Some ancient peoples get to be famous. The Vikings have blockbuster shows. The Romans have, well, an empire’s worth of pop culture. The Sarmatians don’t get nearly as much attention, despite once dominating a vast stretch of Central Europe for centuries. In fact, many historians describe the Sarmatians as a “forgotten people,” a once-formidable presence on the edge of the Roman world not claimed as ancestors by any modern nation. This month, we’re helping to restore their legacy by adding 44 of them to Historical Matches.

Who Were the Sarmatians?

The Sarmatians were a nomadic people, who likely spoke an Iranian language. They originated in the southern Ural region of what is now western Russia more than two thousand years ago. From there, they moved west, eventually displacing the Scythians as the dominant power of the Pontic Steppe. By the 1st century CE, Sarmatian groups had settled the Carpathian Basin, a region spanning much of modern Hungary and Romania, ruling over the Celtic and Scythian populations who already lived there.

Relations between the Sarmatians and the Roman Empire ran hot and cold, eventually boiling over into the Marcomannic-Sarmatian Wars in the late 2nd century CE. But despite these tensions the Sarmatians settled down, adopted farming, and formed lasting alliances with their Germanic neighbors.

156 New Genomes, and Some Genuine Surprises

Last year, researchers published a study in Cell sequencing 156 new ancient genomes from Sarmatian- and later Hun-period sites across the Carpathian Basin and the Romanian plains in order to learn about the genetics of the Sarmatians. 

Most of the individuals they sequenced carried a distinct steppe ancestry that linked them to their distant Sarmatian relatives who never left the Ural and Kazakh regions. This signal was strongest in the earliest generations and gradually diluted as later Sarmatians mixed with the region’s existing population.

But a handful of individuals didn’t fit this pattern at all. Two men buried at the same cemetery in southern Hungary had ancestry that traced entirely to Scandinavia, thousands of kilometers to the north, suggesting a previously undetected wave of migration into this Sarmatian community. Others carried substantial East Asian-related ancestry, thousands of kilometers to the east.

Genetic Foreshadowing of a Migration to Come 

Perhaps the most surprising discovery didn’t come from a Sarmatian burial at all. Two individuals from an even earlier Iron Age population in the Carpathian foothills, who lived centuries before the Sarmatians’ documented arrival in the region, turned out to have ancestry that closely resembled the later Sarmatian populations that migrated into the region. It’s a hint that Sarmatians may have trickled into the region in small numbers long before their main migration, a genetic foreshadowing of a migration to come.

A Much More Well Known Genetic Group Also Gets an Update

This month’s Historical Matches update isn’t only about a people history nearly forgot, though. We’ve also added five new individuals to our existing Hungarian Royalty group, including King Béla II, a medieval Hungarian ruler identified for the first time after going unnamed among royal remains for centuries. We also added Béla, Duke of Macsó, a prince murdered by rival noblemen in 1272 whose identity was only recently confirmed through DNA. Their genomes were recently sequenced as part of a large scale study of over 400 individuals who were buried in the Royal Basilica of Székesfehérvár, the traditional coronation and burial site of Hungarian monarchs. 

Learn More

Want to see if your DNA connects you to the Sarmatians, Hungarian Royalty, or to hundreds of other historical individuals? 23andMe Premium members can explore these new additions through the Historical Matches feature.

Have you ever looked at your ancestry results and wondered, “Where did this Scottish ancestry come from, my mom’s side or my dad’s?” If you’re one of the millions of 23andMe members who haven’t connected with a parent who has tested with us, that question has been sitting unanswered.

That changes today.

We’re launching Premium Parental Inheritance, a feature that shows you which side of your family each ancestry region in your results came from regardless of whether or not a parent has ever taken a 23andMe test. Powering this expansion is a DNA analysis we call Family Phasing, a method that uses your existing DNA relatives to determine which side of your family your ancestry comes from. The feature is now available to all 23andMe Premium members.

Your Ancestry Has Two Sides. Now You Can See Them.

Parental Inheritance has long let customers see their Ancestry Composition split by parent: how much of your Andalusian, Asturian & Castilian ancestry came from one side, how much of your Nigerian ancestry came from the other. For people who had it, the reaction was often an “aha” moment. Suddenly your results became a story about blending two distinct family histories.

But accessing it required connecting with a biological parent in the 23andMe database. If your parents had passed away, were unknown to you, or simply weren’t interested in testing, Parental Inheritance wasn’t available to you. That left many without a way to access a feature that helps answer so many questions.

Family Phasing changes that for many people who have enough relatives in the dataset. Using these relatives, we can often confidently determine parental inheritance for large sections of your DNA.

If you’re a 23andMe Premium member, you’ll now see your Ancestry Composition results split into Parent 1 and Parent 2 — showing how much of each ancestry region you inherited from each side.

Some people won’t immediately know which labels map to their maternal or paternal sides. You can use your ancestry percentages as clues. If Parent 1 shows a high percentage of Irish ancestry and you know that Irish ancestry runs on your dad’s side, you can rename Parent 1 to “Paternal Side.” But if one of your parents has tested with 23andMe and is participating in DNA Relatives, you’ll see them connected to their corresponding side.

The Science: How Family Phasing Works

To understand what’s new, it helps to understand how Parental Inheritance worked before.

Your 23 chromosomes come in pairs: one chromosome in each pair comes from your mother, the other from your father. Figuring out which genetic information came from which parent is called phasing. Previously, 23andMe could perform a high-quality phasing by directly comparing your DNA to a connected biological parent’s.

Without a connected parent, we relied on statistical, population-based phasing. These population-based phasing methods are typically good at determining which variant came from which parent over a short region of your genome. However, they fall short when trying to piece these short, well-phased regions together. As a result, they might phase your genome one way at one end of a chromosome, and the other way at the other end.

Family Phasing solves this for portions of your genome by looking at the DNA relatives, even distant ones, you already have in the 23andMe database. The key insight: if you and a relative share a segment of DNA, and that relative is on your mother’s side, that shared segment probably came from your mother. Family Phasing uses these shared DNA segments across many of your relatives to build a confident picture of which portions of your ancestry came from each parent, no connected parent required. 

The more relatives you have in the database, and the more closely related to you they are, the more confidently we can determine which side each portion of your DNA came from. Your results include a general view that assigns every ancestry region to a parental side, plus a view of stricter confidence levels, where any lower confidence regions may show as inconclusive.

Your Upgraded Path to Parental Inheritance

Thanks to our new Family Phasing technology, Parental Inheritance is getting a major upgrade and moving to 23andMe Premium. If your parents have never tested with 23andMe, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Premium members without parents connected can now explore their parental inheritance for the first time.

If you’re a 23andMe Premium member and you previously had Parental Inheritance through a connected parent, your experience is evolving. The underlying science is now powered by Family Phasing. 

If you’re not already a 23andMe Premium member, your previous Parental Inheritance is no longer available. However, if you upgrade to a 23andMe Premium membership, your results will begin computing automatically, and you’ll receive a notification when your report is ready.

What’s Coming Next

Parental Inheritance is more than a single feature — it’s a lens that can be applied across your entire genetic story. We’re exploring how to bring the same Parent 1 / Parent 2 view to other parts of your 23andMe experience, so you can understand not just what your DNA says, but which side of your family it came from.

Your ancestry has always had two sides to it. Ready to see both? If you’re not currently a 23andMe Premium member, but interested in this feature, check out the 23andMe Premium membership to unlock Premium Parental Inheritance and find out which side of your family shaped the ancestry you carry.

Premium Parental Inheritance is available to 23andMe Premium subscribers in the US, Canada and UK. Results depend on the number and relatedness of your DNA relatives in our database. All users will receive a full partition of their ancestries into parental sides. However, users with more relative matches will typically receive more confident parental ancestry assignments.

Today, 23andMe added 137 new Genetic Groups across Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Madagascar and Thailand, rounding out the most detailed ancestry breakdown available for this region yet. 

Southeast Asia isn’t one history so much as many histories layered on top of each other, and it’s one of the most genetically intricate regions on Earth. Cambodia’s Khmer Empire once stretched from the Mekong Delta into what is now Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar’s government officially recognizes 135 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. Further west, Madagascar’s people speak a language whose closest relatives sit nearly 4,000 miles away, across the Indian Ocean in Borneo. Now, 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition report better reflects these diverse stories from a region that has historically been underrepresented in genetic research.  

What Are Genetic Groups?

Genetic Groups are part of 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition report. They’re clusters of people who share more recent DNA with one another than with the broader population, usually because their families lived in the same region, city or community for generations. By analyzing shared DNA patterns across thousands of 23andMe members with ancestry from this region, our scientists can identify genetic signatures more specific than a single label like “Thai” or “Indonesian” can capture. Most 23andMe members with ancestry from this region will see at least one new Genetic Group reflected in their results, and 23andMe Premium members can also explore any distant Genetic Group connections they may have to these regions.

Communities Written Into the Update

Some of the 137 new groups trace back to communities whose histories rarely make it onto a genetic map. In Myanmar’s Chin Hills, near the border with India, members can now see if they have connections to specific Chin subgroups, including the Falam, many of whom still speak a dialect known as Falam Chin.

In Cambodia, these new Genetic Groups now distinguish communities across the Khmer heartland, from the Tonlé Sap Basin to the Khmer Krom, a community in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. A separate new group traces to the Cham, descendants of the once-powerful kingdom of Champa, which ruled along the coast of central Vietnam for centuries.

Madagascar tells one of the more unusual stories in this update. The Malagasy people trace to Austronesian seafarers who reached Madagascar roughly 1,500 years ago, likely sailing from what is now Borneo. Their descendants later mixed with East African populations. That voyage connects Madagascar to the same Austronesian expansion that carried seafaring peoples across the Philippines, Indonesia and the far islands of Polynesia.

