Dr. Connie Bormans is now the lab director. Most of the FTDNA products are now handled by the lab there in Houston, not at University of Arizona anymore. However, they still do the batching on Wednesday nights, and a batch holds 500 samples.
The lab at Gene by Gene (parent company now of FTDNA) is assessed and accredited by independent groups. They are inspected every 2 years. Those groups are the CLIA (by the U.S. Federal Government), the College of American Pathologists (CAP - the hardest to get - the gold standard), AABI (paternity testing - results used for courts), and the New York State Department of Health. Accreditation requires that the lab is offering certain genetic tests, paternity tests, clinical tests, and diagnostic tests (these are not in the FTDNA division, but their medical or research divisions). Accreditation requires strict protocols, validates methods used in the lab, and insures that the lab meets the highest standards. (I posted a couple of months ago about the breast cancer gene - the BRCA 1 & 2, which are regulated tests. You would need to get a request from your doctor to have a lab test you. The U.S. government labs can test for it and Myriad can test for it (somewhere around the $1500 - $2200 range). Gene by Gene's medical division is running the test for $995, hence the lawsuit that I posted about). Genetic genealogy is not regulated yet. But they figure that the day is coming, so they decided to have their lab accredited. They met all the requirements for the U.S. Federal Government (CLIA) and are waiting for them to show up one day to inspect. They also decided to go for the CAP, the gold standard and highest of any of the accreditations. The CAP inspector showed up and informed Gene by Gene that it will be a 2 day process to inspect the lab. By lunch on the 1st day, the inspector was done and ready to write up his findings. Something like 6 minor things! He said that he had never inspected a lab that was so by the book and followed everything to the letter! Besides the background on the lab, Dr. Connie said that they are working on improving the efficiency to decrease the turnaround time on the FTDNA products. The are also working on decreasing the analysis time of the mtDNA - trying to produce the list of mutations/differences faster. I know some people's mtDNA has been behind. They are also doing new products: The Big Y (entire Y chromosome) and bring back the Deep Clade test (anthropology type info). -- Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
