An international team of researchers has developed a new genetic analysis tool that will help people know where their DNA formed more than a thousand years ago.

A team led by geneticists from the University of Sheffield in the UK has developed the tool called the Geographic Population Structure tool (GPS). The tool scans person's DNA and estimates with a high degree of accuracy about where their ancestors came from millennia ago.

The technique works by assessing genetic admixture, a process that recombines previously separated populations over time and interbreed. It estimates a person's genetic origin by using 100,000 DNA signatures as a baseline.

As the tool uses 44 diploid autosomal chromosomes, researchers claim the tool to be more efficient than other available methods. An efficacy test was carried out involving 10 villages in Sardinia. As a result, 25% were placed in the correct village and remaining in less than 50 km of their real origins.

Test was also carried out on 20 islands in Oceania and 90% were placed on the right island. The GPS is considered to be quite a useful tool as its results are based on genetic ratios. It has the potential to make medical treatments more specialized.

"The more genetic admixture that takes place, the more different colours of soup are introduced which makes it increasingly difficult to locate your DNA's ancestry using traditional tools", affirmed Eran Elhaik, geneticist at University of Sheffield. The study findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.