Title: Unraveling admixture-introduced complex genetic variation in genomic research

Funded by: DFF - Sapere Aude

AU project manager: Associate professor Emre Karaman, Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics.

Project period: January 2025 - April 2028

Funding amount: 6,170,256 DKK

Project description:

Genomic prediction and genome-wide association studies have now become the backbone of quantitative genetic studies in human and animals. Genomic research focuses to a large extent on genetically homogeneous populations, where individuals are descendants of a single ancestral population, for example a race in human, or a pure breed in animals. Studying such homogeneous populations has been useful in describing global sources of genetic variation among individuals, but it limits our understanding of genetic variation among individuals for complex traits. Individuals with multiple ancestral origins is ubiquitous in human and in animals, resulting in many populations being genetically heterogeneous, not homogeneous. In such populations, genome of individuals is an admixture of genomes of their ancestral populations. In this project we challenge the assumptions in today’s approaches in genomic research, by developing advanced statistical and machine learning models that can efficiently handle populations with multiple ancestral origins. The main research question in this project is, “How to best exploit and account for the genetic diversity among individuals which have diverse ancestral origins, in genomic research".