Akey Lab
Principal Investigator: Joshua Michael Akey
Institution: Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Primary Subfield: Genetics/Genomics
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
The initial draft sequence of the human genome was published in 2001, which was the culmination of a global consortium working for over a decade. Since then, advances in DNA sequencing technology have enabled a remarkable amount of DNA sequence data to be generated in humans and other species. In addition, the rapid maturation of ancient DNA and long-read DNA sequencing technologies allows human genomic variation to be comprehensively studied in both modern and ancient individuals. However, the ability to generate massively large sequencing datasets still outstrips the ability to interpret them. To this end, we will leverage computational, statistical, and experimental approaches to better understand the functional, phenotypic, and evolutionary significance of human genomic variation. Specifically, we will develop novel methods to improve the accuracy of phased de novo assembled genomes generated from long-read sequencing data and to make population genetics inferences directly from pangenome graphs. We will apply these tools to construct high- quality, haplotype-resolved, de novo assembled genomes in a carefully constructed panel of individuals from understudied populations in gen…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R35GM161407-01: The Functional, Phenotypic, and Evolutionary Significance of Human Genomic Variation (2026)
- 5R01GM110068-09: Identification and interpretation of introgressed hominin DNA in modern human genomes (2024)
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