Bruce Lahn | |
---|---|
Born | 1969 China |
Citizenship | United States |
Alma mater | Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Known for | MCPH1 Human Genetics Human Evolutionary Genetics Stem Cell Biology |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Human Evolutionary Genetics Stem Cell Biology Tissue Engineering |
Institutions | University of Chicago |
Doctoral advisor | David C. Page |
Bruce Lahn is a Chinese-born American geneticist. Lahn came to the U.S. from China to continue his education in the late 1980s. [1] He is the William B. Graham professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. He is also the founder of the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. Lahn currently serves as the chief scientist of VectorBuilder, Inc. [2]
Lahn's honors include the Merrill Lynch Forum Global Innovation Award, the TR100 Award from Technology Review , [3] the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award, and a Searle Scholarship. [4] He was also named to the 40-Under-40 list by Crains Chicago Business. Lahn received his B.A. in General Biology from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the lab of David C. Page. [5] From 2000 to 2012, Lahn was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute sponsored Investigator. [6]
His previous research specialized in human genetics and evolutionary genetics, especially human sex chromosome evolution and the genetic basis that underlies the evolutionary expansion of the human brain. Lahn's current research interests include stem cell biology and epigenetics. [7]
Bruce Lahn is a Chinese-born American scientist. He is the founder and Chief Scientist of VectorBuilder, a global leader in gene delivery solutions. [1] In the past he has studied human genetics and evolutionary genetics. His main objective with previous studies was to study the evolution of human sex chromosomes and the underlying basis for the growth of the human brain. Lahn is currently doing a wide spread of stem cell research as well as working with epigenetics. [7] Lahn's previous research has led to the hypothesis that the Neanderthals contributed to evolution of the human brain's size. [8] Lahn is currently working to contribute a better understanding of the widespread use of stem cells to the science world.
His research on the microcephaly-associated gene, MCPH1, led to the hypothesis that an archaic Homo sapiens lineage such as the Neanderthals might have contributed to the recent development of the human brain. [8] His research also suggested that newly arisen variants of two brain size genes, ASPM and MCPH1, might have been favored by positive natural selection in recent human history. [9] This research provoked controversy due to the finding that the positively selected variants of these genes had spread to higher frequencies in some parts of the world than in others (for ASPM, it is higher in Europe and surrounding regions than other parts of the world; for MCPH1, it is higher outside sub-Saharan Africa than inside). [10] He has advocated the moral position that human genetic diversity should be embraced and celebrated as among humanity's great assets. [11] Later studies did not find the ASPM and MCPH1 gene variants identified by Lahn to be associated with mental ability or cognition in modern populations, [12] [13] [14] and the haplotype was not found in the individuals used to prepare the first draft of the Neanderthal genome. [15] [16]
Lahn has many different studies with stem cells that he is currently working on. They range anywhere from looking at if the suicide gene can be modified with stem cells, [17] to looking at stem cells as a potential source to treat testicular dysfunctions. [18]
Homininae, is a subfamily of the family Hominidae (hominids). This subfamily includes two tribes, Hominini and Gorillini, both having extant species as well as extinct species.
Early modern human (EMH), or anatomically modern human (AMH), are terms used to distinguish Homo sapiens that are anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans, from extinct archaic human species. This distinction is useful especially for times and regions where anatomically modern and archaic humans co-existed, for example, in Paleolithic Europe. Among the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens are those found at the Omo-Kibish I archaeological site in south-western Ethiopia, dating to about 233,000 to 196,000 years ago, the Florisbad site in South Africa, dating to about 259,000 years ago, and the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco, dated about 315,000 years ago.
Microcephaly is a medical condition involving a smaller-than-normal head. Microcephaly may be present at birth or it may develop in the first few years of life. Brain development is often affected; people with this disorder often have an intellectual disability, poor motor function, poor speech, abnormal facial features, seizures and dwarfism.
Abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated protein, also known as abnormal spindle protein homolog or Asp homolog, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ASPM gene. ASPM is located on chromosome 1, band q31 (1q31). The ASPM gene contains 28 exons and codes for a 3477 amino-acid-long protein. The ASPM protein is conserved across species including human, mouse, Drosophila, and C. elegans. Defective forms of the ASPM gene are associated with autosomal recessive primary microcephaly.
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network.