Réunionnais and Seychellois communities in this update trace to a much more recent chapter in history. Both Réunion and Seychelles were uninhabited until European colonization began in the 17th and 18th centuries, when French settlers brought enslaved people from East Africa and Madagascar to work sugar and spice plantations. It’s a reminder that many stories can be hidden within a broad Ancestry Composition population.

Rounding Out the Map of Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian and Malagasy communities have historically been underrepresented in genetic research, which has often meant broader labels and fewer specific insights for 23andMe members with roots in the region. This update builds on Genetic Groups 23andMe has already added across Oceania, the Philippines and Vietnam, and makes 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition report the most detailed breakdown available for this part of the world.

None of this would be possible without the 23andMe members who chose to share their family stories and participate in research. There are more stories to be told, and we’re committed to finding ways to tell them with DNA.

Already a 23andMe member? Sign in to see if you have connections to these new Genetic Groups in your Ancestry Composition report.

With this update there are now:

• 34 Genetic Groups in Indonesia
• 24 Genetic Groups in Cambodia
• 23 Genetic Groups in Thailand
• 15 Genetic Groups in Myanmar
• 12 Genetic Groups in Laos
• 9 Genetic Groups in Malaysia
• 5 Genetic Groups in Madagascar and nearby islands
• 15 additional Genetic Groups throughout the region

Finding the right antidepressant is often a long, frustrating process. Fewer than half of people respond to the first SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a common type of antidepressant including escitalopram (Lexapro®), citalopram (Celexa®), and sertraline (Zoloft®)*) they try. Within a year of starting treatment, roughly 80% of patients switch medications or stop taking them altogether. And side effects are the most common reason why people switch or stop.

The CYP2C19 gene affects how your body processes many medications, including many commonly prescribed SSRIs, and that in turn can affect whether you experience side effects. A new 23andMe study published in The Pharmacogenomics Journal is showing how certain changes in CYP2C19 impact specific side effects people experience when taking SSRIs.

Tracking the Connection Between DNA and Antidepressants

23andMe researchers analyzed survey responses from more than 114,000 consented research participants who reported having taken escitalopram, citalopram or sertraline. Each was asked whether the medication worked for them, what side effects they experienced and why they stopped taking it if they did. 

The genetic focus was the CYP2C19 gene, which is important for processing or ‘metabolizing’ SSRIs. The participants were sorted into categories of metabolizer types, ranging from poor (slowest) to ultrarapid (fastest) based on which genetic variants they had.

How Your Genes Impact Side Effects

This study painted a clear picture of the frustrating “trial-and-error” process of mental health treatment: roughly 63% of participants had taken at least two antidepressants in the hopes of finding one that worked. It also gave researchers a rare, clear picture of how common different side effects are in a large, diverse group of people. Participants reported a range of effects, including anxiety, sleep problems, emotional numbness, sexual problems, gastrointestinal issues, tremors and weight gain, and researchers were able to see how common these side effects were broken down by which drug people were taking as well as their sex and ancestry.

DNA also plays a massive role in how participants tolerate these drugs. If you have a version of the CYP2C19 enzyme that works more slowly, the drug lingers in your system at higher concentrations, which raises your likelihood of side effects.

Slower metabolizers reported side effects more often than faster metabolizers. But this study was large enough to look at specific side effects as well. Among participants taking escitalopram, slower metabolizers were significantly more likely to suffer from sleep and sexual problems compared to faster metabolizers. Similarly, among those taking sertraline, more slower metabolizers reported experiencing tremors than did faster metabolizers.

These side effects contributed to slow processors quitting their medication altogether due to side effects (depending on which drug they took, between roughly 25–30% of poor metabolizers stopped compared with about 20% of ultrarapid metabolizers).

Finally, this study highlights why diversity in genetic research matters. Genetic ancestry can shape how common these variants are in different populations. Roughly 17.8% of East Asian-ancestry participants were poor metabolizers, compared with about 2.3% of European-ancestry participants. 

Unlocking Patterns That Smaller Studies Couldn’t

Earlier studies on how genes impact how well antidepressants work for individuals were too small to spot patterns, especially when it came to specific side effects. But because 23andMe has such a massive community of people choosing to participate in research, 23andMe researchers could pair genetic data with real, personal experiences on these medications. Other large genetic databases are only just starting to collect this kind of medication history, which has slowed down progress in the past. This study shows exactly what can happen when millions of people come together to further advance medical science.

Translating Findings into Better Care

For those who are considering an SSRI, or who have struggled with side effects on one in the past, genetics may offer important insights. 23andMe+ Premium™ members can view their CYP2C19 Drug Metabolism report** and see how it may affect response to certain medications including citalopram. Reviewing your result with your healthcare provider can give you one more data point as you work together to help find a treatment that fits.

* Lexapro® is a registered trademark of H. Lundbeck A/S; Celexa® is a registered trademark of Forest Laboratories, Inc; Zoloft® is a registered trademark of Viatris Specialty LLC.

** 23andMe PGS Pharmacogenetic reports: The 23andMe test uses qualitative genotyping to detect 3 variants in the CYP2C19 gene in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva for the purpose of reporting and interpreting information about the processing of certain therapeutics to inform discussions with a healthcare professional. It does not describe if a person will or will not respond to a particular therapeutic and does not describe the association between detected variants and any specific therapeutic. Our CYP2C19 Pharmacogenetic report provides certain information about variants associated with metabolism of some therapeutics and provides interpretive drug information regarding the potential effect of citalopram and clopidogrel therapy. Certain CYP2C19 results should be confirmed by an independent genetic test prescribed by your own healthcare provider before taking any medical action. 

Warning:

Test information should not be used to start, stop, or change any course of treatment and does not test for all possible variants that may affect metabolism or protein function. The PGS test is not a substitute for visits to a healthcare professional. Making changes to your current regimen can lead to harmful side effects or reduced intended benefits of your medication, therefore consult with your healthcare professional before taking any medical action. For important information and limitations regarding Pharmacogenetic reports, visit www.23andme.org/test-info.

What if your DNA says you should have a disease but you don’t? In most cases a genetic predisposition only increases the chances of developing a condition, it doesn’t guarantee it. However, certain genetic variants, especially those linked to a severe, early-onset disease such as sickle cell disease or cystic fibrosis, have been treated as fate: inherit the genetic variants, and the disease follows. But a small, growing body of research is complicating that picture. Scientists are finding people who carry genetic variants that should cause severe conditions and yet these people are healthy.

These rare, resilient individuals have “escaped” their fate. Figuring out why is starting to reshape how we think about genetics and how new treatments can be discovered.

The Search for Genetic “Escapers”

Very often scientists study sick people to find the DNA changes behind their disease. Studying healthy people to find genetic changes that protect against disease can be much harder, since finding a handful of resilient people can mean sorting through hundreds of thousands of genomes. 

The first large effort to do this, called the Resilience Project, screened data from 589,306 people (the majority of whom were consented 23andMe research participants) and found 13 adults carrying genetic variants for 8 severe childhood conditions who never developed symptoms.

Since then, similar searches have turned up similar results. A 2026 study of more than 9,600 healthy adults in Singapore found nine people carrying variants associated with severe conditions such as limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and hereditary spastic paraplegia that typically appear in infancy or childhood. Several studies have found a strikingly consistent pattern: for any given disease-associated gene that’s screened, between one and three resilient individuals turn up per 10 million people. That is rare, but real.

What Might Help Someone Escape?

So what might separate an “escaper” from someone who develops the disease their DNA predicts? Researcher points to a few overlapping explanations, from additional genetic variants that may cancel out the damage, to differences in how actively a gene is expressed in the first place, to the environment a person lives in.

Protective Genetic Variants

“Escapers” may have additional genetic variants elsewhere in their DNA that counteract a disease-causing variant. A notable example is sickle cell disease. Some people carry a variant in the BCL11A gene that keeps a fetal form of hemoglobin switched on into adulthood, offsetting the effect of the sickle cell variant. This discovery helped lead to new, approved gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease.

Another example was found looking at people who had naturally very low LDL cholesterol and a subsequent low risk for heart disease. It turns out these people had genetic variants that lower the expression of the PCSK9 gene. This discovery led to the development of a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that’s often used to treat people with genetic variants that lead to very high cholesterol (known as familial hypercholesterolemia). In rare cases there are “escapers” who carry both familial hypercholesterolemia variants and protective PCSK9 changes and end up with cholesterol levels that are milder than expected.

Variable Activation

A second, more surprising, explanation for how “escapers” manage to stay healthy could involve how actively each copy of a gene gets used. For most genes you inherit one copy from each parent, and it was assumed both copies are equally active. However, that’s not necessarily true.

The best-known example of this is X-inactivation. For those with two X chromosomes, each cell randomly shuts off one of them early in development. Something similar, though far less understood, appears to happen with genes on the other 22 pairs of chromosomes we carry. In some cells, one parent’s copy of a gene can be turned up while the other is turned down, a phenomenon called autosomal random monoallelic expression, or aRMAE.

If you inherit one healthy copy of a gene and one disease-causing copy, which copy is more active in a given cell type can make the difference between staying healthy and developing disease. Depending on how it’s measured, as many as 50% of our genes may show this kind of activity bias.

Environment and Lifestyle 

Finally, environment and lifestyle can shift the odds for people carrying a disease-causing variant. Take the case of a 75-year-old individual who is cognitively healthy despite carrying a variant for a dominantly inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease that typically causes symptoms decades earlier, particularly in his family. Researchers suspect his resilience may trace back to years of heavy heat exposure earlier in life, which may have raised his levels of heat shock proteins, a class of proteins that help cells clear out misfolded proteins like the ones that build up in Alzheimer’s disease.

