Human Diversity seminar 15.5.2024, Kere and Salmela

Wednesday 15.5.2024 

Juha Kere, Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
“Genes, environment and chance”
Abstract:
In genetics, we often think of gene effects as rather deterministic, as illustrated by monogenic inheritance and diseases. However, besides the genes and environmental effects, chance is the third major factor in multiple aspects of our lives, including even developmental processes. I will discuss major aspects of genetic research findings and applications, including our improved understanding of the genetic architecture of complex disorders and of gene regulation, a new approach for drug discovery, and the low utility of polygenic risk scores (PRS) as predictors of common, complex disorders such as coronary artery disease. As alternative approaches for personalized medicine, I will briefly highlight new methods based on proteomics, metabolomics, cell-free-DNA (cfDNA), and imaging technologies as dynamic markers of health.

Elina Salmela, Department of Biology, University of Turku
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki
“The skull of a saint? A genetic analysis of the purported cranium of St. Henry from the Cathedral of Turku”
Abstract:
In 1924, a human skull was found carefully hidden in a wall niche in the main cathedral of Turku. The skull’s origin (i.e., provenance) is unknown, but some claim it to have belonged to St. Henry, the patron saint of now-Lutheran Finland, whose historicity, however, is unclear. The skull has been radiocarbon dated to the 11th-12th century CE, in congruence with the legend of St. Henry, which portrays him as a bishop of Uppsala who arrived in Finland in the 1150s to baptize the natives and got murdered by a local peasant. We have sampled the skull for ancient-DNA sequencing, and I will present results of analyses attempting to pinpoint the individual’s genetic history on the map.