Member's Blog
Cheikh Malek El Khazen DNA
Written by

 

Cheikh Malek el Khazen Profile (DNA Below) :

 

Cheikh Malek el Khazen is the founder of Khazen.org website and an expert in the technology and communication fields.

Khazen.org mission statement:

Khazen.org is a website dedicated to the De Khazen family, a family associated with the history of Lebanon, the Maronite Patriarch, the Lebanese Presidency, Mount-Lebanon, the Maronite community and the worldwide Catholic mission. The website aims to provide documentation manuscripts and analysis to its readers on the history of the Maronites, the De Khazen family key roles in the founding of what is known today as the Modern Lebanon and analysis on important events.

 

Professional Career

 

Cheikh Malek is currently residing in the United States. He is a lead Client Information Architect. He represents many of the Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, he works closely with international Public governments in the field of technology. 

He specializes on solution that impact citizens and leads Public Cities or Enterprises to “Smarter Solutions” He has a proven track of leading many Cities to “Smarter Cities”.  Outcome of his projects aims to reduce energy and water-waste, improve transportation, decrease gas costs and pollution, and increase inter-communication between various departments. 

He received many awards from major technology firms and Honor Societies. 

 

Some of his Key Projects 

 

- Leading the solution and delivery of “Smarter Education” at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. The purpose was to offer a platform to support faculty and the 40,000-plus students in more than 100 universities in North America and provide them with IT classes based on the IBM and SAP technology. As a result, students have gained more skills on programs that are being used day to day by Fortune 500 companies and were more favorable than other candidates during the hiring process.

- Working with the city of Milwaukee and government of Wisconsin  to implement urban agricultural systems, making recommendations through technology to improve those systems & reduce water waste.

 

Cheikh Malek also published articles on development techniques and the effective use of architectural solutions.

 

 

Khazen Family History and path to Lebanon (scientific results from DNA sample of an El Khazen member)

 

 

 

 


Cheikh Malek Fady El Khazen (born in 1981) founder of khazen.org descendant of Chidiac Sarkis El Khazen (born in 1570) who is the common ancestor of most of the current members of the El khazen family has participated in the Genographic project by taking a sample of his DNA and sent it for test results to the labs of the scientist Spencer Wells lab. The result of this test is very important since it traces the paternal history (through 50 thousands years ago) of the majority of the members of the Khazen family. The results will be the exact same for every member of the Khazen family descendant of Chidiac Sarkis El Khazen (born in 1570) which is most of the khazen family.

 

Cheikh Malek Fady El Khazen has tested his Y chromosome, which is passed down from father to son and reveals the Khazen direct paternal ancestry up to 50 0000 years ago, therefore the Y chromosome will give the exact same result to all the Khazen Family members. In fact, the Y does not have a matching chromosome most of it (the non-recombining region) escapes the shuffling process known as recombination (between male and female) that occurs every generation in the rest of our genome.  This allows the Y to be passed down through a purely male line changed only by random mutation line. In this test Cheikh Malek Fady El Khazen analyzed the Y chromosome which is a purely male line therefore a purely khazen descent.The results reveal our deep ancestry along our single paternal line of direct descent (and show the migration paths they followed thousands of years ago. The results will also place us on a particular branch of the human family tree. These results have confirmed our expectations of our history. This scientific study is first divided in a history and information of the geographic project and the second part describes in detail the DNA results of the el Khazen family and analysis.

Please Click Read more to view results of the DNA test by the Khazen family and their history and information about the project

 

 

 

 

 

Shuffling the Deck DNA and analysis of khazen descent:

For most of our genome we receive half of our genes from our father and half from our mother. Each half represent a shuffled combination of DNA passed down to us from our ancestors. This recombination process makes it difficult to study lines of descent. It creates a genetic mix of everyone who has come before. Fortunately for anthropological genetics there are parts of the genome that are passed down from unshuffled from parent to child. In these segments the genetic code is varied only through occasional mutations. Random spelling mistakes in the long sequence of letter that make up our DNA. When these mutations are passed down from generations they become markers of descent. The Y chromosome is the sex determining chromosome in humans. While all others are found in matching pairs. It is the mismatch of the Y with its partner the X partner that determines the gender. Men have a mismatch pair (Y and X) while women have 2 chromosone (X chromosomes) Because the Y does not have a matching chromosome most of it (the non-recombining region) escapes the shuffling process known as recombination that occurs every generation in the rest of our genome.  This allows the Y to be passed down through a purely male line changed only by random mutation line. In this test Cheikh Malek Fady El Khazen analyzed the Y chromosome which is a purely male line therefore a purely khazen descent. The Y chromosome traces the male history back through history. (for more information please read the following https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/overview.html)

