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Bio/Research
My research group uses computational approaches to answer questions regarding the evolutionary processes that have shaped human genetic diversity and disease. The questions that drive our research are: What explains the frequency spectrum of human genetic diversity and its variation across funct...
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Bio/Research
My research group uses computational approaches to answer questions regarding the evolutionary processes that have shaped human genetic diversity and disease. The questions that drive our research are: What explains the frequency spectrum of human genetic diversity and its variation across functional categories of sites? How is human genetic diversity distributed across global and local scales? What can the spatial distribution of variation reveal about past human migrations/dispersal and selective processes? How can we best make individual-based predictions of genetic risk and ancestry? How can we use evolutionary insights to improve the genetic mapping of disease traits?
To address these questions, we develop and test computational methods for population genetic analysis and apply these methods to large-scale data. In our work, we rely on an interdisciplinary skill set that draws from computation, statistics, genetics, human history, and anthropology. Examples of our results include analyses of high-throughput genotyping array and sequencing data to reveal the spatial structure of variation in Europe; analyses of large-scale sequencing data to describe the abundance and distribution of rare variants in humans; and development of methods for generation recombination maps from admixed individuals.
The group also has an aim to translate advances in human population genetics to non-model organisms. In this arena, we have helped advance studies of dog domestication and wolf population history, developed methods to empower studies of bird migration by way of combining genetic and isotopic methods for spatial assignment, and developed methods to extract more subtle information from pooled sequences and metagenomic data.
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To address these questions, we develop and test computational methods for population genetic analysis and apply these methods to large-scale data. In our work, we rely on an interdisciplinary skill set that draws from computation, statistics, genetics, human history, and anthropology. Examples of our results include analyses of high-throughput genotyping array and sequencing data to reveal the spatial structure of variation in Europe; analyses of large-scale sequencing data to describe the abundance and distribution of rare variants in humans; and development of methods for generation recombination maps from admixed individuals.
The group also has an aim to translate advances in human population genetics to non-model organisms. In this arena, we have helped advance studies of dog domestication and wolf population history, developed methods to empower studies of bird migration by way of combining genetic and isotopic methods for spatial assignment, and developed methods to extract more subtle information from pooled sequences and metagenomic data.
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