Alumni
This person is a member of Sanger Institute Alumni.
This page is no longer being updated and is a historical record of Chris Tyler-Smith’s work at the Sanger Institute.
The Human Evolution team generates data on worldwide genetic variation in humans and closely-related species such as gorillas, and uses this information to investigate the human past. We are interested in the way humans have spread around the world, mixed, and also adapted to their environments throughout prehistoric and historic times.
We have contributed to large international projects such as the 1000 Genomes Project and African Genome Variation Project. Now, we focus on understanding genetic variation in Africa more thoroughly, as well as variation in many other parts of the world including the Middle East, the Himalayas, the Pacific and the Americas.
We also study the functional consequences of genetic variants, including knockouts of human genes in healthy people, and modelling advantageous variants in mice or human cells.
My background is in human molecular and evolutionary genetics, and from 1986 to 2003, my research in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, concentrated on understanding the structure and function of human centromeres, responsible for proper segregation of the chromosomes when the cell divides.
My timeline
Conclusion of the 1000 Genomes Project after sequencing over 2,500 people from around the world
Human Evolutionary Genetics, second edition
Start of the 1000 Genomes Project
Launch of the Genographic Project
Human Evolutionary Genetics, first edition
Establishment of the Human Evolution team at Sanger
Group leader in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, working on human centromere structure
Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Edinburgh
My publications
Publication of Phase 3 of the 1000 Genomes Project in October 2015
Human Evolutionary Genetics, second edition
