Genetics Anthropology: An Exploration of Diverse and New World African Populations

March 12, 2018

Part of "Evolution Across Disciplines"

African human genomic diversity is highly understudied and this also true for African-descended individuals in the Americas (New World Africans). Yet these data form the foundation for subsequent sophisticated applied work in genetics and genomics of relevance to all peoples of African descent (e.g., in pharmacogenomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, proteomics, gene-environment interactions, and other applied fields.). This talk explores how the lack of adequate information on peoples of African descent has been a major disincentive to their participation in biomedical studies and genetic/genomic surveys with a focus on applying the tools of genetic anthropology to these groups, in hopes to strengthen both the science of their biological origins and community’s trust in this science.

Speakers
Fatimah Jackson, Professor of Biology, Howard University