Most of us won’t stumble into that kind of protection by accident, and you don’t need an extreme lifestyle to benefit from this idea. Many everyday genetic predispositions, not just rare ones, respond to the basics: a healthy diet, quality sleep and regular exercise.

Why This Research Matters

Resilient individuals remind us that there are many exceptions to genetic rules. Genetics can’t always predict with 100% certainty who will get sick. Looking at healthy individuals, and individuals from diverse genetic backgrounds, can help us find new potential treatments that may benefit us all. 

At 23andMe, important advances in genetics research start with the participation of customers like you. Join our research community.

How old are you, really? Your birth certificate gives one answer. The cells in your body may be telling an entirely different story.

Researchers have debated how much of a long life comes down to your genes versus your habits. But it’s not simply one or the other, and how we measure your age can help us understand your health long before your next birthday. Your organs, and even individual cell types within them, can age faster or slower than your calendar age suggests. And for the first time, scientists are starting to measure that directly.

The Genetics of a Long Life

Genetics has always been part of the longevity story. Some estimates suggest up to about 50 percent of lifespan can be attributed to genetics, particularly once you set aside causes of death like accidents or infections. 

The clearest example is the APOE gene. The e4 variant is linked to a higher likelihood of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, while the e2 variant is associated with longer lifespan. Other genes, including FOXO3A, show up again and again in studies of people who live exceptionally long lives.

But genetics alone isn’t the whole story.

Aging in Waves, Not a Straight Line

A new review in Nature Medicine highlights research that’s challenging an assumption many of us have carried around without questioning: that aging is a slow, linear march through the decades.

But first, how are we measuring aging? Biological age isn’t tested with one specific method, instead a family of approaches that includes DNA methylation or “epigenetic” clocks (the original approach, measuring chemical tags on your DNA), proteomic clocks (measuring thousands of proteins in a tissue sample), and clinical biomarker-based models (based on standard bloodwork markers such as cholesterol or blood sugar) can be used.

When we use these methods we see that your body’s age doesn’t always line up with your calendar age. One proteomics study found something closer to three waves of accelerated change, clustering around ages 34, 60 and 78.

And aging doesn’t move at the same speed throughout your body. A landmark study built separate aging clocks for 11 individual organs, from the heart to the kidneys, using blood plasma proteins from more than 5,600 adults. This analysis found that nearly 20% of people had faster aging in one organ, and this aging was connected to organ-specific diseases.

Across multiple studies, faster aging in a given organ tends to line up with higher risk for the diseases tied to that organ. A heart that ages quickly has a higher risk of heart failure, and accelerated aging of the brain and blood vessels tracks with faster progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Where Genetics and Biological Clocks Meet

Being able to measure aging in specific organs, and even at the cellular level, is beginning to allow us to combine genetics and biological clocks to make better risk predictions. Carrying the APOE e4 variant raises your predisposition to Alzheimer’s, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. 

A recent study looked at the astrocytes, the cells that keep neurons nourished and healthy, of people with two copies of the e4 variant. The researchers found that people with faster aging astrocytes had 3 times the Alzheimer’s risk of those with normally aging astrocytes. And those with younger astrocytes had a lower Alzheimer’s risk even with the same genetics. In other words, knowing both how your cells are aging and your genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s disease can tell you more about your risk than either measure alone.

What You Can Do

Biological clocks are still in the early stages of moving from research labs into everyday medical care. But research is showing associations between your lifestyle and biological age:

• Staying physically active, not smoking and limiting alcohol were each associated with slower aging and lower disease risk in a large study of more than 17,000 European adults.
• Lower stress was associated with slower aging in African American research participants.
• Better sleep quality was associated with a younger biological age in a study of more than 360,000 UK Biobank participants.
• Loneliness was linked to faster aging and more chronic health conditions in a study of over 1,300 diverse participants in the United States.

Direct measurements of your biological age can build on what you know about your genetics to tell you how you’re actually doing today. And your habits may change tomorrow’s outcomes.

Track Your Own Biological Age

23andMe’s Biological Age feature allows you to investigate your own aging clock. Using 13 blood-based biomarkers, a model estimates your biological age and flags which biomarkers may be pulling it away from your calendar age. It’s available to 23andMe Premium Ancestry + Total Health members through biannual blood testing, and it’s also available as a standalone blood test for other 23andMe members.

Curious how genetics and lifestyle fit into the bigger longevity picture? Read more in How Genetics and Lifestyle Shape Longevity.

Ever notice that some days you can power through a spreadsheet but still can’t stop your mind from wandering during a long meeting? That split experience, sharp problem solving on one hand and wandering focus on the other, might not just be a mood or a bad night’s sleep. According to a recent study these two experiences may be shaped by genetically distinct systems in the brain.

The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, is the first large-scale look at the genetics of sustained attention (your ability to stay locked in on a task over time) and executive function (the mental toolkit you use to plan, remember and switch between tasks). The findings suggest these two forms of cognition, long assumed to overlap heavily, are influenced by largely separate genetic factors, and that each has its own distinct relationship with psychiatric conditions like ADHD and alcohol use disorder 

Two Cognitive Systems, Two Genetic Signatures

Previously, more than 23,000 participants in the AFFECT study, a research collaboration between 23andMe and the brain health company Lundbeck, completed a battery of computerized cognitive tasks over nine months. One task measured sustained attention by tracking how consistently people responded to a stream of frequent images while withholding responses to occasional oddball images. Others measured executive function skills such as processing speed, working memory and how quickly people can select the correct response among competing options.

This new study found that six cognitive measures could be grouped into two genetic factors. The first, which the researchers labeled Executive Function, was strongly tied to processing speed, working memory and response selection. The second, Sustained Attention, was most closely tied to vigilance (moment-to-moment consistency) and how often attention lapsed altogether.

For both factors, common genetic variants explain a real, though modest, share of the differences between people. That’s in line with what’s typically seen for complex cognitive traits, where hundreds of genetic variants each contribute a small effect rather than any single gene calling the shots.

Notably, the Executive Function and Sustained Attention factors were not significantly correlated, meaning that at the genetic level your capacity to stay focused over time and your capacity to juggle and manipulate information appear to be independent. 

What This Means for ADHD, Depression and Other Conditions

Because psychiatric conditions so often involve attention and cognitive control problems, the researchers also tested how each genetic factor related to 13 different psychiatric conditions. Researchers found that the genetic variants linked to stronger executive function are also linked to a lower predisposition for many conditions including ADHD, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The genetic variants linked to stronger sustained attention were linked to a lower predisposition for just ADHD and alcohol use disorder.

After researchers accounted for the genetic overlap between the two factors, Sustained Attention and Executive Function each still showed their own separate association to ADHD. This suggests that attention problems in ADHD may involve more than one genetic pathway. In other words, ADHD isn’t just tied to one set of attention-related genes, it’s tied to at least two separate ones.

The researchers also looked for genetic links between these cognitive factors and brain structure. In the end, no relationships reached statistical significance, a reminder that connecting genetic differences to changes in brain anatomy typically requires far larger sample sizes than are currently available.

What Comes Next

The AFFECT cohort, while one of the largest of its kind for these particular cognitive tasks, is not yet large enough to pinpoint the individual genetic variants involved. Additionally, the analysis was limited to participants with European genetic ancestry, meaning genetic insights like these may apply best to those with European ancestry, leaving other communities underrepresented. Expanding these studies to more ancestrally and demographically diverse cohorts will be an important next step toward research that benefits everyone.

None of this means your genes lock in your ability to focus. Genetics is only one factor among many, such as sleep, stress, environment and practiced habits, that shape how attention and executive function show up in daily life. What this study does offer is a clearer map of where the underlying biology diverges, which may eventually help researchers understand why some treatments for attention and mood difficulties work better for some people than others.

Findings like these exist because thousands of research participants have generously shared their genetic data and time with our researchers. Their contributions are helping build a better understanding of health for all of us. Your DNA could help us make new discoveries. Learn more about our research.

More than a million Americans are living with hereditary hemochromatosis, and many are unaware of the condition. July is National Hemochromatosis Screening and Awareness Month, a fitting moment to ask why a condition this common stays so quiet.

Hereditary hemochromatosis is a genetic condition that causes your body to absorb more iron from food than it needs. Since the body has no efficient way to get rid of the extra iron, it slowly builds up in the liver, heart, joints and other organs, where it can cause lasting damage over time. The good news: once caught, it’s highly treatable. The challenge is catching it.

Symptoms Vague Enough to Miss

Not everyone with hereditary hemochromatosis develops iron overload. Among people who do, fatigue and joint pain are the most common symptoms among people with hemochromatosis, but both show up in dozens of other conditions, which is exactly why diagnosis is often delayed. Some people also notice abdominal pain, memory fog, skin darkening, a drop in sex drive or heart flutters. Aching pain in the knuckles of the pointer and middle fingers, sometimes called “the iron fist,” is more specific to the condition, though not everyone experiences it.

For years, many clinicians were taught that hemochromatosis was rare and mostly a disease of older men, an assumption that made it easy to overlook in women and anyone else who didn’t fit that picture. That’s part of why genetic testing is useful. It can flag a predisposition before symptoms appear or before a doctor has reason to look for it.

Why Men and Women Experience It Differently

Genetically, hemochromatosis doesn’t discriminate. The HFE gene most often responsible sits on chromosome 6, not a sex chromosome, so men and women have the same chances of inheriting risk from their parents. What mostly differs is timing. Men often show symptoms starting in their 40s, while women more typically develop symptoms later after their periods stop.

The reason comes down to blood loss. A safe and effective treatment for hemochromatosis (in addition to limiting iron intake from foods or supplements) is regularly removing blood from the body. This causes the body to pull stored iron out of tissues like the liver, in order to replace iron-rich red blood cells. Menstruation causes women to regularly shed and replace red blood cells, a built-in, unintentional version of the treatment doctors prescribe today.