 

About the Project:

The National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Spencer Wells, and the Waitt Family Foundation have launched the Genographic Project, a five-year effort to understand the human journey?where we came from and how we got to where we live today. This unprecedented effort will map humanity's genetic journey through the ages.

The fossil record fixes human origins in

Africa, but little is known about the great journey that took Homo sapiens to the far reaches of the Earth. How did we, each of us, end up where we are? Why do we appear in such a wide array of different colors and features?

 

Such questions are even more amazing in light of genetic evidence that we are all related?descended from a common African ancestor who lived only 60,000 years ago.

 

Though eons have passed, the full story remains clearly written in our genes?if only we can read it. With your help, we can.

 

When DNA is passed from one generation to the next, most of it is recombined by the processes that give each of us our individuality.

 

But some parts of the DNA chain remain largely intact through the generations, altered only occasionally by mutations which become "genetic markers." These markers allow geneticists like Spencer Wells to trace our common evolutionary timeline back through the ages.

 

"The greatest history book ever written," Wells says, "is the one hidden in our DNA."

 

Different populations carry distinct markers. Following them through the generations reveals a genetic tree on which today's many diverse branches may be followed ever backward to their common African root.

Our genes allow us to chart the ancient human migrations from Africa across the continents. Through one path, we can see living evidence of an ancient African trek, through India, to populate even isolated Australia.

But to fully complete the picture we must greatly expand the pool of genetic samples available from around the world. Time is short.

 

In a shrinking world, mixing populations are scrambling genetic signals. The key to this puzzle is acquiring genetic samples from the world's remaining indigenous and traditional peoples whose ethnic and genetic identities are isolated.

 

Khazen DNA results and history:

 

Type: Y-Chromosome
Haplogroup: J2 (M172)

Your STRs

 

DYS393: 12

 

 

 

 

 

DYS439: 12

 

 

 

 

 

DYS388: 15

 

 

 

 

 

DYS385a: 14

 

 

DYS19: 16

 

 

 

 

 

DYS389-1: 12

 

 

 

 

 

DYS390: 24

 

 

 

 

 

DYS385b: 18

 

 

DYS391: 11

 


 

 

 

DYS389-2: 16

 

 

 

 

 

DYS426: 11

 

 

 

 

 

DYS392: 11

 

 

How to Interpret Your Results
Above are results from the laboratory analysis of your Y-chromosome. Your DNA was analyzed for Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), which are repeating segments of your genome that have a high mutation rate. The location on the Y chromosome of each of these markers is depicted in the image, with the number of repeats for each of your STRs presented to the right of the marker. For example, DYS19 is a repeat of TAGA, so if your DNA repeated that sequence 12 times at that location, it would appear: DYS19 12. Studying the combination of these STR lengths in your Y Chromosome allows researchers to place you in a haplogroup, which reveals the complex migratory journeys of your ancestors. Y-SNP: In the event that the analysis of your STRs was inconclusive, your Y chromosome was also tested for the presence of an informative Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP). These are mutational changes in a single nucleotide base, and allow researchers to definitively place you in a genetic haplogroup.
Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup J2.

The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with M172, the defining marker of haplogroup J2.

 

If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors' route, you will see that members of haplogroup J2 carry the following Y-chromosome markers:

 

M168 > M89 > M304 > M172 

Today, descendants of this line appear in the highest frequencies in the Middle East, North Africa, and Ethiopia, and at a much lower frequency in Europe, where it is observed exclusively in the Mediterranean area. Approximately 20 percent of the males in southern Italy carry the marker, along with ten percent of men in southern Spain

What's a haplogroup, and why do geneticists concentrate on the Y-chromosome in their search for markers? For that matter, what's a marker? Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. One exception is the Y-chromosome, which is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation. Unchanged, that is unless a mutation?a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change?occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down from the man in whom it occurred to his sons, their sons, and every male in his family for thousands of years.

