Harnessing ancient DNA information content to infer evolutionary histories

Lead Research Organisation: University College London
Department Name: Cell and Developmental Biology

Abstract

DNA from ancient remains (aDNA) provides a direct window into our past and has revolutionized our understanding of migratory patterns in humans (ref 1) and other animals (2,3). However, major challenges such as poor data quality still prevent us from fully exploiting the enormous potential of aDNA. In particular, current methods ignore correlations among neighboring genetic markers, even though this would substantially increase our power to infer demographic histories. This project will develop and apply novel statistical methods for low-quality aDNA, in order to extract previously unobtainable, yet crucial, information about the evolutionary histories of humans and their domestic animals.

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
BB/M009513/1 30/09/2015 31/03/2024
1902705 Studentship BB/M009513/1 30/09/2017 31/12/2021 Sam Morris