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2021-07-09 China-Japan-Koreas

China's gene giant harvests data from millions of women

[Reuters] A prenatal test used worldwide sends gene data of pregnant women to the company that developed it with China's military. The U.S. sees a security risk.

A Chinese gene company selling prenatal tests around the world developed them in collaboration with the country's military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations, a Reuters review of scientific papers and company statements found.

U.S. government advisors warned in March that a vast bank of genomic data that the company, BGI Group, is amassing and analyzing with artificial intelligence could give China a path to economic and military advantage. As science pinpoints new links between genes and human traits, access to the biggest, most diverse set of human genomes is a strategic edge. The technology could propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the U.S. population or food supply, the advisors said.

Reuters has found that BGI’s prenatal test, one of the most popular in the world, is a source of genetic data for the company, which has worked with the Chinese military to improve "population quality" and on genetic research to combat hearing loss and altitude sickness in soldiers.

BGI says it stores and re-analyzes left-over blood samples and genetic data from the prenatal tests, sold in at least 52 countries to detect abnormalities such as Down syndrome in the fetus. The tests — branded NIFTY for "Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY" — also capture genetic information about the mother, as well as personal details such as her country, height and weight, but not her name, BGI computer code viewed by Reuters shows.

So far, more than 8 million women have taken BGI’s prenatal tests globally. BGI has not said how many of the women took the test abroad, and said it only stores location data on women in mainland China.

Posted by Besoeker 2021-07-09 05:48|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top
File under: Commies

Lebensborn on the Yangtze? Have we not seen this movie previously ?

Posted by Besoeker 2021-07-09 05:55|| 2021-07-09 05:55|| Front Page Top

#2 Verifying that Genghis Khan's (Yuan Empire period by Chinese reckoning) claim to much of the Eurasian Continent? Yeah I know he's Mongol, but any basis seems to work these day to justify Chinese neo-imperialism (just ask the neighbors)

Why do we care about Genghis Khan’s DNA?

In 2003, an evolutionary geneticist named Chris Tyler-Smith discovered that 8 percent of men across 16 different ethnic populations in Asia shared a common Y-chromosome pattern. This pattern was eventually traced back to a common origin who must have existed about 1,000 years ago. However, to create so many descendants, this common origin would have had to have an abnormally large number of sons. (He may also have had many daughters, of course, but they would not carry the Y-chromosome necessary to indicate they were directly linked to the paternal origin. Women have two X-chromosomes while men have an X and a Y).

Since Genghis Khan was known in contemporary writings for fathering hundreds of children in this area of Asia, historians and geneticists together presumed this common origin was most likely the first Mongolian emperor himself.

Together with a genetics research team, Tyler-Smith was able to further show that 1 in 200 men in the world are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. In modern-day Mongolia alone, as many 35% of men shared the “Khan” Y-chromosome pattern. The team’s study was published in 2003 under the title “The Genetic Legacy of the Mongols” in the journal European Journal of Human Genetics.

To put these figures another way, Tyler-Smith’s findings mean that up to 0.5% of the world’s population (or around 17 million people), primarily located in Asia, can trace their lineage to Genghis Khan directly along their paternal bloodlines. The data also indicates that 8% of men who live in the area of the “former Mongol empire” carry nearly identical Y-chromosomes. According to Tyler-Smith and other experts, this is statistically improbable to occur in any way except from one common paternal origin.

To further prove Tyler-Smith’s theory, historians have pointed to the attested lineage of Genghis Khan’s sons. In documents from the time period, one of Khan’s sons was written to have had 40 sons who would have carried on that unique Y-chromosome pattern. Similarly, one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons was said to have had 22 acknowledged sons; however, he likely had many more “illegitimate” sons because he added 30 women to his personal harem each year.

A follow-up study from a team of Russian scientists analyzed further ethnic groups including Kurds, Persians, Russians and other central Asian ethnic groups. They were surprised to find that despite Genghis Khan’s empire controlling eastern Russia for two and a half centuries, they were unable to find any evidence of his direct descendants being present in modern-day Russia. As they put it, “…[M]en from the Genghis Khan clan left no genetic trace in Russia.”

Posted by Procopius2k 2021-07-09 07:39|| 2021-07-09 07:39|| Front Page Top

#3 Women have two X-chromosomes while men have an X and a Y

That's White Patriarchal thinking!

Posted by Frank G 2021-07-09 07:51|| 2021-07-09 07:51|| Front Page Top

#4 Years ago I tracked ancestor of a g-g-grandfather of mine back to a tiny area in Burgundy France in the 1730's. Unusual family name with a plethora of various misspellings. Found a Francophone lady online whose maiden name was one of those misspellings. She was researching her father's line and said her family legend was that his line came from the same tiny area in Burgundy in the same era. Unfortunately there were gaps in the French records of births & deaths, while there were no such gaps in the records of the North American descendants. While it was still allowed under French law, we did a Y-chromosome test on him and on a US descendant through the same male line. Perfect match. Researchers later contacted me due to the rarity of this kind of research. France later banned private DNA testing (like 23andMe) of its residents.

Posted by Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-07-09 12:04|| 2021-07-09 12:04|| Front Page Top

#5 gedmatch.com is a publicly available site where people who have access to their DNA test results can post them and have them compared to anyone else who has done the same. Matches can contact each other using email addresses if they wish. I have noted I have several dozen matches to people who seem to have Chinese names and also have email addresses ending in "qq.com" I haven't tried to contact any of them, since they seem fake. It would be possible to cut & paste subsets of anyone's public DNA data and use those matches to create fake DNA profiles and to create fake DNA malware.

Posted by Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-07-09 12:12|| 2021-07-09 12:12|| Front Page Top

08:26 SteveS
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08:15 Seeking Cure For Ignorance
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