Join us for a public lecture from Honorary Associate Professor Conrad Burden (Australian National University). Light refreshments will be served afterwards.

Abstract

The Human Genome Project was declared complete in April 2003, when a nearly complete draft of the DNA reference sequence was announced.  The published ‘reference sequence’ is not just one sequence of the A’s, C’s, G’s and T’s present in human cells, but also contains information about observed differences  between individual humans.  These genomic differences must exist, otherwise the world would be populated by clones.  Genomic differences are quite sparse within the DNA sequence.  They occur most often at very specific points in the sequence called single nucleotide polymorphisms (or SNPs) and are the result of random mutations which have occurred deep in the ancestry of the population.  Typically, a SNP manifests as one fraction of the population having one letter at a particular genomic site, and the remaining fraction having another letter.

Population geneticists use mathematical models to understand how a mutation occurring randomly at one point in the genome of one individual can propagate over many generations to create SNPs.  These models also explain how mutations can propagate throughout the entire population to drive evolution.  In this lecture I will describe in terms accessible to the non-expert some of the mathematical models and techniques used by population geneticists.

About the speaker

Conrad Burden is currently an Honorary Associate Professor in the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University. His current research interests are in  mathematical population genetics. Previous research interests include aligment-free sequence comparison, the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data, and the physico-chemical modelling of microarrays.  

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Recording.