David Reich | |
|---|---|
| Born | David Emil Reich (1974-07-14)July 14, 1974 (age 51) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BA) St Catherine's College, Oxford (DPhil) |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Gene mapping |
| Thesis | Genetic analysis of human evolutionary history with implications for gene mapping (1999) |
| Doctoral advisor | David Goldstein[3] |
David Emil Reich[4] (born July 14, 1974) is an Americangeneticist known for theindustrialization of research into the population genetics of ancient humans,[5] including their migrations and the mixing of populations, discovered by analysis ofgenome-wide patterns of mutations. He is professor in the department ofgenetics at theHarvard Medical School, and an associate of theBroad Institute. Reich was highlighted as one ofNature's 10 for his contributions to science in 2015.[5] He received theDan David Prize in 2017, theNAS Award in Molecular Biology, theWiley Prize, and theDarwin–Wallace Medal in 2019. In 2021 he was awarded theMassry Prize.[6] He is the director of theDavid Reich Lab.
Reich grew up as part of aJewish family inWashington, D.C. His parents are novelistTova Reich (sister of RabbiAvi Weiss) andWalter Reich, a professor atGeorge Washington University, who served as the first director of theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[7][8] During high school, Reich attended theResearch Science Institute at MIT.[9] Reich started out as a sociology major as an undergraduate atHarvard College, but later turned his attention to physics and medicine and earned a B.A. in the subject. After graduation, he attended theUniversity of Oxford, originally with the intent of preparing for medical school.[7] He was awarded a D.Phil. inzoology fromSt Catherine's College, Oxford, in 1999 for research supervised byDavid Goldstein.[10] His thesis was titled "Genetic analysis of human evolutionary history with implications for gene mapping".[3]
He joinedHarvard Medical School in 2003.[7] Reich is currently ageneticist and professor in the department ofgenetics atHarvard Medical School, and an associate of theBroad Institute, whose research studies compare the modernhuman genome with those ofchimpanzees,Neanderthals, andDenisovans.[citation needed]
Reich's genetics research focuses primarily on finding complex genetic patterns that cause susceptibility to commondiseases among large populations, rather than looking for specific genetic markers associated with relatively rare illnesses.[citation needed]
Reich's research team atHarvard University has produced evidence that, over a span of at least four million years, various parts of thehuman genome diverged gradually from those of chimpanzees.[11] The split between the human and chimpanzee lineages may have occurred millions of years later than fossilized bones suggest, and the break may not have been as clean as previously thought. The genetic evidence developed by Reich's team suggests that after the two species initially separated, they may have continued interbreeding for several million years.A final genetic split transpired between 6.3 million and 5.4 million years ago.[12]
Reich's 2009 paperReconstructing Indian population history[13] was a landmark study in the research on India's genepool and the origins of its population. Reich et al. (2009), in a collaborative effort between theHarvard Medical School and the IndianCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), examined the entire genomes worth 560,000single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as compared to 420 SNPs in prior work. They also cross-compared them with the genomes of other regions available in the global genome database.[14] Through this study, they were able to discern two genetic groups in the majority of populations in India, which they called "Ancestral North Indians" (ANI) and "Ancestral South Indians" (ASI).[note 1] They found that the ANI genes are close to those of Middle Easterners, Central Asians and Europeans whereas the ASI genes are dissimilar to all other known populations outside India.[note 2][note 3] These two distinct groups, which had split ca. 50,000 years ago, formed the basis for the present population of India.[15]
A follow-up study by Moorjani et al. (2013) revealed that the two groups mixed between 1,900 and 4,200 years ago (2200 BCE–100 CE), after which a shift toendogamy took place and admixture became rare.[note 4] Speaking to Fountain Ink, David Reich stated, "Prior to 4,200 years ago, there were unmixed groups in India. Sometime between 1,900 to 4,200 years ago, profound, pervasive convulsive mixture occurred, affecting every Indo-European and Dravidian group in India without exception." Reich pointed out that their work does not show that a substantial migration occurred during this time.[16]
Metspalu et al. (2011), representing a collaboration between the Estonian Biocenter and CCMB, confirmed that the Indian populations are characterized by two major ancestry components. One of them is spread at comparable frequency and haplotype diversity in populations of South and West Asia and the Caucasus. The second component is more restricted to South Asia and accounts for more than 50% of the ancestry in Indian populations. Haplotype diversity associated with these South Asian ancestry components is significantly higher than that of the components dominating the West Eurasian ancestry palette.[17]
Reich was a co-leader, along with statistician Simon Myers, of a team of genetics researchers from Harvard University and theUniversity of Oxford that made the most complete human genetic map then known in July 2011.[18]
Reich's research team significantly contributed to the discovery thatNeanderthals andDenisovans interbred withmodern human populations as they dispersed from Africa into Eurasia 70,000–30,000 years ago.[19]
Reich's lab received media attention following its discovery of a genetic marker which is linked to an increased likelihood of developingprostate cancer.[20] Reich has also argued that the higher incidence of prostate cancer among African Americans, compared to European Americans, appears to be largely genetic in origin.[21]
Reich disputed the idea thatIndo-European languages originated inAnatolia due to a lack of genetic similarity of Anatolian samples with the steppeYamnaya culture, instead suggesting the languages may have originated south of theCaucasus, in present-dayIran orArmenia and split into two branches with one going to thesteppe and one to Anatolia[22] which is close to theArmenian hypothesis.
Reich in 2018 demonstrated, based on genetic evidence, thatWest Asian geneflow into modern populations inEthiopia andSomalia, particularly speakers ofAfroasiatic languages, could support a diffusion of these languages from the Middle East.[23]
Reich has developedADMIXTOOLS 2, anR software package primarily used for analyzing admixture, in collaboration withNick Patterson.[24]
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