Dr Guy Jacobs - on Research Leave for Michaelmas and Lent Terms 2024/25

Biography

My research uses population genetics to better understand human evolutionary history, including adaptation, genetic demography and archaic introgression. I am interested in how large-scale patterns of genetic variation, over countries and continents, are impacted by local social behaviours such as kinship practices, migration and movement decisions, and social hierarchies. I combine modelling and simulation with information from human genetics and other sources (linguistics, movement ecology, ancient DNA, domesticate genetics and the microbiome) to better understand these processes. My work has a regional focus in South Asia and islands in Southeast Asia.

I will be on Research Leave for Michaelmas and Lent terms 2024/25.

Research

Human evolutionary genetics
Social behaviour and genetic diversity
Non-human genetics and the microbiome
Hunter-gatherer genetic variation

Ongoing and past research projects:

2021-2026: MOBILE: Movement networks and genetic evolution among tropical hunter-gatherers of island Southeast Asia (PI, ERC Starting Grant)
2019-2021: Pilot study of Cave Punan hunter-gatherers of Borneo (with Prof. Steve Lansing and Dr Pradiptajati Kusuma)
2018-2020: Borneo Human Genome and Microbiome Diversity in Association with Health and Disease (with the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology)
2018-2020: Archaic introgression and the evolution of modern humans (NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship)
2016-2019: The Indonesian Genome Diversity Project (with the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology)

Teaching and Supervisions

Teaching

I am involved in the teaching of the following courses:

Paper B1: Humans in Biological Perspective
Paper B4: Comparative Human Biology
Paper B16 – Genomes: Ancient, Modern and Mixed

Research supervision

I am interested in supervising students who wish to study for an MPhil or a PhD in the following topics:

Genetics of archaic introgression
Human microbiome diversity and evolution
Genetic adaptation and signals of selection
Modelling the genetics of social behaviour
Human-domesticate coevolution
Genetics of South Asian cattle

Job Titles

Assistant Professor in Human Evolutionary Genetics and Bioinformatics

General Info

Available for consultancy

Research Expertise / Fields of study

Human Population Genetics

Human Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology

Contact Details

gsj22 [at] cam.ac.uk

MOBILE project

Affiliations

Subjects

Biological Anthropology

Geographical areas

South Asia

Southeast Asia

Dr Guy Jacobs - on Research Leave for Michaelmas and Lent Terms 2024/25

Biography

Research

Teaching and Supervisions

Job Titles

General Info

Contact Details

Affiliations

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