The indigenous peoples of Western New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Malay Archipelago perhaps 50,000 years ago when New Guinea and Australia were a single landmass called Sahul and, much later, a wave of Austronesian people from the north who introduced Austronesian languages and pigs about 3,500 years ago. They also left a small but significant genetic trace in many coastal Papuan peoples.
David C. Page is an American biologist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the director of the Whitehead Institute, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator. He is best known for his work on mapping the Y-chromosome and on its evolution in mammals and expression during development.
Microcephalin (MCPH1) is a gene that is expressed during fetal brain development. Certain mutations in MCPH1, when homozygous, cause primary microcephaly—a severely diminished brain. Hence, it has been assumed that variants have a role in brain development. However, in normal individuals no effect on mental ability or behavior has yet been demonstrated in either this or another similarly studied microcephaly gene, ASPM. However, an association has been established between normal variation in brain structure, as measured with MRI but only in females, and common genetic variants within both the MCPH1 gene and another similarly studied microcephaly gene, CDK5RAP2.
Introgression, also known as introgressive hybridization, in genetics is the transfer of genetic material from one species into the gene pool of another by the repeated backcrossing of an interspecific hybrid with one of its parent species. Introgression is a long-term process, even when artificial; it may take many hybrid generations before significant backcrossing occurs. This process is distinct from most forms of gene flow in that it occurs between two populations of different species, rather than two populations of the same species.
The size of the brain is a frequent topic of study within the fields of anatomy, biological anthropology, animal science and evolution. Measuring brain size and cranial capacity is relevant both to humans and other animals, and can be done by weight or volume via MRI scans, by skull volume, or by neuroimaging intelligence testing.
Human evolutionary genetics studies how one human genome differs from another human genome, the evolutionary past that gave rise to the human genome, and its current effects. Differences between genomes have anthropological, medical, historical and forensic implications and applications. Genetic data can provide important insights into human evolution.
Feldhofer 1 or Neanderthal 1 is the scientific name of the 40,000-year-old type specimen fossil of the species Homo neanderthalensis, discovered in August 1856 in a German cave, the Kleine Feldhofer Grotte, in the Neandertal valley, 13 km (8.1 mi) east of Düsseldorf. In 1864, the fossil's description was first published in a scientific magazine and officially named. Neanderthal 1 was not the first Neanderthal fossil discovery. Other Neanderthal fossils had been discovered earlier, but their true nature and significance had not been recognized, and, therefore, no separate species name was assigned.
The evolution of the brain refers to the progressive development and complexity of neural structures over millions of years, resulting in the diverse range of brain sizes and functions observed across different species today, particularly in vertebrates.
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution is a 2009 book by anthropologists Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. Starting with their own take on the conventional wisdom that the evolutionary process stopped when modern humans appeared, the authors explain the genetic basis of their view that human evolution is accelerating, illustrating it with some examples.
Richard C. Mulligan is an American scientist who is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, the Director of the Harvard Gene Therapy Initiative and a visiting scientist at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the head of SanaX at Sana Biotechnology.
The multiregional hypothesis, multiregional evolution (MRE), or polycentric hypothesis, is a scientific model that provides an alternative explanation to the more widely accepted "Out of Africa" model of monogenesis for the pattern of human evolution.
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 to 25 thousand years ago. Denisovans are known from few physical remains; consequently, most of what is known about them comes from DNA evidence. No formal species name has been established pending more complete fossil material.
Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans occurred during the Middle Paleolithic and early Upper Paleolithic. The interbreeding happened in several independent events that included Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as several unidentified hominins.
Recent human evolution refers to evolutionary adaptation, sexual and natural selection, and genetic drift within Homo sapiens populations, since their separation and dispersal in the Middle Paleolithic about 50,000 years ago. Contrary to popular belief, not only are humans still evolving, their evolution since the dawn of agriculture is faster than ever before. It has been proposed that human culture acts as a selective force in human evolution and has accelerated it; however, this is disputed. With a sufficiently large data set and modern research methods, scientists can study the changes in the frequency of an allele occurring in a tiny subset of the population over a single lifetime, the shortest meaningful time scale in evolution. Comparing a given gene with that of other species enables geneticists to determine whether it is rapidly evolving in humans alone. For example, while human DNA is on average 98% identical to chimp DNA, the so-called Human Accelerated Region 1 (HAR1), involved in the development of the brain, is only 85% similar.
Genetic studies on Neanderthal ancient DNA became possible in the late 1990s. The Neanderthal genome project, established in 2006, presented the first fully sequenced Neanderthal genome in 2013.