Public Participation

The Genographic Project team is excited to be able to enlist the aid of the general public in this worldwide effort. Through the purchase of a Genographic Project participation kit, a person can anonymously and painlessly contribute his or her own genetic sample to the Project. The sample provided is tested for about a dozen non-medical genetic markers and cannot be used for any other purpose than genetic anthropology. As the sample is processed, the results themselves are made available through a secure login that can only be accessed through the use of the unique Genographic Project I.D. number that was provided with the participation kit.

By accessing your haplogroup results (a haplogroup consists of individuals with consistent genetic marker patterns), you can learn about your deep ancestry while contributing to this scientific initiative in a very meaningful way. As the Project advances over its five year term, we hope to make further progress on our understanding of humanity's migration across the planet, and will be transferring that knowledge at ever greater levels of detail for each haplogroup. You will therefore be learning as we learn, and we hope you will find the journey as fascinating as we do.

Furthermore, a portion of the kit purchase cost goes to the Genographic Legacy Fund, a fund that will be distributed to well-established assistance efforts for indigenous communities worldwide. By becoming involved in the Genographic Project through the purchase and use of the participation kit, you are in a sense becoming an 'associate explorer' on our team - a rare and exciting opportunity to get involved in a major scientific endeavour that could change the way we understand our shared history as a species.

IBM's emerging technologies team provided IT systems and workflow assistance to ease the public's ability to participate and to protect every person's privacy as a participant, including the ap plication of state of the art security measures and technologies at every juncture in the public participation process.

We invite you to take a look at these genetic journeys and to see this cross-section of the IBM community which, in many ways, mirrors the world at large.

Learn more about the Genographic Project and how to get involved.