Mark Seielstad, PhD

Research in my lab straddles genetic epidemiology and population/anthropological genetics. The main goal is to identify human genetic variation altering the risk of complex human diseases involving immunity (e.g., autoimmunity and susceptibility to infectious diseases) and metabolism (e.g., type 2 diabetes). This puts an emphasis on genomic technologies such as genome-wide SNP genotyping, and next-generation sequencing to reveal and characterize polymorphisms in whole exome and whole genome data. Much of this work is carried out in geographically diverse human populations, which are also the subject of anthropological investigations that seek to characterize the global distribution of genetic variation. A particular emphasis is placed on sequencing and coalescence analysis of the Y chromosome and mtDNA, as well as cultural practices that alter demographic and selective regimes acting on the sex-specific lineages of these two DNA molecules.