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:

New postdoctoral position available

Neutral Region Explorer webserver is live, as is associated paper

Recent explosive human population growth has resulted in an excess of rare genetic variants
(Science Magazine)

Humans riddled with rare genetic variants (Nature); Uncommon Carriers (ScienceNews); Discover Magazine 100 top stories of 2012

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.


Lab Members
 
Recent & Selected Publications   (click here for all publications)
  1. L. Ma, A. G. Clark, and A. Keinan. Gene-Based Testing of Interactions in Association Studies of Quantitative Traits. PLoS Genetics, 9, e1003321 (2013).

  2. A. Keinan and A. G. Clark. Recent explosive human population growth has resulted in an excess of rare genetic variants. Science, 336, 740-743 (2012). (Supplementary information)

  3. L. Ma, A. Brautbar, E. Boerwingle, C. F. Sing, A. G. Clark, and A. Keinan. Knowledge-driven analysis identifies a gene-gene interaction affecting high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in multi-ethnic populations. PLoS Genetics, 8, e1002714 (2012).

  4. D. Chang and A. Keinan. Predicting signatures of "synthetic associations" and "natural associations" from empirical patterns of human genetic variation. PLoS Computational Biology, 8, e1002600 (2012).

  5. L. Arbiza, E. Zhong, and A. Keinan. NRE: A tool for exploring neutral loci in the human genome. BMC Bioinformatics, 13, 301 (2012). (NRE webserver)

  6. L. Ma, C. M. Ballantyne, J. W. Belmont, A. Keinan, and A. Brautbar. Interaction between SNPs in the RXRA and near ANGPTL3 gene region inhibits apoB reduction after statin-fenofibric acid therapy in individuals with mixed dyslipidemia. Journal of Lipid Research, 53, 2425-2428 (2012).

  7. 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)

  8. 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, 3, 749-761 (2011).

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

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

  11. 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)

  12. 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

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

Spring 2012: BTRY 6890 - Topics in Population Genetics and Genomics

Spring 2013: BTRY 6820/4820 - Statistical Genomics: Coalescent Theory and Human Population Genomics

Spring 2013: BTRY 6890 - Topics in Population Genetics and Genomics

Colleagues and Collaborators

Chip Aquadro
Ariel Brautbar
Carlos Bustamante
Andy Clark
Erez Levanon
Jason Mezey
David Reich
Eytan Ruppin
Adam Siepel

Contact Info

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

Office hours: Thursdays, 3-4pm

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. Computer Science
  5. Applied Math

Last update: Mar 2013

"...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)