The Harvard Gazette

David Reich

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National Academy of Sciences

10 faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences

SEAS, Center for Astrophysics, and the departments of chemistry, economics, neurobiology, public health, and applied physics are represented

Campus|

DateMay 6, 2019October 9, 2019

David Reich talks about the deep history of people in Europe and Southeast Asia relating to ancient DNA, at the Science Center.

DNA reveals we are all genetic mutts

Geneticist David Reich discusses how migration shaped modern human populations

Science|

DateFebruary 28, 2019March 6, 2019

A Science Panel featuring Harvard's program for the Science of the Human Past, headed by Michael McCormick (pictured), launched a new center with Max Planck Institute.

History under the microscope

‘The sciences are destabilizing what we thought we knew about the past’

Science|

DateOctober 16, 2017

“Human genetics are another extraordinary window on a vanished world of migrations and matings that take you back literally to the dawn of human time,” said Harvard Professor Michael McCormick.

The surprising origins of Europeans

Researchers discuss new theories on human migration revealed by sophisticated DNA tests

Science|

DateDecember 3, 2014March 6, 2019

Starting with a 45,000-year-old Siberian thighbone, research by Qiaomei Fu (right), a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, and Professor David Reich has narrowed the window of time when Neanderthals and humans crossbred. “Even if we cannot be sure of whether all the interbreeding occurred at once, the big picture is that we can be sure that the recent ancestors of this individual interbred with Neanderthals,” said Fu.

New evidence on Neanderthal mixing

The thighbone is connected to knowing when species interbred, how they migrated

Science|

DateOctober 22, 2014

“Our evidence that Europeans today harbor ancestry that wasn’t present in the first farmers is important as it shows directly that there was a major movement of people into Europe after the advent of agriculture,” said Professor of Genetics David Reich. “This motivates further ancient DNA work to try and figure out what archaeological cultures were responsible for bringing this ancestry.”

A mark on modern Europe

DNA findings suggest post-agriculture influx, challenging prevailing view

Science|

DateSeptember 17, 2014March 6, 2019

A view of the cave in Siberia where a scientist found the Neanderthal whose DNA was analyzed in the current study (photo 1). With that evidence, Harvard Medical School Professor David Reich (photo 2) and his research team have begun to unravel the impact of the inherited DNA. The team also measured how Neanderthal DNA present in human genomes today affects keratin production and disease risk.

Neanderthals’ DNA legacy linked to modern ailments

Humans inherited variants affecting disease risk, infertility, skin and hair characteristics

Health|

DateJanuary 29, 2014March 21, 2019

Research led by David Reich (pictured), professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and by Andres Ruiz-Linares of University College London, shows that the majority of the genetic signature of today’s Native Americans comes from an initial migration during which people pushed south along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to the tip of South America.

Mystery of Native Americans’ arrival

Study shows three waves, not one, carried people to New World

Science|

DateJuly 24, 2012July 22, 2019

The attached figure shows the populations in Southeast Asia and Oceania with and without Denisova ancestry. The blackened circles (New Guineans, Aboriginal Australians, etc.) represent the groups with the most Denisovan genetic material discovered to date; an estimated 4 to 6 percent of their genetic material comes from archaic Denisovans. The pie charts show the other populations in relation to them. Denisovan genes are detected only in eastern Southeast Asia and Oceania; they are not detectable in mainland Asia.

Following path of genetic footprint

DNA study suggests Asia was settled in multiple waves of migration

Science|

DateSeptember 22, 2011March 29, 2019

David Reich, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, co-led a study that is expected to help researchers understand the roots of congenital conditions that occur more often in African-Americans.

New territory

Detail distinguishes map of African-American genomics

Health|

DateJuly 20, 2011April 15, 2019

Doctoral student Priya Moorjani (left) and Associate Professor of Genetics David Reich have used a new DNA analysis technique to track when and how much gene flow occurred from sub-Saharan Africa into populations in Europe and the Middle East.

Finding the genetic trail

New techniques let researchers track African connections to other populations

Science|

DateJune 8, 2011