An Ancient Variant With a Modern Nickname

Thousands of years ago, people migrating into the British Isles likely carried the small changes in the HFE gene that may have helped their bodies hold onto iron during periods of scarcity. Two of those variants, C282Y and H63D, became especially common in Ireland. What once may have been a survival advantage is now linked to a condition nicknamed the “Celtic Curse,” since hemochromatosis disproportionately affects people with Irish and British ancestry.

What You Can Do

• Learn your family history. Ask relatives whether anyone has been diagnosed with hemochromatosis or unexplained liver disease.
• Ask about an iron panel. Transferrin saturation and ferritin blood tests can catch iron overload early, often before organ damage occurs.
• Learn about your genetics. Not everyone with HFE variants develops hemochromatosis, but knowing whether you carry these variants can prompt earlier monitoring, well before symptoms might show up.
• Act early if you’re diagnosed. Dietary changes and regular phlebotomy, essentially donating blood on a schedule, are simple and highly effective at preventing long-term damage.

Curious what your DNA says about your own hemochromatosis risk? 23andMe Health + Ancestry customers can check their Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HFE-Related) Genetic Health Risk report* to see whether they carry the most common variants most associated with this condition.

NOTE: Within this blog post, we use the words “men” and “women” to refer to people whose sex assigned at birth is male and female, respectively. However, we recognize that being categorized by birth sex may be an uncomfortable experience for some people. We do not mean to delegitimize anyone’s gender identity. Learn more about how 23andMe uses your genetic sex, birth sex and gender.

* The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva for the purpose of reporting and interpreting genetic health risks. It is not intended to diagnose any disease. Your ethnicity may affect the relevance of each report and how your genetic health risk results are interpreted. Each genetic health risk report describes if a person has variants associated with a higher risk of developing a disease, but does not describe a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. The test is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions, including whether or not you should take a medication, how much of a medication you should take, or determine any treatment.

The Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HFE-Related) genetic health risk report is indicated for reporting of the C282Y and H63D variants in the HFE gene and describes if a person has variants associated with an increased risk of developing iron overload related to hereditary hemochromatosis. The variants included in this report are best studied in people of European descent.

The Pacific Ocean covers nearly a third of the Earth’s surface, yet scattered across its waters are island communities with some of the most distinct and tightly kept family histories anywhere in the world. Thanks to 23andMe members who chose to share their stories of Pacific heritage, we recently added 47 new Genetic Groups spanning Oceania, from the Hawaiian Islands to the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Melanesia, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. This is the most detailed genetic view yet of Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian ancestry available to date.

What Are Genetic Groups?

Genetic Groups are part of 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition feature. They’re groups of people who share more recent DNA with one another than with the broader population, typically because their families lived in the same region, often on the same island or archipelago, for many generations. By analyzing shared DNA patterns across thousands of 23andMe members with Pacific heritage, our clustering algorithm can identify specific regional genetic signatures.

This update covers a vast swath of Oceania. It includes:

• Five groups across the Hawaiian Islands, from the Big Island and Maui to Kaua?i and O?ahu.
• Broader regional groups for Melanesian, Micronesian, Polynesian and South Pacific Islander ancestry.
• Specific groups within the Mariana Islands, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, in some cases narrowing all the way down to a single island or or even regions within a single island.

Most 23andMe members with Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian ancestry will see at least one of these groups reflected in their results. In addition, 23andMe+ Premium™ members can dive deeper into their heritage and see if they have any distant Genetic Group connections across this region.

Three Stories Written in DNA

Among the 47 new groups, a few stand out for what they reveal about the region’s history. The Chamorro (or CHamoru) people of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have called the islands home for nearly 4,000 years, a heritage visible today in the latte stones, ancient pillars once used to support elevated buildings, that still dot the landscape. 23andMe members with Chamorro ancestry can now see connections not just to the Marianas broadly, but to specific islands like Guam, Rota, Saipan and Tinian.

Farther east, near Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, lies Nan Madol, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built atop nearly 100 artificial stone islets connected by tidal canals. It served as the ceremonial seat of the Saudeleur dynasty until 1628, and the new Marshallese and Eastern Micronesian Genetic Group traces to this same stretch of ocean.

And Melanesia, which includes Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, is home to a staggering linguistic diversity. Papua New Guinea alone has more than 800 distinct languages, roughly one-eighth of all languages spoken on Earth. Melanesian peoples have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited parts of the Pacific. 23andMe members can now see if they have connections to specific regions within Melanesia.

A Shared Voyage

Many of these new groups connect to a much older migration story. Around 5,000 years ago, seafaring peoples speaking Austronesian languages began expanding out from what is now Taiwan, eventually reaching the Philippines, Indonesia, Madagascar and the far islands of Polynesia. If you’d like to dig deeper into that journey and how it shaped the genetic map of the Pacific, check out our blog: What Is Austronesian Ancestry?

Many people from Oceania carry DNA connected to both the “Filipino & Austronesian” and “Melanesian” ancestry populations, a reflection of the seafaring Austronesian expansion and the region’s long history of cultural and genetic exchange. This diversity shows up in how some of these new Genetic Groups are organized within the Ancestry Composition report. Genetic Groups normally appear nested under a specific ancestry population; however, some of the new Genetic Groups in this update fall within parts of Oceania where we don’t yet have a dedicated ancestry population. Members from these areas may see their Genetic Groups nested under either the “Filipino & Austronesian” or “Melanesian” ancestry population, depending on which population is most commonly assigned to people who share DNA with that group.

Building a More Complete Picture

Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian communities have historically been underrepresented in genetic research, which has meant fewer tools and less specific insights for people tracing their roots to the region. Expanding Genetic Groups across Oceania is thanks to the 23andMe members of Pacific heritage who chose to take part in research. There’s more work ahead, and we’re committed to continuing it.

Already a 23andMe member? Sign in to see if you have connections to these new Genetic Groups in your Ancestry Composition report.

This July 4th, as America celebrates its 250th birthday, we’re adding 29 individuals from the nation’s founding era to the Historical Matches® feature. Their DNA connects them to more than 1.3 million consented 23andMe research participants members.

But here’s the remarkable part: one of them was lost to history until your DNA helped name him again.

Lost Colonists, Now Discoverable

In May, we shared the story of a groundbreaking study published in Current Biology. 23andMe researchers, working with colleagues at Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and Historic St. Mary’s City, analyzed the DNA of 49 individuals buried at St. Mary’s City, Maryland, the first colonial capital of Maryland, founded in 1634.

We compared their DNA to millions of consented 23andMe research participants. We found that more than 1.3 million 23andMe research participants share DNA with at least one of the St. Mary’s individuals. 

The strongest genetic connections were to participants with ancestry from western England and Wales, consistent with the likely origins of many of the colony’s earliest residents. Several individuals also showed strong connections to Ireland, lending weight to historical accounts of Irish settlers among the founding colonists.

Among the burials at St. Mary’s City’s Chapel Field cemetery was a man whose identity had been lost to time. By analyzing his skeletal remains, we knew roughly his age at death, date of death, and where he was born, but his name was lost. That is, until we used genetic data to find him.

The Story Participants Helped Solve

This individual, known as Burial 56, left DNA that allowed us to search across our database for genetic relatives living today. When we compared his DNA to thousands of consented research participants, several thousand shared genetic connections with him. We then looked at the family trees of two 23andMe research participants with the strongest genetic links and found the same name appearing in both: Leonard Greene.

Leonard’s story aligned with what we knew about Burial 56. He was the son of Thomas Greene, Maryland’s second governor, and Anne Cox—who were both reidentified as burials in the Chapel Field cemetery through their genetic connection to Leonard. This marked the first time ancient DNA has been used to identify unknown historical individuals without any prior hypothesis about who they might be.

Today, Leonard Greene is one of 29 colonists whose stories you can now explore through Historical Matches.

The Path from Maryland to Kentucky

When researchers looked at who shares DNA with the St. Mary’s colonists today, they also found that 23andMe participants with roots in Kentucky showed strong genetic connections with these early Maryland settlers.

This pattern has a historical explanation. After the Revolutionary War, many Maryland Catholic families faced economic hardship and mounting religious pressure. Between roughly 1780 and 1820, many migrated to Kentucky, where they established communities in what are now Nelson and Washington counties. Nearly four centuries after their ancestors first set foot at St. Mary’s City, the genetic echo of that migration is still visible in your DNA.

If your family has deep Kentucky roots, you might find you have connections to these new Historical Matches.

Learn More

The colonists at St. Mary’s City came from Great Britain and Ireland, seeking religious freedom and opportunity in a new world. Their names are being restored. Their stories are being recovered. And now, 23andMe+ Premium™ members can explore whether they share a genetic connection to the founding colonists of St. Mary’s City, and hundreds of other historical individuals, through the Historical Matches feature.

Around 13 million people in the U.S. have PTSD, yet stigma and lack of awareness mean many go without support. In recognition of PTSD Awareness Month this June, 23andMe has released a new Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Polygenic Risk Score report* to help 23andMe+ Premium™ members understand how their genetics may influence their chances of developing PTSD, and to help all of us better understand this complicated condition.

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, such as a serious accident, a natural disaster, assault or war. While many people experience strong emotional reactions in the days and weeks after a trauma, PTSD is diagnosed when symptoms last for at least a month and significantly interfere with daily life.

Symptoms of PTSD fall into four main groups:

• Intrusive memories, like flashbacks or nightmares
• Avoiding reminders of the event, including places, people or activities
• Negative changes in mood or thinking, such as guilt, detachment and loss of interest
• Changes in arousal, including feeling on edge, being easily startled or angered and having trouble concentrating and sleeping

PTSD can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. In the U.S., about 5% of people experience PTSD each year. Symptoms usually begin within a few months of the traumatic event but can sometimes start years later.

