What a year! Highlights from 2024 and a peek ahead at 2025.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday period and are now fully recovered from the festivities, ready to face a new year refreshed and energised. 2024 seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye, and now we’re all looking forward to discovering what 2025 will bring.

So here’s a roundup of everything we’ve been working on this year, along with a sneak peek at the exciting things to look forward to in 2025.

At the start of 2024, we released our newest ancestry insight: Classical Ancestry. We love that you can now explore some of the most well-known historical time periods in the context of your DNA.

Using your raw DNA data (from a Living DNA test or an upload to us), we can do some pretty amazing things for you without the need for a new DNA testing kit.

The Classical Era, when referring to the ancient world, usually includes Ancient Greek and Roman history and culture. We’ve included Ancient Egyptian history under the umbrella of “Classical” in this context due to its close links with Greece and Rome. For instance, Pharaoh Ptolemy I was from Macedonia, and Pharaoh Cleopatra VII was deeply involved in Roman politics through her relationships with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Living DNA has analysed genetic data from 279 samples of ancient people from Greece, Egypt, and Rome. These samples were taken from human remains found in 83 archaeological sites across Europe, North Africa, the Near East, and West Asia.

We’ve also updated our mtDNA (motherline) haplogroup assignments to match the latest version of research on mtDNA (Phylotree 17 - Forensic Update, version 1.2). Alongside this update, we’ve refined our assignment method. The new analysis is based on "Haplogrep v3" (a tool used to classify mtDNA), as well as our in-house refinement methods. This work has brought our mtDNA analysis right up to current research standards. If you’ve noticed a change in your results, rest assured that it’s still based on the same DNA, but it’s now more precise and accurate.

Our Plans For The New Year

We’ve hit the ground running this January, and we’re just getting started. Some exciting plans have already been unveiled, but there’s so much more to come as the year unfolds. 2025 is shaping up to be a game-changer for Living DNA, with plenty of surprises and innovations on the horizon. Let’s dive into what’s coming next!

Our first release this year has been two-step authentication for your Living DNA account. Launched at the beginning of January, this feature adds an extra layer of protection for your DNA data in the Living DNA portal. From now on, when you log in, you will be emailed a six-digit code. This code is valid for 10 minutes, giving you plenty of time to get back to the website.

We see you, we’ve heard you, and our science team is busy behind the scenes, working on a new autosomal update! This is one of our most frequent requests from all of our lovely customers. We hope to release this at the beginning of 2025. This new update should bring more detail in both Europe and Asia, but don’t worry if you don’t have ancestry in these regions, as we’ll get right back to work on more updates once it’s been released.

Big news – our brand-new portal design is in the final stages of testing.

The new design and layout will make it much easier to manage both your ancestry and health tests, receive updates, and understand your DNA. And – if we do say so ourselves – it’s looking absolutely amazing! You’ll receive an email from us about the new portal soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

As well as being busy behind the scenes, the team will be at as many shows as we can throughout 2025. We’ll announce each one closer to the date, so again, make sure you’re keeping an eye on our socials for more information.

We can’t wait to see you all! Please do come and say hi – we’d love to have a chat.

There are some other exciting things we’re working on behind the scenes, but we will keep those under our hats for now.

Do you have feedback for us? A burning question to ask? Or a fascinating story about your DNA journey to share? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out by email at help@livingdna.com, through the contact form on our website here, or on Facebook.

And while we’re not quite ready to deploy the carrier pigeons (they’re still in training), we do still enjoy the occasional piece of good old snail mail. You can write to us at our head office in the UK: Living DNA, Frome Business Park, Manor Road, Frome, Somerset, BA11 4FN.

Here’s to another year of discovery, connection, and exciting breakthroughs with Living DNA. Let’s make 2025 unforgettable!