Biases in study design affecting the inference of events and human population structure in closely-related populations
Jennifer Listman
My research is focused on the extrapolation of human evolutionary and migratory history from genetic data of present-day human populations. Some of my ongoing research projects include inferring the demographic and migratory histories of South East Asian “Hill Tribe” populations, the evolutionary history of genes involved in alcohol metabolism and substance abuse, and genetic relationships between and geographic origins of world-wide Jewish populations. I use a combination of microsatellite, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip, and next-generation DNA sequence data. I am also interested in theoretical issues of biases in study design such as genetic marker choice, population sampling methods, gene chip design, and sequencing technology design and their effects on study results. My continuing fieldwork in Northern Thailand involves collection of saliva samples as a human DNA source from multiple ethnic populations.
Director of Research
Spacestate
Aim Lab