The Role of Genetics

After experiencing a potentially traumatic event, some people will develop PTSD and others won’t. Genetics can help explain some of this difference. 

Like many other mental health conditions, genetic risk for PTSD is polygenic: rather than single genetic variants with a big impact on risk, the chances of developing PTSD are influenced by many genetic variants, each with a small impact. For example, a recent large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified nearly 100 locations in the genome associated with PTSD. Some of these variants were in or near genes that play important roles in how brain cells communicate with each other and how the brain is physically structured, providing insights into the biological basis of PTSD and why some people are more likely to develop the condition than others.

23andMe scientists independently investigated if it was possible to build a polygenic risk score (PRS) for PTSD. A PRS is a statistical model that estimates a person’s likelihood of developing a condition based on the combined impact of thousands of small genetic variants. Thanks to the contribution of more than 3 million consented 23andMe research participants, we were able to generate a PRS that analyzes more than 11,000 genetic variants to estimate the likelihood of being diagnosed with PTSD.

Beyond Genetics

Researchers believe that genetics combine with other factors to influence how likely a person is to develop PTSD after experiencing a traumatic event. These factors include:

• Previous exposure to trauma, particularly during childhood
• Ongoing life stress, such as job loss and discrimination
• A personal or family history of other mental health conditions like anxiety or depression
• Having limited social support after a traumatic event

Taking Care of Yourself After Trauma

While PTSD is impacted by some factors that can’t be changed, it’s also impacted by some things that can. Research shows that seeking support and maintaining a healthy lifestyle after a traumatic event can help with recovery and may help prevent short-term stress reactions from developing into PTSD.

• Talk to a mental healthcare professional. Although it can take time, many cases of PTSD respond well to therapy, medication or a combination of the two.
• Try to prioritize sleep and other healthy routines. Healthy sleep habits, exercise and mindfulness activities can help reduce stress.
• Avoid using alcohol and drugs to cope. Leaning on alcohol or drugs can worsen symptoms of PTSD and can interfere with treatment.
• Stay connected. Supportive friends, family and community can provide comfort and help with recovery.

Importantly, getting support from a healthcare professional is a normal and recommended part of PTSD care, and research shows that treatment can make a real difference.

If you or someone you know needs support, contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) helpline, or find a helpline in your area.

Fighting Stigma Around PTSD

Many misconceptions contribute to stigma around PTSD. Some people wrongly assume that PTSD only affects certain groups, like veterans. Others assume that people with PTSD are dangerous or a threat to others.

The reality is that PTSD can impact anyone and can result from a wide range of life experiences. It is treatable, and many people benefit from support from a mental healthcare professional. And while PTSD is a serious health condition, it doesn’t define you.

PTSD Awareness Month is a perfect time to help fight stigma by learning the facts and offering kindness and support to those living with PTSD.

Learn About Your Genetics

The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) PRS report was made possible thanks to millions of 23andMe customers who have consented to participate in research. Their contributions enable our scientists to make genetic discoveries that help the entire research community better understand health and disease, and allow us to develop new reports and features that deliver personalized genetic information to our members.

If you’re a 23andMe+ Premium member, you can now access your Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) PRS report (along with your other Health Predisposition reports) to see how your genetics may influence your chances of developing PTSD.

23andMe+ Premium members also have access to several other mental health-related reports:

• Anxiety
• Bipolar Disorder
• Depression
• Panic Attacks

* The 23andMe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) PRS report is based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates more than 11,000 genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of being diagnosed with PTSD. The report does not describe a person’s overall likelihood, does not account for lifestyle or family history and has not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) PRS report is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment.

Summer is on the way, and we’d be lying if we said heading to the beach wasn’t at the top of our minds when preparing this month’s Historical Matches^SM update. So without further ado, we’d like to tell you the story of an aptly named Roman era woman: Beachy Head Woman. 

She’s named after Beachy Head, a stretch of coastline on the south coast of England, and she lived during the Roman occupation of Britain. While her story doesn’t actually have anything to do with the beach (the site derives its name from the Old French for ‘beautiful headland’) it does involve a decade of conflicting scientific interpretations and a fascinating mystery that took until 2026 to resolve.

A Skeleton Without a Story

In 2012, researchers sorting through the archaeological collections in the south of England made an unexpected find: a skeleton in a storage box in the basement of Eastbourne’s Town Hall. The only information included with the box was a label reading “Beachy Head, 1959.”

So the team embarked on a series of archaeological and biomolecular analyses to learn about the identity of the skeleton inside. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the individual lived between 129 and 311 CE, during the Roman occupation of Britain. An analysis of the skeleton’s morphology revealed that it likely belonged to an adult woman, estimated to be between 18 and 25 years old at the time of her death.

Through an initial craniofacial analysis in 2013, researchers concluded that her skull had features consistent with sub-Saharan African ancestry. This preliminary interpretation spread fast. She was described in news outlets, books and educational materials as one of the earliest individuals of African descent identified in Roman Britain, and she entered public consciousness under the name “Beachy Head Woman”.

The Headline Ran Ahead of the Evidence

The strontium and oxygen isotope analysis carried out around the same time told a different story. Values from her tooth enamel were consistent with a childhood spent on the south coast of Britain, not overseas. Then, in 2017, a preliminary ancient DNA study generated tentative evidence of east Mediterranean ancestry, possibly Cyprus, but the dataset was too limited to settle the question. 

Despite never being formally published, these findings circulated in the media regardless. For nearly a decade, who Beachy Head Woman really was remained an unresolved mystery.

A Local Woman All Along

In early 2026, researchers at London’s Natural History Museum finally helped to resolve this question. They published genome-wide ancient DNA data from Beachy Head Woman’s remains for the first time.

They showed that her ancestry was similar to local British and Northern European populations, with no detectable evidence of sub-Saharan African ancestry. Her mitochondrial haplogroup, K1a26, is also associated with Northern European and British populations and has been identified in individuals from rural Iron Age Britain. 

They even used her DNA to try to predict what she may have looked like, concluding that she likely had blue eyes, light hair and intermediate skin pigmentation — a significant departure from the original facial reconstruction. A new reconstruction was produced in light of the DNA results.

What Her Reassessment Reveals

Beachy Head Woman’s story has implications beyond her own origins. The craniofacial analysis that initially identified her as being of sub-Saharan African ancestry used methods that have since come under substantial scrutiny. The field of bioanthropology, like all scientific fields, is always evolving and has moved away from these kinds of ancestry estimation in recent years, in part because human skeletons are incredibly diverse; people with the same ancestry can have bone structures that look completely different from one another, making hard-and-fast classifications unreliable. The case of Beachy Head Woman is a concrete illustration of what can go wrong when those methods are applied without corroborating evidence.

Learn More

Want to see if you share a genetic connection to Beachy Head Woman, or with hundreds of other historical individuals? The Historical Matches feature is available to 23andMe+ Premium™ members.

June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, and there’s a lot to talk about. Around 7.4 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. At the same time there has been a lot of new research into the genetics of the disease and how the choices you make can help shape your risk. Here’s a closer look at what’s new.

The importance of APOE 

The APOE gene remains a large focus in Alzheimer’s research. There are three common variants of the APOE gene: e2, e3 and e4. Of the three, e4 carries the highest known genetic risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. However, researchers are still actively exploring the nuances of each variant, and some recent findings are prompting the field to rethink assumptions that have stood for decades.

A recent study looked at exactly how much Alzheimer’s disease can be traced back to APOE. Using those with two copies of the e2 variant as the comparison point, researchers found that more than 70% of Alzheimer’s cases were attributable to carrying at least one copy of e3 or e4. 

A separate study looked at people who carry two copies of the e4 variant and saw they tend to show biological signs of Alzheimer’s earlier in life, and the path the disease takes is more predictable than in those with other APOE variants. While this study has limitations (including a lack of participants from diverse ancestries), the authors make the case that having two e4 variants is a distinct genetic form of Alzheimer’s, which could mean people with this genetic result might benefit from prevention strategies, clinical trials and treatments built specifically for them. 

Towards simpler, earlier Alzheimer’s detection

For a long time, the only way to look for biological signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain was a PET scan or a spinal tap. Both are expensive, hard to access and, in the case of a spinal tap, invasive. But last year a new blood test was approved that changes this. 

This blood test measures two well-known hallmarks of the disease called phosphorylated tau (p-tau; a sticky protein that builds up inside brain cells) and amyloid beta (a protein that forms plaques outside brain cells). As treatments and prevention strategies continue to improve, easier testing makes a real difference. The earlier Alzheimer’s can be identified, the more options people have.

What you can do: new research in Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention

For years the message around Alzheimer’s was that there was nothing you could do to prevent it. New research is changing that message.

First, several antiamyloid medications have been approved by the FDA. These drugs can slow Alzheimer’s progression by 25% to 30% when started soon after symptoms appear. However, genetics may play a role in potential side effects from these drugs. People with two copies of the e4 variant in the APOE gene may be more likely to develop side effects including brain swelling or bleeding. Because of this, genetic testing to check for the e4 variant is recommended before starting antiamyloid medications.

In addition to new treatments, a growing body of research suggests that everyday choices can meaningfully shape your risk. The U.S. POINTER study showed that physical and cognitive exercise, diet and regular check-ins on blood pressure and other routine lab results can help slow or prevent cognitive decline. 

Diet research is moving fast, but it’s also where the science is still settling. Recent studies have linked specific foods (for example red meat and eggs) to lower Alzheimer’s risk. These are early findings and they don’t always agree with one another, so any single food headline is worth taking with caution. That being said, a diet with plenty of green leafy vegetables, fruits, whole grains and healthy fats such as those found in fish, nuts and olive oil is associated with a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Some of the stronger recent findings are around vaccines. Large studies have now linked the shingles vaccine, the RSV vaccine and other vaccines to lower dementia risk. Researchers think the protective effect may come less from the specific virus the vaccine targets and more from how these newer vaccines engage the immune system overall. If you’re 50 or older, it may be worth talking to your doctor about whether the shingles or RSV vaccines are right for you.

