Genetic study reveals hidden chapter in human evolution
18 March 2025Modern humans descended from not one, but at least 2 ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe.
Modern humans descended from not one, but at least 2 ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe.
Dr Robin Hesketh, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and author of Betrayed by Nature, explains how advances in inexpensive, rapid gene sequencing and expression analysis is revolutionising cancer research and the development of new treatments.
The first Asian and African human genomes have been deciphered using a technique originally invented by Professors Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman at the University of Cambridge's Department of Chemistry and developed by the spin-out Solexa.
One of the biggest projects ever undertaken to identify genetic variants that predispose some people to certain diseases was begun in 2005, thanks to £9 million funding from the Wellcome Trust. The ground-breaking results of this study were published in June this year.