Kendra Sirak
🧬💀🧬Ancient DNA researcher @Harvard. Avid runner, beer aficionado, and plant lady in my other life.
- A 2025(!) reminder to submit an abstract to Session 25 "The ancient DNA revolution in Africa: New data, broader applications, and evolving research practices” @ the upcoming SAfA meeting (w/ a virtual option). Deadline Jan 31. Write to me at kendra_sirak[at]fas.harvard.edu if you want more details!
- Submissions go here ➡️ safa2025.icarehb.com/poster-and-o...
- Do you love #ancientDNA, #Africa, and beautiful beaches? Submit a talk to “The ancient DNA revolution in Africa: New data, broader applications, and evolving research practices” session that I'm co-chairing with at the 2025 SAfA meeting in Portugal!
- We are interested in talks that include but also go beyond standard pop gen, so please write to me (kendra_sirak [at] fas [dot] harvard [dot] edu) if you want to know more, or submit your talk here: safa2025.icarehb.com/poster-and-o... (and make sure you select our session, #025!)
- 🏺New paper alert! We report #ancientDNA data from 39 people who lived on island of #Soqotra 650-1750CE and provide new evidence that there was not complete population replacement between the Pleistocene and Holocene throughout the Arabian Peninsula (1/n). www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Most modern Arabians can be modeled as deriving all of their Levantine/Anatolian-related ancestry from a Neolithic farmer-related source; however, the medieval Soqotri had relatively more ancestry from ancient groups closer to Natufian hunter-gatherers (2/n).
- We observe this same pattern in only one other group - present-day people from the Hadramawt region of present-day Yemen - which represents a likely source for the peopling of Soqotra. Genetic connections between these regions are extremely strong.(3/n)
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View full threadPaper is available for download here: reich.hms.harvard.edu/publications (12/12)
- Reposted by Kendra SirakResearchers from the Crick, Durham University, MOLA and Headland Archaeology have discovered that a man whose 2,000-year-old remains were found in the Cambridgeshire countryside originally came from near the south of modern-day Russia 🌍🧪 @marinasdsilva.bsky.social www.crick.ac.uk/news-and-rep...
- 🏺New paper tracing genetic changes across the rise/fall of the Roman Empire, showing the genetic impact of people w/Anatolian-, Cent/North European- & Steppe-, and Slavic-related ancestry in the 1st millennium CE. This is a beautiful synthesis of arch + genetic data. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
- Reposted by Kendra Sirak
- 🏺 I'm excited to see the first paper stemming from the vibrant discussions at #DNAirobi! This work reminds us about the skeletal biology research that forms the foundation for much of our genomic work today, but may not be on the radar of most geneticists 💀🧬🇰🇪 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
- Reposted by Kendra SirakReconstructing the human past: using ancient and modern genomics 17 - 20 Sep 2024 This conference will take place at EMBL Heidelberg, with the option to attend virtually. Registration is not yet open for this event. If you are interested in receiving more information please register your interest.
- Preprint alert 🧬! We explore population history in the N Eurasian forest/forest-steppe zones spanning the Mesolithic/Neolithic/Bronze Age. Esp interesting is the correlation early Uralic speakers w/expansion of Seima-Turbino metallurgical traditions. (PS: work led by bluesky-less colleagues!)
- The fact that this amazing resource is open access is nothing short of 👏🙌🤩. Not only a step forward in sharing knowledge, but one that increases equitable access to the resources that are necessary for our field. I'll be reading/sharing with everyone and you should too 🧬
- I'm delighted to release the first half of my new textbook in human genetics: web.stanford.edu/group/pritch... "An Owner's Guide to the Human Genome: an introduction to human population genetics, variation and disease"
- Reposted by Kendra Sirak"Which community has been engaged in science awareness? Surely no South African or any African community has been engaged through this act?"
- Reposted by Kendra SirakStatement from the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists regarding the transport of two hominin fossils aboard the recent 3rd Virgin Galactic commercial space flight.
- Reposted by Kendra SirakHey folks, just trying to maximize the number of eyes on this job posting, for which I serve on the search committee. If you work on "genes, genomes, and evolution" writ large, and are on the job market, please apply! Please repost and share widely! employment.unl.edu/postings/87675
- Well this explains a lot…I’m not finding Bluesky super intuitive to use, but better than the alternative?
- Absolutely worth a read 💀🧬
- #ISBA10 feels like a good time to kick off some activity in this new blue place 💀🧬🦠 I’m excited to share and consume science in this space!
- Reposted by Kendra SirakPreprint with Raphaël Forien & Harald Ringbauer showing how spatially heterogeneous dispersal can be identified using long shared haplotypes. #popgen #evolsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
