Estonian Biocentre, Institute of Genomics
The main research focus in Estonian Biocentre is on the studies of human genetic diversity and the evolutionary factors and events that have had a major impact on this.
Established in 1632, the University of Tartu (UT) is the oldest and largest university in Estonia both in terms of staff and student numbers, as well as the volume of its teaching, research and development activities. UT is Estonia’s only classical university where research is conducted in the fields of humanities and arts, social sciences, medical sciences, and natural and exact sciences. Today, UT comprises four faculties (Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, and Faculty of Science and Technology) with 13,400 students (incl. more than 1600 international students) enrolled in its 197 research-based undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs.
UT is the only university in the Baltic region that belongs to the top 1.2% of the world’s best universities, ranking 285th in the QS World University Rankings, and within the 250–300 range in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
Biologist with primary research interests in human evolutionary biology and genomics, operating within the transdisciplinary research field of the human past. My current research focuses on analysing genomic data from both modern and ancient populations to investigate the interplay between biological and cultural factors and their influence on health outcomes and the social structure of the population.
I study the genetic and cultural diversity of human populations, focusing on the demographic history of Eastern Europeans. Using ancient and modern genomes, I explore population structure, past migrations and admixture. I use genotype imputation to enhance the quality of ancient DNA data and extend its usability in demographic inferences.
Human culture, history and prehistory have interested me, so I have studied the genetic diversity of diverse human groups around the world, focussing on the paternal lineas of contemporary populations. Eastern Baltic people show genetic affinities to major European groups but also carry lineages that reach far to the East. I’m interested in disentagling the complex patterns of local population dynamics with phylogenetic tools and haplotype based methods.
