Overview:
The Institute of Biology of Ireland, as part of the IBIOLI 2021 Activity Series, invites its members, the general public, families and friends to a free lecture delivered over Zoom (register via Eventbrite.ie) on Thursday, May 20th, 2021 @ 7.30pm.
Lecture Outline:
Professor Dan Bradley will explain how human genetics can be used to understand better the patterns and processes underlying genetic variations which exist on our island. Ancient DNA is now an archaeological tool, enabling genetic postcoding of discoveries of human remains and is helping to rewrite the history of Europeans. Our first sequencing of ancient genomes from the British Isles were of samples from the North East of Ireland at Ballynahatty Co. Down, and Rathlin Island. These showed that the great waves of people movements in Northern Europe washed all the way to our island. More recently, results from Newgrange were certainly not what we were expecting.
About the Lecturer:
Professor Dan Bradley spent his early years on an Irish farm. After a degree in genetics from Cambridge University and PhD in medical genetics from Trinity College Dublin, he subsequently started to work on the genetics of each species present on that farm, including Irish humans, and has continued to do so for over 30 years. With his colleagues, he has combined analysis of ancient and modern humans and livestock to inform on their origins. This has included a major project on the ancient genomes of Ireland. He holds a Personal Chair in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, is a member of the RIA and is the holder of an Wellcome/SFI/HRB investigator award, “Ancient genomics and the Atlantic burden”.
