My lab is interested in tracing the ancestral origin and biogeographical affiliation of various human and endangered animal populations. There is an eternal quest to uncover our roots and our ancestral origin to answer the primal questions ‘who am I?’ and ‘where am I from?’. Our DNA determines not only who we are but holds the key to uncovering our true ancestral past.
A plethora of information stored inside the genome reflects our uniqueness and proximity to different ancestral and modern-day populations. Given high correspondence between our genetic make-up and the geographical origin of our forefathers, it is possible to glean into precise ancestral origin using the genetic information. While genetically all humans are >99% identical there are variations in our DNA that makes us unique. The most common type of variation is a single base pair change in the DNA known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). A collection of SNPs can provide us information about our ancestry. In every genome, there are up to a few thousand highly informative SNPs that exhibit large differences among ancestral populations and can aid in determination of its ancestral home. These SNPs are referred to as Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs). These AIMs panels can help in tracing one’s ancestry with high precision. Understanding our ancestry is not only a ‘homing’ tool bringing you closer to your evolutionary past but also holds the key to detect ancestry/population specific disorders, develop personalized medicine, identify potential suspects by shortlisting individuals based on their ancestry, and preserve biological diversity by maximizing genetic diversity through outbreeding and genomic admixture and preventing inbreeding among genetically related individuals.
Currently my lab is focusing on tracing the ancestral origin and biogeographical affiliation of various human and endangered animal populations and deducing AIMs for the same in collaboration with premier institutions across the globe.
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Research Collaborations
1. COVID-19 Host Genetics
Collaborators:
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Dr. Gyaneshwar Chaubey, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
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Dr. Claudia Staubert, Leipzig University, Rudolf Schonheimer Institute of Biochemistry, Leipzig, Germany
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Dr. Frauke Degenhardt, Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Germany
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Dr. Alessandra Renieri, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Siena, Italy
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Dr. Krzysztof Kiryluk, Columbia University, New York, USA
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2. Population genetics and dynamics of Southern Indian Tribes
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Collaborator:
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Dr. M. Mustak, Mangalore University, Karnataka, India​
