An article by Diane Xue of the University of Washington and Hanley Kingston of the University of Washington gives you still another reason to be thankful for your ancestors and especially for their ethnic origins.
“We are two researchers who have been working to find genes that affect people’s risk for various diseases. Our team recently found a genetic region that appears to be protective against Alzheimer’s disease. To do this, we used a method called admixture mapping that uses data from people with mixed ancestry to find genetic causes of disease.
“Genome-wide association studies
“In 2005, researchers first used a groundbreaking method called a genome–wide association study. Such studies comb through huge datasets of genomes and medical histories to see if people with certain diseases tend to share the same version of DNA – called a genetic marker – at specific spots.
(Some text omitted for brevity.)
“Disentangling race, ancestry and health disparities can be a challenge in genome-wide association studies. Admixture mapping, on the other hand, is able to make better use of even relatively small datasets of underrepresented people. This method specifically gets its power from studying people who have mixed ancestry.”
The full article is lengthy but I found it fascinating. You can check it out yourself at: https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Mixed-ancestry-genetic-research-shows-a-bit-of-16313697.php.