Published March 21, 2023
The NSF News features a story about the research of Alber Aqil, PhD candidate, and Professor Omer Gokcumen. Their study investigates a key question in biology: why genomic variation persists in a population for extended periods. According to Rebecca Ferrell, NSF Biological Anthropology program director, "the project demonstrates the value of an expanding genomic toolkit for studying human evolution, revealing new details about the complex variation and relationships among hominins." Visit NSF News.
Human and primate evolution, ancient humans (including Neanderthals and Denisovans), anthropological genomics
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.