Two hundred randomly chosen Cornell undergraduate volunteers lined up in Kennedy Hall Feb. 1 to provide a cheek swab for DNA to test their deep ancestries for the new Cornell Genetic Ancestry Project.

The event was kicked off with a public lecture by the project's directors, Charles Aquadro, Cornell professor of molecular biology and genetics and director of the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics; and Spencer Wells, National Geographic explorer-in-residence, director of the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project and a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell.

The students' DNA will be used to determine their ancestors' human origins and early migrations. Over the semester, the project will serve as a springboard for campuswide events and class discussions surrounding the scientific, social, legal and ethical implications of genetic testing. Senior lecturer Marilyn Rivchin's "Documentary Workshop" will chronicle the campus events in a documentary film.

"This broader semesterlong project has an important goal -- to foster respect for cultural diversity and diverse viewpoints," said Aquadro.

The first 200 students to sign up were tested at no cost, and their DNA will be analyzed at labs at the Genographic Project, an international, multiyear initiative. Each student's ancestral footsteps will be mapped, based on their DNA, to reveal the migration paths their common ancestors took as they left Africa more than 60,000 years ago. The information has no medical or clinical relevance.

"I found it interesting, how I can trace my ancestry," said volunteer Neeta Malviya '13. "How often do you get an opportunity like this?" The results will be available within eight weeks and made public at a follow-up "ancestry revealing" event April 14, at 4:30 in Call Auditorium.

"The story of humanity's journey can be found in all of us," said Aquadro. A 2009 National Geographic documentary tested 200 random New Yorkers at a Queens street fair. By identifying markers in the Y chromosomes inherited from fathers to sons and markers in mitochondrial DNA inherited from mothers to children, the researchers found that "those 200 people from that one block in New York represented virtually all the major lineages of human deep ancestry going back 60,000 years," said Aquadro.

The researchers trace ancestry by looking for common single nucleotide polymorphisms, which are mutations to a single base pair, distinct "typos" that occur in individuals when DNA is copied; such mutations are then passed down through a lineage and become "markers of descent," said Wells.

The Genographic Project so far has collected about 72,000 samples from indigenous and traditional groups that have stayed in the same area for thousands of years and retain "a geographic link to their DNA" and "give us the deep insights to these ancient migratory roots," said Wells. Also, almost 400,000 individuals from 130 countries have sent in samples from DNA kits available for $99.95, through the project website; the kits help fund the project and the Genographic Legacy Fund, which "provides grants to community-led efforts to preserve indigenous and traditional cultures around the world," Wells said.

Additional sponsors for the ancestry project include the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics, the Africana Studies Research Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.