Humanity's DNA trail

In his talk, Dr Skoglund will answer following questions: How can we understand ancestry and human population history? How do the population ideas of ancestry people have today apply as we go back into the past? What has ancient DNA taught us about the peopling of the world? Why is important to understand past human biological variation and adaptation to understand the biology of health and disease today?

After the out-of-Africa dispersal, humans encountered new environments, including different climatic conditions, food availability and pathogens. This exposure to novel conditions imposed natural selective pressures, which are responsible for the differentiation between modern populations. The genomes of modern and ancient populations shed light on the events that characterised our adaptation to novel environments, cold climates and high-fat diets. Finally, they allow the interpretation of susceptibility to common disorders from an evolutionary perspective.