The bottom line

Alzheimer’s research has hit an inflection point. We understand genes like APOE better than ever. We can detect hallmarks of the disease earlier and less invasively. And we have growing evidence that lifestyle and even routine vaccines may help shape your risk. The story of Alzheimer’s is now one of momentum and hope. Understanding your APOE result can connect you to that story and to the research helping shape what comes next.

* The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva to report and interpret genetic health risks. It is not intended to diagnose any disease. Your ethnicity may affect the relevance of each report and how your genetic health risk results are interpreted. Each genetic health risk report describes if a person has variants associated with a higher risk of developing a disease but does not describe a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. The test is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health or to be used to make medical decisions, including whether or not you should take a medication, how much of a medication you should take, or determine any treatment.

The Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease genetic health risk report is indicated for reporting of the e4 variant in the APOE gene. It describes if a person has a variant associated with an increased risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The e4 variant included in this report is found and has been studied in many ethnicities. Detailed risk estimates have been studied the most in people of European descent.

Imagine living with pain so severe it reshapes your calendar, your career and your sense of what your body can do, then waiting up to 12 years to learn why. That is the reality for many people with endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus and can cause severe pelvic pain, heavy periods and infertility. As many as one in 10 women live with it, yet its biology has remained stubbornly difficult to untangle. A new study is helping change that.

A Bigger, More Diverse Look at Endometriosis Genetics

The study published recently in Nature Genetics is the largest multi-ancestry endometriosis genome-wide association study, or GWAS, ever conducted. A GWAS scans the genomes of large groups of people to find genetic variants that occur more often in people with a given condition. 

This study analyzed data from 105,869 people with endometriosis, including more than 30,000 23andMe consented research participants with the condition, nearly doubling the number of cases studied in previous endometriosis GWAS. Researchers identified 80 genetic variants associated with endometriosis, 37 of which are new discoveries.

The analysis also showed that the genetics of endometriosis may differ depending on your ancestry. Seven of the 80 genetic variants had different effects in different populations. For example, variants near the HMGN1P19 and SYN3 genes were more strongly associated with endometriosis in people of East Asian and European ancestry. This research is starting to show that endometriosis may share a common genetic story across populations, but the genetics appear to shape the picture differently in those from different parts of the world.

What the Data Source Reveals About the Disease

Many people in the study self-reported if they had endometriosis or not. Self-reporting is reasonably reliable, with people correctly identifying their endometriosis diagnosis about 84% of the time, but how the data is collected can influence which genetic signals come into focus.

To investigate this, the researchers looked at people who had clinically confirmed endometriosis, meaning a diagnosis documented in medical records, separately from people who self-reported the condition. Even with a smaller sample, five genetic variants were associated with endometriosis in the clinically confirmed group, including a previously known signal near the ZHX3 gene, that were not found in the larger analysis. By looking at just the subgroup of people with clinically confirmed endometriosis the researchers were able to uncover more genetic variants that could reflect more severe, or more symptomatic forms of the disease.

From Genes to Potential Therapies

This study also looked into potential treatments for endometriosis. By using GWAS results to predict whether existing drugs might target endometriosis, the researchers flagged five candidates for repurposing. 

Drug repurposing may help shorten the long path from discovery to clinical use because these compounds already have safety data and known dosing. For a condition with few targeted treatment options, that kind of head start matters.

Why Inclusive Research Still Has Work to Do

This study included people from six different ancestry groups, which allowed researchers to find variants that smaller, less diverse studies could not. However, when researchers developed a polygenic risk score (a way of combining the effect of many genetic variants to predict the likelihood of having or developing a condition) based on data from people of European descent it did not perform equally well across ancestries.

Genetics research has historically underrepresented many communities, and that gap shapes what these models can do for whom. Closing it will require continued investment in ancestry-informed risk models and broader participation in research.

The 23andMe Endometriosis Report

23andMe offers an Endometriosis PRS report* to 23andMe+ Premium™ members, drawing on more than 13,000 genetic variants to estimate a person’s likelihood of developing the condition. The report is one way the science emerging from studies like this one can reach people directly.

* The 23andMe Endometriosis PRS report is based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates more than 13,000 genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of developing endometriosis. The report does not describe a person’s overall likelihood, does not account for lifestyle or family history, and has not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. The Endometriosis PRS report is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment.

NOTE: Within this blog post, we use the word “women” to refer to people whose sex assigned at birth is female. However, we recognize that not everyone who experiences endometriosis will identify as a woman, and being categorized by birth sex may be an uncomfortable experience for some people. We do not mean to delegitimize anyone’s gender identity. Learn more about why we made this decision in this help article.

Did you know 23andMe has published over 40 research papers on mental health? This Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re taking the opportunity to share some of what we have found.

We’ve spent years studying the DNA of millions of consented research participants, and with this powerful dataset we’ve been able to identify genetic variants linked to conditions like depression, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

A rugged genetic landscape

The genetic underpinnings of mental health are complex, to say the least. There are potentially hundreds or thousands of genetic variants linked to any given condition, and it takes a huge community of research participants to uncover just a fraction of them. 

Over the years, as our research community has grown, it has enabled us and our academic collaborators to identify more and more genetic associations with psychiatric conditions. Those findings not only shed light on the biology of these conditions, but also pave the way for research seeking better treatments.

We’ve been working to ensure these studies include people of diverse ancestries, too, something that’s not only important to enable the development of treatments that work for everyone but has also been shown to power more and better genetic discoveries.

Breaking down silos

Our research has also gone beyond looking at single conditions to understand how the genetics of different mental health conditions may be related. Researchers have found that many psychiatric conditions have substantial genetic overlap with each other, and even with other kinds of health conditions. For example, studies of 23andMe consented research participants found that genetic variants linked to psychiatric conditions were also linked to chronic pain, alcohol use disorder and even endometriosis. 

The reasons for that are an ongoing topic of investigation, but one reason is that a single gene often has many roles in the body.

Filling in the broader picture

While genetics plays an important role in mental health, it’s by no means the only factor. Elements like one’s environment and stressful life experiences are important too. Of course, we’ve tackled this topic as well. 23andMe research participants respond to surveys on life experiences, health history and more, enabling studies like one that looked for ways individuals can lower their risk of depression and others seeking to understand who will experience treatment-resistant depression.

We’ve also been looking at how genetics can impact the body’s response to certain medications and lead to more side effects for some people. Researchers hope that this kind of information could help people find the best treatment for them, faster.

Research insights for real life

We also are working to return these genetic insights to our members. 23andMe+ Premium™ members receive genetic reports that provide insight into the likelihood of being diagnosed with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and more, based on the complex genetic associations uncovered in our research. Members can also learn whether they have genetic variants that can impact how their body processes certain medications, including certain antidepressants.

For many people, learning about all the factors that impact our and our families’ mental health — the combination of past and current stressors on a background of our unique genetics — can help illuminate a path forward to better well-being. In our research, we’ve found that learning of a genetic predisposition to depression doesn’t exacerbate symptoms of anxiety or depression, and our experience of communicating this information has shown us that many individuals find it both validating and empowering.

Today, it can take far too long to find an effective strategy for managing mental health symptoms, and the treatments that are available remain imperfect at best. It’s central to 23andMe Research Institute’s mission not only to enable research that moves the mental health field forward, but also to make insights from that research directly accessible to individuals. 

World Goth Day, celebrated every May 22nd, is typically a chance for fans of darkwave music, dramatic eyeliner and Victorian-inspired fashion to celebrate a subculture that has been going strong since the 1980s. This year, we’re marking the occasion with a slightly different kind of Goth story — one that predates the black lipstick by about 1,800 years.

This May, 23andMe is adding 35 individuals from a 2026 study to our Historical Matches^SM feature. These are not your weekend-festival Goths. These are the Goths, the actual Germanic people whose migrations and conflicts helped shape the final centuries of the Roman Empire.

Not the Same Goths (But Just as Interesting)

The modern goth subculture takes its name from the ancient Goths, though the connection is mostly aesthetic. The real Goths were a Germanic people who likely originated in Scandinavia and, over several centuries, migrated south through the Baltic region, eventually establishing themselves across a vast stretch of central and eastern Europe. By the 2nd century CE, Gothic communities occupied a dynamic frontier zone at the edge of the Roman Empire, trading with merchants to the south, maintaining ties with Baltic peoples to the north and absorbing influences from across an enormous geographic range.

Far from the brooding loners of pop culture imagination, the ancient Goths appear to have been remarkably cosmopolitan.

A Community at the Edge of the Roman World

The individuals we added to Historical Matches this month were buried at a cluster of cemeteries in the Hrubieszów Basin of eastern Poland, belonging to what archaeologists call the Masłomęcz group, a well-documented Gothic community of the Late Iron Age. The site was an ideal candidate for ancient DNA analysis in part because an unusually high proportion of its burials were inhumations (intact body burials rather than cremations), providing enough preserved skeletal material for genome-wide sequencing.

The study, published in Genome Biology earlier this year, analyzed 43 individuals buried across several of these cemeteries, dating from approximately the late 2nd to the mid-4th century CE. Of these individuals, 35 had high-quality DNA sequences, and they have now been added to the Historical Matches feature.

The DNA: Cosmopolitan from the Start

The genetic results confirmed that the community’s ancestry was primarily derived from a Scandinavian-like source population, consistent with the Goths’ proposed northern origins. But that’s where any expectation of uniformity ends.

A striking proportion of individuals carried genetic signatures characteristic of populations from the eastern Baltic, the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean, and there were more than 30 distinct mitochondrial haplogroups represented among this small group of individuals. This shows that the community was actively absorbing outsiders from across a wide geographic range.

