Mathematical Genomics RIKEN ECL Research Unit

Our lab focuses on the development and application of new mathematical and statistical techniques to reveal the evolutionary forces that have shaped our DNA, from key events in a nation’s recent past to the earliest days of our species. Our methods reconstruct past migrations and mixtures, introgression with Neanderthals and other extinct hominids, changes in the molecular machinery generating DNA differences, or map the genetic adaptation that enabled survival against changing environmental exposure. We achieve this by reconstructing “genetic family trees” using genetic data sequenced from thousands of modern-day people as well as genomes sequenced from ancient human bone.