I think 23andMe is not an ideal test. Then, by digging through records she finds more relatives. 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. Hana Wiessmann and Viola Wang, who were both born in China, have even bigger bubbles. Additional funding is provided by the NOVA Science Trust. TYQUINE GOLDEN: I don’t think it makes a difference. DANI SHAPIRO: We opened them, and he’s like, “Huh. I really lucked out. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the David H. Koch Fund for Science, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS viewers. Second cousins will share a set of great-grandparents, and that’s not that far back in the tree. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? One day, when she’s playing golf, she gets an email. I love having a younger sister. NARRATOR: That’s what Dani Shapiro was shocked to discover. But how reliable are they? NARRATOR: CeCe knows that if they did, those children would carry a mix of DNA very similar to that of the suspect. But then you get those critical places where, if you’ve made that specific change, the protein simply doesn’t work anymore. TSHAKA CUNNINGHAM (Molecular Biologist): I think, as an African American, it’s a tough thing to grapple with, when you think about the origin of your Caucasian, or white ancestry. And that has happened. They look at every single base pair in genes, a process known as “sequencing.”. PAMELA MUNSTER: Do I want to know that I’m at risk for Alzheimer’s when there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it? NARRATOR: …a life-threatening illness prevented…. And I sent her an email, and I said, “Do you have your results from, from the DNA test you did?” And she did, and she sent them to me. It’s not a good thing if those people think they have been exhaustively tested, because they have not. 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. Unformatted text preview: PBS Video- Secrets in Our DNA 1. CHELSEA RUSTAD: It was just really a lot to take in and really shocking. NARRATOR: Pamela turns out to be right. Lab supervisor Lisa Collins asks him to wait. While 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA talked with NOVA about these issues, AncestryDNA declined to participate in this film. BENNETT GREENSPAN: No one is forcing anyone to take a DNA test. NARRATOR: The SNP data enables the lab to see how much DNA is shared by customers who’ve opted for family matching. JESSICA ALGAZI: I get the results as I’m sitting on a golf course in a golf cart and I looked down and, like, “Oh, my god, I can’t believe this.”. They’re spots where most of us have one kind of base pair, but some of us have another. CHELSEA RUSTAD: I looked through the peephole and, and see that there are two cops waiting outside there. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? Absolutely, yes. According to this, you’re about 50-50, Eastern European Ashkenazi and the rest is all Western European: French, Irish, English, Swedish, German.” My only response was, “Oh, well, they must’ve made a mistake.”. NARRATOR: Several of the D.T.C.s now offer testing for genetic health risks. My eyes teared up. We just say we’re Black. JUNE SMITH: It’s good having an older sister. JIM SCHARF: Lisa turned and handed me the report and said, “Jim, it’s him. 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. In 2017, Barbara is asked by investigators in California to try to solve a different kind of mystery: one of the nation’s most notorious cold cases. What can DNA testing companies reveal about our ancestry and health, and at what risk? Every step of what they explained to me is a horror story. Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. They want his DNA to see if it matches the DNA from the crime scene. It gave me a sense of saying, “Hey, you know, we got the same blood.”. DANI SHAPIRO: “You don’t look Jewish.” “You can’t possibly be Jewish.” “There’s no way you’re Jewish.” “Did your mother have an affair with the Swedish milkman?” “Shapiro your married name?” I could go on. She knows that both of her parents are of Ashkenazi, or Eastern European Jewish descent. CONNIE BORMANS: This anonymity and taking these secrets to the grave, with the advent of DNA testing, it really doesn’t exist anymore. Simply taking a DNA test at 23andMe, at Ancestry, your DNA is in their private database. BESSIE LAWTON: And after we receive the results, we bring you together. They don’t just look at scattered SNPs. Someone he’d never even met. TYQUINE GOLDEN: I don’t want to hide from the truth, no matter how bad it could be. ALONDRA NELSON (Sociologist): You’re actually paying your money to give your data to a company. But since 2003, when scientists first read through all of those base pairs, they’ve discovered a surprising fact about more than 99 percent of them. NARRATOR: But Cherry Richardson’s African bubble provides little detail. TYQUINE GOLDEN (Research Participant): Somewhere in slavery, that 20 percent might’ve been integrated with our DNA, and that might not have been voluntary. Those patterns are compiled into a database. 