One individual stood out above all. Rather than the Scandinavian ancestry typical of his community, roughly half of his DNA traced to populations associated with the Iberian Peninsula, about a third to populations from Imperial Roman Italy and the remainder to the Carpathian Basin of present-day Hungary and Slovakia, with no detectable Scandinavian ancestry at all. That an individual with such distinctly southern European roots appears among the very earliest burials at the site is a remarkable testament to just how cosmopolitan this Gothic community was from its very beginnings.

Social Bonds Over Family Ties

Perhaps the most unexpected finding concerned how individuals were buried. Despite sharing graves, co-buried individuals showed no evidence of close kinship with one another. This finding suggests that in this community, burial groupings may have reflected social bonds rather than family relationships. It’s a rare glimpse into how Gothic social life may have been organized beyond the household.

Learn More

23andMe+ Premium™ members can explore whether they share a genetic link to these ancient Goths, and hundreds of other historical individuals, through the Historical Matches feature.

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the histories, cultures and contributions of communities whose roots span the Pacific. To mark the occasion, 23andMe is adding 31 new Vietnamese Genetic Groups to its Ancestry Composition feature, offering members with Vietnamese heritage their most detailed view yet of where in Vietnam their ancestors likely came from.

A Closer Look at Vietnamese Ancestry

Vietnam’s geography has long shaped its people. The country stretches more than 1,000 miles along the eastern edge of Southeast Asia, threading through highlands, river valleys and two great deltas. For centuries, those landscapes have channeled migration, trade and family ties, and they may show up in your DNA, too.

Genetic Groups are clusters of people who share more recent DNA with one another than with the broader population, often because their families lived in the same region for many generations. By analyzing patterns of shared DNA across thousands of 23andMe members of Vietnamese descent, our clustering algorithm identifies regional signatures finer than a single “Vietnamese” label can capture. If you have Vietnamese roots, you may now see groups anywhere from the Mekong Delta in the south to the Red River Delta in the north. These groups reflect the long shared history of families and communities, not modern political boundaries.

Most members with Vietnamese ancestry will receive at least one of these Genetic Groups, and 23andMe+ Premium™ members also get the ability to see groups they may have more distant matches to, opening a wider view of regional connections.

A Growing Picture of Asia

Vietnam joins a growing set of Asian representation in 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition. In recent years, 23andMe has added Genetic Groups in the Philippines, China, Korea and Mongolia, Japan and South Asia. 

More groups across Southeast Asia and the Pacific are on the way. 

There are also connections throughout Asia in the Historical Matches^SM feature, which compares your DNA to people who lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Recent additions include ancient individuals from southwest China and ancient China, a 6th-century cross-border couple and the mysterious skeletons of Roopkund Lake in the Himalayas. 

Connecting to Your Health Journey

Your ancestry is one part of the picture. 23andMe also offers reports on many health conditions relevant to people of Asian heritage, such as coronary artery disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. In addition, several 23andMe health reports examine specific genetic variants that are more common in certain Asian populations.

• The Nonsyndromic Hearing Loss and Deafness, DFNB1 (GJB2-Related) Carrier Status report* looks at variants in the GJB2 gene that can cause one of the most common inherited forms of hearing loss. Up to 1 in 4 people of East or Southeast Asian descent are carriers for this condition, and this report includes variants that are more common for them as well as those of South Asian descent.
• The CYP2C19 Drug Metabolism report** can tell you about genetic variants that can affect how your body processes certain medications for heart disease, depression, acid reflux, and other conditions. Some of these variants are more common in people of East Asian descent than in other populations. 
• The Alcohol Flush Reaction report examines a variant in the ALDH2 gene that’s common across East Asia and affects how the body breaks down a toxic byproduct of alcohol.

Expanding the Map of Asian Heritage and Health

The future of genetics depends on the diversity of stories powering it. This Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, explore your Genetic Groups (new and old), Historical Matches and personalized reports, and see what your heritage reveals. 23andMe members who choose to participate help build a product that reflects the full breadth of the human experience. Already a 23andMe member? Sign in to discover your new regional connections, and celebrate your unique story.

* The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults for the purpose of reporting carrier status and reporting and interpreting genetic health risks. The relevance of each report may vary based on ethnicity. Our carrier status reports can be used to determine carrier status, but cannot determine if you have two copies of any genetic variant. These carrier reports are not intended to tell you anything about your risk for developing a disease in the future or anything about the health of your fetus, or your newborn child’s risk of developing a particular disease later in life. For certain conditions, we provide a single report that includes information on both carrier status and genetic health risk. The Nonsyndromic Hearing Loss and Deafness, DFNB1 (GJB2-Related) carrier status report is indicated for the detection of eight variants in the GJB2 gene. The report can tell you if you have two copies of some tested variants, and if you are at risk of having hearing loss related to DFNB1, but does not describe your overall risk of having DFNB1-related hearing loss. This test is relevant for people of many, but not all, ethnicities.

** 23andMe PGS Pharmacogenetics reports: The 23andMe test uses qualitative genotyping to detect 3 variants in the CYP2C19 gene in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva for the purpose of reporting and interpreting information about the processing of certain therapeutics to inform discussions with a healthcare professional. It does not describe if a person will or will not respond to a particular therapeutic and does not describe the association between detected variants and any specific therapeutic. Our CYP2C19 Pharmacogenetics report provides certain information about variants associated with metabolism of some therapeutics and provides interpretive drug information regarding the potential effect of citalopram and clopidogrel therapy. Results for certain CYP2C19 results should be confirmed by an independent genetic test prescribed by your own healthcare provider before taking any medical action. Warning: Test information should not be used to start, stop, or change any course of treatment and does not test for all possible variants that may affect metabolism or protein function. The PGS test is not a substitute for visits to a healthcare professional. Making changes to your current regimen can lead to harmful side effects or reduced intended benefits of your medication, therefore consult with your healthcare professional before taking any medical action. For important information and limitations regarding Pharmacogenetics reports, visit 23andme.com/test-info/pharmacogenetics/

Nearly four centuries ago, a small group of English and Irish settlers stepped ashore on the southern tip of Maryland and founded a colony they called St. Mary’s City. Many came seeking religious freedom, others arrived as indentured servants. Over the years, a significant number of these early colonists were buried at the site of the 17th-century Brick Chapel, but their names have since been lost to time.

Now, a new study published in Current Biology and co-led by researchers at the 23andMe Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History is helping restore their stories. With the support of Historic St. Mary’s City, the researchers analyzed the genomes of 49 individuals buried in St. Mary’s City’s Chapel Field. By comparing their DNA to more than 11.5 million consenting 23andMe research participants, the team traced where these colonists came from, mapped how their descendants spread across America, and, for the first time, proposed possible identities for three previously unknown individuals, including the colony’s second governor.

A short lived colonial capital

Established in 1634, St. Mary’s City was the founding English settlement in the colony of Maryland. It was envisioned by George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore, as both an expansion of the King’s realm and a place of religious freedom, particularly for persecuted Catholics. The first settlers departed from the Isle of Wight aboard two ships, the Ark and the Dove in late 1633, and arrived at Maryland’s southern shore the following year.

Though its role as a capital city was short-lived (the seat of government moved to present-day Annapolis in 1695), St. Mary’s City left a lasting mark on American history. The Chapel Field cemetery, located at the site of the colony’s Brick Chapel, served as the primary burial ground for nearly a century. Despite existing written records and the ability of many present-day Americans to trace their ancestry to the historic city, many gaps remain in our knowledge of this founding population.

Ancient DNA meets the world’s largest genetics database

Researchers extracted ancient DNA from the bones of individuals buried at the site, then used an identity-by-descent approach to find genetic matches among living 23andMe customers who consented to research.

More than 1.3 million consented research participants share DNA with one or more of the St. Mary’s individuals. DNA sharing occurred at particularly high rates among participants with ancestry from western England and Wales. Several individuals in the study showed stronger genetic connections to Ireland, lending weight to accounts of Irish settlers among the earliest colonists.

Tracking a documented migration in DNA

One of the study’s most compelling findings is the detection of a clear genetic signal corresponding to a migration previously known only from historical records. Following the Revolutionary War, many Catholic families from St. Mary’s County faced economic hardship and growing religious discrimination. This prompted a wave of emigration to Kentucky primarily between 1780 and 1820. These settlers established themselves mainly in what are now Nelson and Washington counties. 

When the research team mapped which 23andMe participants shared the closest genetic connections to the St. Mary’s individuals, they found enrichment around Louisville, Kentucky, highlighting the power of this approach.

Expanding the Calvert family tree

Among the 49 individuals studied, three of the burials were already known: Philip Calvert, the colony’s fifth governor, his first wife Anne Wolseley Calvert, and an infant, who was confirmed using DNA to be Philip Calvert’s son, likely from his second marriage. All three were buried in unusual lead coffins beneath the chapel floor. 

By comparing their DNA to the remaining individuals in the study, the researchers identified three additional members of the extended Calvert family. The team also identified five other family groupings among the burials, including one that spanned three generations. Given the extraordinarily high mortality rates of the early colonial period, finding a multigenerational family within a single cemetery was a notable finding.

A new approach to identifying the nameless dead

Perhaps the most novel aspect of the study is what it demonstrates about using wide-ranging disciplines—from genetics and genealogy to archaeology, history, and osteology—to propose identities for otherwise unknown burials.

The study team invited consented 23andMe research participants who shared the strongest genetic connections to the St. Mary’s burials to contribute details from their own family trees. Researchers then searched for names that appeared across multiple genealogies and combined those findings with other anthropological evidence. Focusing on three closely related individuals, they found overlaps pointing to a single colonial family: Governor Thomas Greene, the second governor of the Maryland colony, his first wife Anne, and their son Leonard. This marks the first time ancient DNA has been used to propose identities for unknown historical individuals without any prior knowledge of who they might be, a significant milestone for the field.

