History
Family Tree DNA was the first commercial company to develop DNA testing for genealogical DNA testing purposes.
Family Tree DNA was founded by Bennett Greenspan, an entrepreneur and lifelong genealogy enthusiast. Greenspan now serves as President and CEO of Family Tree DNA and Managing Partner of Gene by Gene. Family Tree DNA was founded by Greenspan in 1999 and became operational in April 2000.
Family Tree DNA was founded as a result of a quest to verify if Greenspan's family in California was related to someone in Argentina. Greenspan came across a paper by Dr Michael Hammer et al. showing how the Y-DNA chromosome could be used to break down this genealogical brick wall. He contacted Dr Hammer and the University of Arizona and they decided to collaborate in order to make this science available to the genealogical community.
The Arizona Research Labs at the University of Arizona performed all testing for Family Tree DNA initially.
Family Tree DNA became widely known for its Y-chromosome STR testing for the Cohen Modal Haplotype. Family Tree DNA includes among its scientific staff, Dr. Michael Hammer (PhD), one of a team of scientists that first published on the Cohen Modal Haplotype in 1997 in the journal Nature.
In February 2009, Family Tree DNA announced that they, in partnership with the National Geographic Genographic Project, have tested over 500,000 kits.
In September 2012, the parent company of Family Tree DNA Genealogy by Genetics, Ltd was renamed Gene by Gene, Ltd and restructured to comprise four divisions, namely Family Tree DNA for genealogical DNA tests, DNA Traits for CLIA regulated health diagnostic tests, DNA DTC for research use only tests including whole genome sequencing and DNA Findings for AABB certified relationship tests. Gene by Gene owns and runs its own lab, the Genomics Research Center in Houston, Texas.
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