🚨 Check out our new paper in Nature!
In our new study, we sequenced 128 high-coverage genomes from Indigenous peoples across Latin America and uncovered their unique genetic diversity and history. 👇🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📕Una recerca liderada per David Comas, Investigador de l' @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social i catedràtic i investigador del @melisupf.bsky.social detalla com un procés evolutiu accelerat proporciona als coptes del Sudan resistència a la malària🧬🧵
#DesxifrantEvolució
👉https://shorturl.at/4mODd
#Research
1/ A rapid evolutionary process provides Sudanese Copts with resistance to malaria
In just 1,500 years, the Copts have acquired a genetic variant that protects them from contracting malaria after mixing with other Sudanese populations
cc @pnas.org @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social
tuit.cat/Byntj
A new preprint from the lab, with postdoc @deboraycb.bsky.social and collaborators @aidaandres.bsky.social and Tim Connallon:
“Characterising the detectable and invisible fractions of genomic loci under balancing selection”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
:(A) Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for modern whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. Sudanese and Fulani samples are represented with filled shapes. Some populations are grouped for simplification. Central_Africa_HG stands for Central African rainforest hunter-gatherers. (B) ADMIXTURE map for WGS data, for the lowest cross-validation error (K = 8). (C) ADMIXTURE analysis with ancient DNA, showing the first four components (K = 4).
A genetic study of 125 Sudanese people explores how a gene variant responsible for malaria resistance emerged as Copts, a Sudanese minority group originally from Egypt, intermixed with local Nilo-Saharan individuals 1,000 to 1,500 years ago. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/o6C950XY3H0
Hominin fossils discovered in Morocco, which have been dated to about 773,000 years ago, may be close ancestors of modern humans. The findings, published in Nature, provide insights into African populations before the earliest known Homo sapiens.🧪
Beautiful study of the population history of Sudan, including a striking signature of adaptive admixture in the Duffy-null blood group gene, potentially as a mechanism of local adaptation to Plasmodium. Congratulations @lvilavalls.bsky.social, what a great regal de reis!
🎉Very happy to see the final paper of my PhD published! Huge thanks to everyone involved. Proud to have contributed to better representation of African, particularly North African, populations in global genomic datasets.
Finally, we detected one of the strongest signals of positive selection reported in humans to date (s ≈ 0.1). This signal reflects admixture-driven adaptation to malaria in Copts, who show a marked increase in Nilo-Saharan ancestry around the Duffy-null locus.
We observed substantial genetic structure within Sudan and evidence of complex admixture histories, including ancient events dating back to the Green Sahara period (12,000–5,000 BP) in Fulani pastoralists, as well as a strong genetic footprint of the Arab expansion in other Sudanese groups.
🧬We generated whole-genome sequences (avg. 30X coverage) for 125 individuals from five populations and three language families: Beja, Copts, Mahas, Fur and Fulani. This is the first WGS study in Sudan and reports ~1.1M novel variants, including 1,542 predicted to be deleterious.
Sudan is a key crossroads between North and East Africa, with human habitation dating back over 300,000 years. In a harsh, arid landscape, the Nile enabled settlement and acted as a corridor for trade and population movements, shaping today’s diversity of ~600 ethnic groups.
Our new paper is out in PNAS!
We analyzed 125 high-coverage whole genomes from five Sudanese ethnolinguistic groups, to understand the evolutionary and demographic history of the region.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
🧵👇
Jasmin Rees PhD chapter as a paper just out at the AJHG @ajhgnews.bsky.social, with Sergi Castellano, who first envisioned the study. Jas investigated signatures of human local genetic adaptation in hundreds of micronutrient-associated genes.
Excited to share our new preprint🙌
It's the first human WGS study in Sudan. We uncover one of the strongest selection signals to date, pointing to post-admixture adaptation to malaria in Copts. Huge thanks to all co-authors. @aidaandres.bsky.social @jgarcia-cal.bsky.social @ebosch1972.bsky.social
✅ Published in @natureportfolio.nature.com today, the paper describing the initial whole-genome sequencing analysis of 500,000 UK Biobank participants.
Read here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚨 New paper klaxon! 🚨
The History of the Panmictic Population Concept and Its Legacy in Contemporary Population Genetics
Quite niche admittedly, one for the historians of evolutionary thought, and population geneticists.
doi.org/10.1111/ahg....
I'm thrilled to announce that our featured article, "Herders from the Green Sahara", was published in the 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 magazine. Another great collaboration with Viktor Černý and Carina Schlebusch.
Free access here: livejohnshopkins-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...
Check out our recent review 'Power and Limitations of Inferring Genetic Ancestry'- what do we even mean by the term 'genetic ancestry' and what do commonly-used methods actually tell us?
Postdoc position in my group in Tokyo!
Please get in touch if you are interested.
And happy to discuss projects - these would range from developing new methods to analysis of new genomes that we are now sequencing in the lab.
Job Ad: www.riken.jp/en/careers/r...
Lab page: speidellab.github.io
Recognition for #IBE PhD Students in 2025🏆🤩
Alba Nieto and Gemma Martínez received the SMBE Graduate Student Excellence Award, while Laura Vilà won third prize in UPF #Rin4min — where Marina Carmona was selected as a finalist!
👉https://shorturl.at/FT9Rl
Thrilled to share our latest preprint! 🎉🔥
We analysed >23k mtDNA genomes & found 18 variants shaped by climate—linked to thermogenesis, metabolism & disease.
Led by PhD student Finley Grover-Thomas, and in collab with: @aidaandres.bsky.social @lucyvandorp.bsky.social @proffballoux.bsky.social
🚨 Our new paper is out in Science!
We analyzed 2,723 high-coverage whole genomes from Brazilians to explore how five centuries of colonization, forced migration, and admixture have shaped genetic diversity and impacted health.
📄 science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧵👇
Very proud of my colleagues and friends for their amazing publication out in Science today!
Nunes et al. "Admixture’s impact on Brazilian population evolution and health" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@hunemeier.bsky.social @macscastro.bsky.social 👏
Tanquem el fil de la 11a edició del #Rin4min amb la foto de família amb tots els participants 📸
Ens veiem l'any que ve!
Molt contenta d'haver compartit la meva recerca al #Rin4Min i de tenir l'oportunitat de divulgar en català. 🎉
I am delighted to share with you some new insights into the selection processes that shaped the Spanish population!
This work has been led by @ebosch1972.bsky.social @francesccalafell.bsky.social ( @upf.edu ) in collaboration with Rafael de Cid ( @igtp.bsky.social ) and @sabiagini.bsky.social
⬇️⬇️⬇️
If you're interested in human popgen🧬, our lab (with Prof. David Comas) is looking for an undergrad/master student for a JAE Intro fellowship 👉 @csic.es @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social sede.csic.gob.es/tramites/pro...
I'm beyond excited to share our new paper in Nature! We sequenced the first ancient human autosomal genomes from the Central Sahara, two ~7,000-year-old individuals from Takarkori in Libya, revealing a long-isolated North African lineage: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Here's a short thread: (1/n)
PhD position in archaeozoology and omics at the University of Vienna! 🤠🦊🐯🦁🐱🐰🐍🦬🐂🦣🐄 The student will be based in Vienna and co-supervised in Santander!