Research built with community

Cutting-edge science wasn’t the only key to the success of this study. The early Maryland descendant community, including those who trace their lineage to the original Ark and Dove voyage, provided active support of the project.

The study also depended on the millions of 23andMe members who chose to participate in research. Participants who reported genealogical ties to 17th-century St. Mary’s City were significantly more likely to share DNA with the colonial individuals than those who did not, underscoring the real-world meaning of those genetic connections.

What this means for the future of ancient DNA research

The St. Mary’s City study represents something genuinely new: a framework that combines ancient DNA, archaeology, genealogical records, and a large modern genetics database to answer questions that written history could not resolve alone. The approach, particularly the method for proposing identities for unknown individuals, opens a door to similar work at countless other historical sites.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, this research underscores the enduring connections between the nation’s earliest European settlers and millions of living Americans.

If you have ever spent a May morning sneezing your way through a pollen cloud, or watched a child scratch at itchy patches of eczema, you are not alone. May is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month, and according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, more than 100 million people in the United States experience some form of allergy each year. Behind those numbers sits a deep and tangled biology, one that 23andMe scientists and their academic collaborators have been working to untangle for more than a decade.

A decade-plus of allergy and asthma genetic research

In 2013, 23andMe researchers led a genome-wide association study (a GWAS, which looks across the genome for genetic variants more common in people with a given trait) of nearly 54,000 people with self-reported allergies. That early study identified 16 genetic variants associated with cat, dust-mite and pollen allergies, eight of which overlapped with asthma. In the years that followed, 23andMe contributed to more than a dozen additional publications.

A 2017 paper in Nature Genetics analyzed about 360,000 people and identified 136 genetic variants associated with asthma, hay fever or eczema. This showed that these conditions may have a common genetic foundation rooted in immune regulation. Follow-up work in 2019 and 2020 pushed further, surfacing eleven additional variants in or near nine genes associated with allergies, and finding additional genetic variants associated with developing allergies, asthma and eczema at a very early age.

Digging more into age of onset, a 2019 analysis using UK Biobank data, and then replicated with 23andMe data, found that around 30% of the genetic variants associated with asthma were shared between childhood-onset and adult-onset asthma, but most genetic variants were distinct.

A 2023 multi-ancestry analysis that included more than 3 million consented 23andMe research participants identified new genetic variants associated with eczema. Importantly, this work included a diverse set of participants that enabled the discovery of two genetic variants that may be associated with eczema specifically in people of Japanese ancestry. It’s a reminder that studying diverse populations matters for finding new genetic associations.

Insights don’t stop at the journal page

Discoveries from the 23andMe Research Institute don’t sit on a shelf. Many of them flow directly into the reports you can see in your 23andMe+ Premium™ account, including five that are especially relevant this month: Asthma and Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis), which can be found with other Health Predisposition reports, and Cat Allergy, Dog Allergy, and Seasonal Allergies*, which can be found with other Wellness reports.

Each of these reports uses a polygenic score, a calculation that adds up the small effects of many genetic variants to estimate your likelihood of developing a condition. This information, alongside other factors like family history and environment, may help you understand and manage these conditions. 

The genetic variants drawn on by these reports trace back to research like that above, which is to say, they trace back in part to consented 23andMe research participants who answered survey questions about their own allergies and asthma. The more people contribute, the better the science gets, and the better the reports become for the next generation of 23andMe members.

What you can do this allergy season

Genetics is only one piece of why asthma or allergies show up in your life, and there is plenty you can do regardless of what your genes say.

• Track your triggers. Keeping a simple log of when symptoms flare can help you and your clinician spot patterns, whether the culprit is tree pollen, a particular pet or an indoor mold. 
• For those with asthma, recognize the warning signs of an asthma attack and create a plan for action. Catching an asthma attack early can prevent severe symptoms.
• Check your reports. Your 23andMe Asthma, Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) and allergy-related reports can give you a sense of your genetic likelihood, which may be useful context to share with a healthcare professional.
• Talk to a clinician. If symptoms are persistent or affecting daily life, allergists and dermatologists have a growing toolkit of treatments.

The science that built today’s reports were powered by people willing to share a little about their own health. 23andMe research participants are helping to shape new discoveries. The next finding might just turn into the next report.

*The 23andMe Asthma, Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis), Cat Allergy, Dog Allergy, and Seasonal Allergies PRS reports are based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates many genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of experiencing these conditions. These reports do not describe a person’s overall likelihood, do not account for lifestyle or family history and have not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. These reports are not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment.

Here’s a sobering number to sit with: roughly one in five Americans will develop some form of skin cancer by age 70, making it the most common cancer in the United States. May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, a good moment to talk about how the sun, your skin, and your DNA come together to shape your personal risk.

The Genetic Story Behind Skin Cancer

Skin cancer isn’t one disease but several. Melanoma, though less common, is often more dangerous because it’s more likely to spread to other organs. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), together called non-melanoma skin cancers, are far more common and usually less aggressive, though SCC can spread if left untreated.

23andMe Research on Skin Cancer

Over the last decade, scientists at the 23andMe Research Institute have worked alongside collaborators and with hundreds of thousands of consented participants to map the DNA markers associated with these cancers. This research helps scientists worldwide hunt for better treatments and identify those who may need more aggressive screening.

Key milestones from our research community include:

• A 2016 study that found 14 new genetic variants associated with BCC.
• A 2022 study that identified 19 additional BCC genetic variants and 15 SCC-associated genetic variants.
• Most recently, a study that was able to identify 36 new BCC genetic variants, 33 of which also showed associations with SCC risk.

Connecting the Dots: Polygenic Risk Scores

To make sense of all these different genetic variants, which individually have small overall effects on skin cancer risk, scientists combine them into disease risk scores, also called polygenic risk scores, that summarize the contribution of many genetic variants at once. 

In 2021 23andMe researchers combined genetic variants and non-genetic factors (including things like age, pigmentation traits, mole counts, sun exposure history, and family history) to create scores that predict the likelihood of developing BCC, SCC, and melanoma. These risk scores also predicted earlier age of skin cancer diagnosis.

An Unexpected Connection

One of the more intriguing findings: genes that protect against vitiligo (the autoimmune condition that causes patches of skin to lose pigment) appear to increase skin cancer risk. This suggests that the same genetic “wiring” that tells your immune system how to interact with your skin’s pigment cells may also play a role in defending against skin cancer.

The 23andMe Skin Cancer Reports

At 23andMe, our goal is to not only make new genetic discoveries, but to transform these scientific discoveries into personalized insights that empower members to take action. To translate this science into something personal we created two reports: the Skin Cancer (Melanoma)* and Skin Cancer (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas)** PRS reports, which estimate your likelihood of developing skin cancers based on many genetic variants. Both reports are powered by polygenic risk scores and are available to 23andMe+ Premium™ members.

These reports can’t tell you whether you will get skin cancer, but they do give you one more piece of information to weigh alongside your skin type, sun exposure history, and family history when thinking about prevention and screening.

The Gap in Genetic Research

Skin cancer affects people of every background, but the conversation around it has historically centered on lighter-skinned populations. People with darker skin have a lower overall incidence of skin cancer, yet they often face worse outcomes in part because melanomas in people of color more often appear in less sun-exposed places like the palms, soles, and under the nails, where they can go unnoticed until later stages. 

Much of the foundational genetic research on skin cancer has also been conducted primarily in people of European descent, which limits how well polygenic risk scores perform for people of other ancestries. In fact, the polygenic risk score behind the 23andMe Skin Cancer (Melanoma) and Skin Cancer (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas) reports did not perform well enough to deliver results to people of all backgrounds, and unfortunately these members are not able to receive their personalized genetic results for these topics. The Skin Cancer (Melanoma) genetic results are not available for individuals of East/Southeast Asian, South Asian, or Sub-Saharan African/African American descent, and the Skin Cancer (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas) genetic results are not available for individuals of East/Southeast Asian or South Asian descent.

This is precisely why expanding who participates in genetic research is so important. The more people of all ancestries, backgrounds, and ethnicities participate in research, the stronger and more inclusive these insights become. 23andMe research participants are on the forefront of helping change this, for themselves and for future generations. Learn more here.

What You Can Do

Genetics is one part of the story you can’t change, but almost everything else about skin cancer prevention is in your hands:

• Wear broad-spectrum sunscreen (SPF 30 or higher) daily, even when it’s cloudy, and reapply every two hours outdoors.
• Seek shade, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when UV radiation is strongest.
• Skip tanning beds. Their UV exposure can contribute to melanoma and other skin cancers.
• Do a monthly self-check. Look for new or changing moles, sores that bleed or don’t heal, and anything that’s new or changing in size, shape, or color.
• See a dermatologist for a full-body skin exam, especially if you have a personal or family history of skin cancer.

Catching skin cancer early dramatically improves outcomes. Most skin cancers, when found early, are highly treatable.

If you’re a 23andMe+ Premium member, take a few minutes this Skin Cancer Awareness Month to review your Skin Cancer (Melanoma) and Skin Cancer (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas) reports, and then put sunscreen on tomorrow morning.

* The 23andMe Skin Cancer (Melanoma) PRS report is based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates more than 1,800 genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of experiencing melanoma. The report does not describe a person’s overall likelihood, does not account for lifestyle or family history and has not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. The Skin Cancer (Melanoma) PRS report is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment.

** The 23andMe Skin Cancer (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas) PRS report is based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates more than 11,000 genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of experiencing basal and squamous cell carcinomas. The report does not describe a person’s overall likelihood, does not account for lifestyle or family history and has not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. The Skin Cancer (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas) PRS report is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment.