Omer Gokcumen interviewed by WNYC Radiolab: Neanderthal's Revenge

Omer Gokcumen.

Omer Gokcumen, associate professor, Department of Biological Sciences

Omer Gokcumen's work on evolutionary genomics was featured on Radioshop, in a segment entitled Neanderthal's Revenge. The program's co-host, Latif Nasser,  reported on his own "medical journey that made him not only question what was going on in his body, but also dig into the secret genetic story of how we became human."  While looking into the origins of Crohn's Disease, Nasser came upon a research article by Gokcumen. The full podcast is here. 

Excerpt of Gokcumen's segment (starts at 18-minutes into program):

LATIF: Did we get Crohn's disease from Neanderthals?

OMER GOKCUMEN: No?

LATIF: No.

LATIF: The Neanderthals probably aren't to blame.

OMER GOKCUMEN: It seems to me that Crohn's disease is actually older than Neanderthals, older than humans.

LATIF: That Crohn's disease, or at least this genetic variation predisposing you to it developed all the way back in Homo erectus.

OMER GOKCUMEN: The homo erectus group in Africa before, you know, they were spread across the world.

LULU: Oh! Wait, so this kind of contradicts what the other scientists found.

LATIF: Well, not exactly. It turns out for a disease as complicated as Crohn's, there are actually multiple parts of the genome that contribute to it. Some of those did come with sex with Neanderthals, but a lot also came from before we—or they—ever existed. And for that reason, Omer says ...

OMER GOKCUMEN: It's more accurate to say that we share Crohn's disease with Neanderthals. Part of our legacy, in a way.

About Radiolab (from their website):  We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl you through science, legal history, and into the home of someone halfway across the world. The show is known for innovative sound design, smashing information into music. It is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser.

Radiolab is supported in part by Science Sandbox a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science. Additional leadership support is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, fostering path-breaking scientific discover; the Shanahan Family Charitable Foundation; The Smart Family Fund; and the John Templeton Foundation.

Faculty Profile

  • Omer Gokcumen

    PhD

    Omer Gokcumen.

    Omer Gokcumen

    PhD

    Omer Gokcumen

    PhD

    Professor
    Meyerson Award for Undergraduate Mentoring, 2025
    Distinguished Postdoc Mentor Award, 2019
    Department of Biological Sciences
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Research Interests

    Human and primate evolution, ancient humans (including Neanderthals and Denisovans), anthropological genomics

    Education

    • PhD, University of Pennsylvania
    • Postdoctoral Research, Harvard Medical School

    Research Statement

    Omer Gokcumen is an expert in evolutionary anthropology — the study of how humans evolved and how they differ from non-human primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees. His work is tied to human evolution, including evolutionary adaptation and the evolutionary processes that lead to genetic disease.

    Gokcumen’s research examines the role that genomic variants, especially deletions and duplications, play in human disease and biology. His laboratory investigates the evolutionary history of genetic variations tied to interesting traits and diseases in modern and ancient human populations.

    Selected Publications

    • Yilmaz, F., Karageorgiou, C.*, Kwondo, K., Pajic P.*, Scheer, K.*, HGSV Consortium, Beck, C., Torregrossa, A-M., Lee, C., Gokcumen, O.* (2024). Reconstruction of the human amylase locus reveals ancient duplications seeding modern-day variation. Science. 386: eadn0609
    • Russel, M., Aqil, A*., Saitou, M., Gokcumen, O*, Naoki, M. (2023) Gene communities in co-expression networks across different tissues. PloS Computational Biology. 19(11): e1011616. [co-Corresponding Author].
    • Veilleux, C.C., Garrett, E.C., Pajic, P.*, Saitou, M.*, Ochieng, J., Dagsaan, L.D., Dominy, N.J., Perry, G.H., Gokcumen, O.*,  Melin, A.D. (2023). Veillex Human subsistence and signatures of selection on chemosensory genes. Communications Biology. 6: 683. [co-Corresponding Author].
    • Aqil, A.*, Pavlos, P., Speidel, L. Gokcumen, O.* Balancing selection on genomic deletion polymorphisms in humans. (2023). eLife. e79111
    • Pajic, P.*, Shen, S., Qu, J., May, A.J., Knox, S., Ruhl, S., Gokcumen, O.* (2022) A mechanism of gene evolution generating mucin function. Science Advances. 8: 34.
    • Saitou, M.*, Masuda, N., Gokcumen, O.* (2022). Similarity-based analysis of allele frequency distribution among multiple populations identifies adaptive genomic structural variants. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 39: msab313.
    • Saitou, M.*, Resendez, S.*, Pradhan, A.J., Wu, F., Lie, N.C., Hall, N.J., Zhu, Q.,  Reinholdt, L. Satta, Y., Speidel, L., Nakagome, S., Hanchard, N. A., Churchill, G., Lee, C., Atilla-Gokcumen,  G. E., Mu, X., Gokcumen, O.* (2021). Sex-specific phenotypic effects and evolutionary history of an ancient polymorphic deletion of the human growth hormone receptor. Science Advances. 7, eabi4476.
    • Saitou, M.*, Gaylord, E., Xu, D., Neznanova, L., Nathan, S., Grawe, A., Chang, J., Ryan, William., Ruhl, S., Knox, S.M., and Gokcumen, O.*  (2020). Functional Specialization of Human Salivary Glands and Origins of Proteins Intrinsic to Human Saliva. Cell Reports. 33, 108402.
    • Taskent, O.*, Yen Lung Lin, Patramanis, I., Pavlidis, P., Gokcumen, O.* (2020). Analysis of haplotypic variation and deletion polymorphisms point to multiple archaic introgression events, including from Altai Neanderthal lineage. Genetics. 215: 497-509.
    • Pajic, P.*, Pavlidis, P., Dean, K., Neznanova, L., Daugherity, E., Romano R-A., Garneau, D., Globig, A., Ruhl, S., Gokcumen, O.* (2019). Independent amylase gene copy number bursts correlate with dietary preferences in mammals. eLife.
    • Lin, Y.-L.*, & Gokcumen, O.* (2019). Fine-Scale Characterization of Genomic Structural Variation in the Human Genome Reveals Adaptive and Biomedically Relevant Hotspots. Genome Biology and Evolution, 11(4), 1136–1151.
    • Saitou, M.*, Lizardo, D., Taskent, R. O.*, Millner, A., Gokcumen, O.*, Atilla-Gokcumen, G. (2018). An evolutionary transcriptomics approach links CD36 to membrane remodeling in replicative senescence. Mol Omics 14, 237 [Cover article, co-Corresponding Author].
    • Xu, D.*, Pavlidis, P., Taskent*, R.O., Alachiotis, N., Flanagan. C.*, DeGiorgio, M., Ruhl, S., Gokcumen, O.* (2017). Archaic hominin introgression in Africa contributes to functional salivary MUC7 genetic variation. Mol Biol Evol. 34: 2704
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