 

In some instances there may be more than one mutational event that defines a particular branch on the tree. What this means is that any of these markers can be used to determine your particular haplogroup, since every individual who has one of these markers also has the others. When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in

Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world.

 

A haplogroup is defined by a series of markers that are shared by other men who carry the same random mutations. The markers trace the path your ancestors took as they moved out of

Africa. It's difficult to know how many men worldwide belong to any particular haplogroup, or even how many haplogroups there are, because scientists simply don't have enough data yet.

 

One of the goals of the five-year Genographic Project is to build a large enough database of anthropological genetic data to answer some of these questions. To achieve this, project team members are traveling to all corners of the world to collect more than 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations. In addition, we encourage you to contribute your anonymous results to the project database, helping our geneticists reveal more of the answers to our ancient past.

Keep checking these pages; as more information is received, more may be learned about your own genetic history.

Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now

M168: Your Earliest Ancestor

Fast Facts

 

Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Africa

 

Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age;

Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions

 

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000

Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills

Skeletal and archaeological evidence suggest that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and began moving out of

Africa to colonize the rest of the world around 60,000 years ago.

 

The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania, some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of

Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.

 

But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors' exodus out of Africa.

 

The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. It was around 50,000 years ago that the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable

Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.

 

In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans' intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn't been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids.

M89: Moving Through the Middle East 

 

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago

Place: Northern Africa or the

Middle East 

 

Climate: Middle East: Semi-arid grass plains

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands

Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools

The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.

The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.

Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.

 

While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia. These semi-arid grass-covered plains formed an ancient "superhighway" stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.

 

M304: The Spread of Agriculture 

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence:15,000 to 10,000 years ago

Place of origin:

Fertile Crescent 

 

Climate: Ice Age ending

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Millions

Language: Unknown?earliest evidence of modern language families

Tools and Skills: Neolithic Revolution

The patriarch of haplogroup J2 was a descendant of the M89 Middle Eastern Clan. He was born between 15,000 to 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, a region that extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers form an extremely rich floodplain. Today the region includes all or part of Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

 

The descendants of this man played a crucial role in modern human development. They pioneered the first Neolithic Revolution, the point at which humans changed from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturists. The end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, and the subsequent shift in climate to one more conducive to plant production, probably helped spur the discovery of how to grow food.


Control over their food supply marks a major turning point for the human species: the beginning of civilization. Occupying a single territory required more complex social organization, moving from the kinship ties of a small tribe to the more elaborate relations of a larger community. It spurred trade, writing, and calendars, and pioneered the rise of modern sedentary communities and cities.

The M304 marker appears at its highest frequencies in the Middle East, North Africa, and Ethiopia. In Europe, it is seen only in the Mediterranean region.

 

An important subgroup of haplogroup J includes the descendants of another man from the M89 Middle Eastern Clan born in the

Fertile Crescent at about the same time, carrying the marker M172. This related haplogroup is called J2.

 

The early farming successes of these lineages spawned population booms and encouraged migration throughout much of the Mediterranean world.

M172: Toward the Mediterranean 

 

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence: 10,000 years ago

Place of Origin:

Fertile Crescent 

 

Climate: Ice Age ending

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: A few million

Language: Unknown

Tools and Skills: Neolithic

Your ancestors left a physical footprint that matches their genetic journey. Artifacts from ancient towns such as Jericho, also known as Tell el-Sultan, a site close to present day Jerusalem, provide evidence of permanent human settlements to around 8500 B.C. The sites also suggest the transition from hunter-gatherer to settled life occurred relatively suddenly. The M172 marker defines a major subset of haplogroup J, which arose from the M89 lineage. It is found today in North Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe. In southern Italy it occurs at frequencies of 20 percent, and in southern Spain, 10 percent of the population carries this marker. Both haplogroup J and its subgroup J2 are found at a combined frequency of around 30 percent amongst Jewish individuals.

This is where your genetic trail, as we know it today ends. However, be sure to revisit these pages. As additional data are collected and analyzed, more will be learned about your place in the history of the men and women who first populated the Earth. We will be updating these stories throughout the life of the project.

Last Updated ( Sep 05, 2007 at 11:16 AM )