Reconstructing the human past: using ancient and modern genomics

Symposium overview

Combining genome-wide data from ancient and modern populations opens new windows into the past. Population-scale sequencing projects investigating past and present human diversity have provided us with extraordinary insights into patterns of human variation and mobility through time and space. The integration of archaeological evidence and historical records with genomic data elucidates aspects of human history and the cultural evolution of past societies. Additionally, genome-wide data from archaic human remains, such as Neandertals and Denisovans, enable investigations of human evolution in action and provide direct insights into genetic changes that define our own lineage, a topic that was just awarded with the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine to ancient DNA pioneer, Svante Pääbo. The potential of ancient DNA data to reconstruct genomic variation of human-associated animals and plants to understand the process of domestication and their evolutionary trajectory is equally promising. Finally, the reconstruction of ancient pathogen genomes and metagenomic analysis of the oral and gut microbiomes provides us with molecular fossils to study microbial evolution through time.

This meeting will cover highlights from the newest research within the above-mentioned topics and will involve scientists from population genetics, bioinformatics, microbiology, anthropology, archaeology and history. Based on experience from the two previous editions of this meeting, we are convinced that it will strengthen future interactions in this young research field that is already changing the way we think about our past and will shape how we study genetic variation in the future.

What past participants say about the Symposium

“It was a wonderful opportunity to exchange science and get to know fellow researchers.” – Choongwon Jeong, Seoul National University, Seoul

“I can’t imagine a more dense and intense conference in the field of genomics of archaic humans. I extremely enjoyed the conference, and would like to give many thanks to the organisers who made it happen!” – Danat Yermakovich, cGEM, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Estonia

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About

EMBO | EMBL Symposia promote scientific communication and collaboration in the European research area. They provide scientists with a platform to discuss and exchange ideas on forward-looking topics and new developments in the life sciences.

Topics emphasise upcoming developments and the interdisciplinary nature of related fields. Jointly funded and organised by EMBO and EMBL – and complementary to their respective courses, workshops, and conference programmes – the symposia promote scientific communication and collaboration.

All symposia are held in the EMBL Advanced Training Centre (ATC) in Heidelberg, Germany, or virtually.