john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Sanger Institute sequences a trillion bases in six months

Fri, 2008-07-04 11:03 -- John Hawks

Genetic Future comments on news from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute:

At the current rate (which is rapidly increasing) the Sanger is churning out more DNA sequence every two minutes than was generated by the entire research community from 1982-1987. This obscene rate of data generation has been enabled by the development of next-generation DNA sequencing platforms, which can each churn out one human genome equivalent in less than a week.

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.