The Mormon Church in Salt Lake City houses one of the largest genealogy databases in the world, covering more than a million people. From those records, researchers in the early 1980s found evidence of a deadly genetic mutation that causes colon cancer. The mutation has been passed on through multiple generations, decimating some Mormon families that carried it.
How the Mormon family tree helped researchers identify a deadly genetic mutation
Credits
Guest:
Sarah Zahng - Atlantic -
@sarahzhang
Host:
Madeleine Brand
Producers:
Gina Pollack,
Sarah Sweeney,
Michell Eloy,
Amy Ta,
Christian Bordal,
Quinn O'Toole