Alon Keinan
Robert N. Noyce Assistant Professor in Life Science and Technology
Department of Biological Statistics & Computational Biology
and Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics
Cornell University

News:

Postdoctoral positions in human population genomics and sequencing-based association studies

X-tra Diversity for Africans (Science Magazine)

Why is human genetic variation different on chromosome X?

Research Interests

Alon Keinan studies how human genetic variation has arisen from evolutionary history. His research focuses on elucidating the history of modern human populations and on developing computational methods for searching for genes important in human biology. With a background in computer science and statistics, Keinan develops theoretical tools and applies them to genomic data sets, bridging theoretical population genetics and empirical studies.

 
Recent Selected Publications   (click here for all publications)
  1. S. Gottipati, L. Arbiza, A. Siepel, A. G. Clark, and A. Keinan. Analyses of X-linked and autosomal genetic variation in population-scale whole genome sequencing. Nature Genetics, 43, 741-743 (2011). (Supplementary information)

  2. Y. Y. Waldman, T. Tuller, A. Keinan, and E. Ruppin. Selection for translation efficiency on synonymous polymorphisms in recent human evolution. Genome Biology and Evolution, Advance Access (2011).

  3. The International HapMap3 Consortium. Integrating common and rare genetic variation in diverse human populations. Nature, 467, 52-58 (2010). (Supplementary information)

  4. A. Keinan and D. Reich. Can a sex-biased human demography account for the reduced effective population size of chromosome X in non-Africans? Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27, 2312-21 (2010).

  5. K. E. Lohmueller, J. D. Degenhardt, and A. Keinan. Sex-Averaged recombination and mutation rates on the X chromosome. American Journal of Human Genetics, 86, 978-981 (2010).

  6. A. Keinan and D. Reich. Human population differentiation is strongly correlated with local recombination rate. PLoS Genetics, 6, e1000886 (2010).

  7. A. Keinan, J. C. Mullikin, N. Patterson, and D. Reich. Accelerated genetic drift on chromosome X during the human dispersal out of Africa. Nature Genetics, 41, 66-70 (2009). (News and Views; Supplementary information; Data)

  8. F. Yu, A. Keinan, H. Chen, R. J. Ferland, R. S. Hill, A. A. Mignault, C. A. Walsh, and D. Reich. Detecting natural selection by empirical comparison to random regions of the genome. Human Molecular Genetics, 18, 4853-67 (2009). (Supplemental Data)

  9. A. Keinan, J. C. Mullikin, N. Patterson, and D. Reich. Measurement of the human allele frequency spectrum demonstrates greater genetic drift in East Asians than in Europeans. Nature Genetics, 39, 1251-5 (2007). (Supplementary information; Data)

In the News

Ongoing Funding

  • NIH/DHHS/NHGRI U01-HG005715-01 (with PI: Carlos D. Bustamante). Population structure, admixture and selection across the 1000 Genomes data set

  • Sloan Research Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

  • Robert N. Noyce endowed chair

Teaching

Fall 2011: team-taught BTRY 6700: Applied Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Spring 2012: BTRY 6820/4820 - Statistical Genomics: Coalescent Theory and Human Population Genomics

Colleagues and Collaborators

Chip Aquadro
Carlos Bustamante
Andy Clark
Jason Mezey
David Reich
Eytan Ruppin
Adam Siepel

Contact Info

Alon Keinan
102C Weill Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-7202

Office hours: Thursdays, 4-5pm

Tel:  (607) 254-1328
Fax: (607) 255-2323
Email: ak735@cornell.edu

To prospective graduate students: please consider any of the following graduate fields

  1. Computational Biology and Medicine
  2. Computational Biology
  3. Genetics and Development
  4. Applied Math

Last update: Nov 2011

"...cause if we cease to ask,
we will cease to grow
if we don't go far,
we will soon fall."
  
     ( Mookie D., translated from Hebrew)