMe reports that she has a BRCA1 variation that makes it highly likely she will develop ovarian or breast cancer. The goal: find an ancestor who links everyone together and points directly to the birth parent. TYQUINE GOLDEN: Can’t ignore it now, the whole, like, Ireland and U.K. part of the DNA. In 2010, Pamela takes 23andMe’s BRCA test herself. The company website shows them their list of matches. NARRATOR: But, in 2012, Pamela is diagnosed with breast cancer. NOVA Secrets in our DNA—produced by Menlo Park, California-based Kikim Media—premieres Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 9 p.m. ABOUT THE PROGRAM NOVA. Police have long had his DNA, but they have no idea who he is. Some users have found family members and discovered lurking genetic risks. TV Schedule WATCH ANYWHERE ABOUT PROGRAM VISIT WEBSITE . CECE MOORE: So, to have two people that shared about three percent of their DNA, or enough to be a second cousin with the suspect, did feel like getting struck by lightning. I had no idea. A drinking cup falls out of his truck. JIM SCHARF: Lisa turned and handed me the report and said, “Jim, it’s him. 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