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. NARRATOR: During the investigation, police recover potentially precious evidence from Tanya’s body: the assailant’s DNA They will run it through a lab procedure that is still the gold standard for proving identity with DNA It zeroes in on just twenty or so places in the genome where a short string of letters, for example G, A, T, A, just keeps on repeating. So, instead of trying to identify all three-billion of a customer’s base pairs, the D.T.C.s do something that’s cheaper and faster. DANI SHAPIRO: He said, “You’re not sisters.” And I said, “Not, not half-sisters.” ‘Cause that’s what we were. NARRATOR: In a previous test with Ancestry, Tyquine Golden was told his roots were 80 percent West African, and 20 percent British. You’re not my cousin.” We cried, and I just couldn’t believe it. It’s one of the thousands of others. Experts featured in this film may have received support from funders of this program. Then, because she’s also curious to find new relatives, she downloads her raw file from Ancestry and uploads it to a free website called GEDmatch. CAPTION: We the jury, find the defendant, William Earl Talbott, II, guilty of the crime of first-degree murder, as charged in count one. And it felt to me like my identity was in pieces. Major funding for "Secrets in our DNA" is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 2018, she takes a consumer DNA test, hoping to solve a longstanding mystery. NARRATOR: She has no Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the David H. Koch Fund for Science, the NOVA Science Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers. Some of them are called “single nucleotide polymorphisms,” or SNPs. The so-called “Golden State Killer” was suspected of committing at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes during the 1970s and 80s. We also share DNA with anyone who shares a common ancestor with us: siblings, half-siblings, first cousins, second cousins and so on. NARRATOR: Our parents each contribute about 50 percent to our DNA. 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. ABOUT THE PROGRAM NOVA. You’re not related.”. Watch Preview. specialist, is an avid family historian. 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.”. And no one’s ever going to know except for us.”. A drinking cup falls out of his truck. And how are the tests changing our lives? Secrets in our DNA COPY TO CLIPBOARD. We do not share your data with any insurance company or any employer, hard-stop, without your consent. TV Schedule WATCH ANYWHERE ABOUT PROGRAM VISIT WEBSITE . Because static feeds into the racist paradigm, feeds into the me-versus-you, you know, us-versus-them. SIGRID JOHNSON: It was just like we’ve known each other forever, one-on-one spirit feeling that you can’t describe. NOVA “Secrets in Our DNA” Airs Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. – Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA, hoping to obtain clues to family origins and forecasts of their future health. Is the letter not there? NARRATOR: Dani gives the half-sister’s file to her husband. And the fewer centimorgans they share, the more distantly related they are. He is soon sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison. Secrets in our DNA. 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. Does Chelsea find any new, close relatives in GEDmatch? NARRATOR: To confirm her hunch, Pamela has her DNA tested by what’s known as a clinical lab, the kind doctors use. Some funders of NOVA also fund basic science research. Secrets in our DNA 53m 26s Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Its title: Inheritance. 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. NARRATOR: The genetic genealogy team at Parabon says the fears are exaggerated. Maybe not. And the same is true for them and their parents. CHELSEA RUSTAD (AncestryDNA Customer): Without my DNA, it would have been dead in the water. They both share DNA with the suspect but don’t share any with each other. And I would go on websites, I would do all kind of people searches looking for Joan Moser. To her amazement, they tell her that her DNA has led them to a suspect. Jim Scharf brings the cup to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for S.T.R. What can DNA testing companies reveal about our ancestry and health, and at what risk? Scientists race to understand and defeat the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. TYQUINE GOLDEN: Can’t ignore it now, the whole, like, Ireland and U.K. part of the DNA. What failed attempts to find suspects are we not hearing about and the data violations and privacy violations that happen along the way? TV Schedule ABOUT PROGRAM VISIT WEBSITE . NARRATOR: …and ship the samples off to Houston. National corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Draper. DANI SHAPIRO (Writer): If my father wasn’t my biological father, who was? SIGRID JOHNSON: I don’t like being older, but it’s okay. 3. 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. ELLEN GREYTAK: So, if you look at any two people, the vast, vast majority of their DNA is exactly the same, because all of the things that keep you alive, I mean, all of that has to be the same. 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