RESEARCH

SUNY | Department of Ecology and Evolution | Stony Brook University, New York

The Veeramah Lab conducts research in the general area of Evolutionary Genomics. Our primary goal is better to understand how demography and selection have interacted with molecular mechanisms such as mutation and recombination to shape the genomic architecture of modern human genomes. We are primarily an empirical lab that apply population genetic theory to genome-scale data. A major theme found across many specific projects is to understand the evolution of genetic variation by generating data from the same population(s) at various points in time and modeling allele frequency changes across the genome.

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We have a long-standing interest in using paleogenomic data to better understand post-Roman early Medieval Europe. We are particularly focused on the dynamics of how Medieval communities formed, developed and changed over time. We advocate a fine-scale approach that fully leverages multiple lines of evidence from genomics, archaeology, anthropology and history to examine these processes (Veeramah 2018).

The Veeramah Lab pioneered a comprehensive cemetery approach to paleogenomics via an NSF-funded project examining 5th and 6th century sites in Hungary and northern Italy associated with the Lombard (Amorim et al. 2018). This study now forms the intellectual core of HISTOGENES, providing a bottom-up framework that will synthesize inferences obtained from comprehensive analysis of individual cemeteries to provide an unprecedented view of social dynamics in post-Roman Carpathian Basin through space and time.

Amorim, C.E.G, Vai, S, Posth, C, Modi, A, Koncz, I, Hakenbeck, S, La Rocca, M.C, Mende, B, Bobo, D, Pohl, W, Pejrani Baricco, L, Bedini, E, Francalacci, P, Giostra, C, Vida, T, Winger, D, von Freeden, U, Ghirotto, S, Lari, M, Barbujani, G, Krause, J, Caramelli, D, Geary, P.J, Veeramah, K.R. Understanding 6th-Century Barbarian Social Organization and Migration through Paleogenomics. (2018) Nature Communications. 9(1):3547

Veeramah, K.R. The importance of fine-scale studies for integrating paleogenomics and archaeology. (2018) Curr Opin Genetics Dev. 53:83-89