New Frontiers in Reconstructing Human Evolution History

This meeting will shed light on the latest innovations in the field of Human Evolutionary Genomics which has broad implications across diverse fields including Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, Genomics, and Biomedicine. The goals of the meeting are to: (1) bring together interdisciplinary researchers to address critical questions about genomic diversity, human origins, recent population histories, and the genetic basis of adaptation to diverse environments, (2) highlight the importance and challenges of including minority and indigenous populations in human genomics research, and (3) develop interdisciplinary approaches for using ancient DNA to reconstruct human history. The anticipated outcomes will be to: (1) Facilitate novel collaborative efforts among researchers who may not normally have an opportunity to interact, (2) Develop a set of standards based on ethical approaches for research on indigenous populations and ancient DNA from global populations, and (3) Determine novel approaches for identifying and characterizing functionally important variation in the human genome and the role of gene regulation in shaping human phenotypic diversity. This meeting will bring together researchers with expertise in computational biology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, functional genomics, and bioethics to address fundamental questions about human evolutionary history. These individuals would typically attend meetings in their own scientific specialties; thus, this meeting will play a critical role in fostering novel interdisciplinary approaches for solving complex problems about human evolutionary history. We will discuss novel methods for identifying ancient introgression in modern human genomes, reconstructing ancient phenotypes, identifying how gene regulation has shaped adaptive traits, and reconstructing complex demographic histories.