Garrett Hellenthal

UCL Genetics Institute (UGI)
Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment
University College London
2nd Floor, Darwin Building
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT

ghellenthal@gmail.com


Background

I am a Sir Henry Dale Fellow working at the UCL Genetics Institute at University College London (since Sept 2012), jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society. I received my undergraduate degree, BS-Mathematics, at Santa Clara University in 2001. I received my PhD in Statistics at the University of Washington (with an emphasis in statistical genetics) under the supervision of Matthew Stephens in 2006, with my thesis on the development of a new statistical model for estimating rates of gene conversion using Single-Nucleotide-Polymorphism (SNP) data.

Subsequently, I worked as a post-doctoral research assistant at the University of Oxford. This first involved working in the Statistics Department under the supervision of Jotun Hein, developing and applying genome-wide association study (GWAS) methods in collaboration with deCode Genetics, the Bioinformatics Research Centre at the University of Aarhus, and Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre. I then worked at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG) under the supervision of Peter Donnelly, performing GWAS to elucidate genetic factors contributing to multiple sclerosis susceptibility in collaboration with the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC).


Research Interests

As part of my fellowship, I am currently developing and applying statistical methodology to study the genetic structure of individuals and populations, with a particular focus on exploiting genome-wide DNA to learn about human demography. This involves identifying periods in the past when world-wide populations have exchanged DNA, for example due to invasions or migrations, and describing the genetic make-up of the groups involved in these events. One current project involves characterizing the genetic structure of the United Kingdom, as part of the People of the British Isles (POBI) project. Another involves exploring the population structure and movements of different groups in Ethiopia. My general research interests involve applications of statistical methodology (Bayesian and otherwise) to genetics data, to explore the processes shaping genetic diversity such as drift, migration and selection. Here is my CV.


Research Team

Dr. Saioa Lopez (post-doctoral research assistant)

Juan Camilo Chacón-Duque (PhD student)

Liam Quinn (PhD student; co-supervisor: Prof. Simon Mead)

Lucy van Dorp (PhD student)

Pongsakorn Wangkumhang (PhD student)


Talks & Posters

Inferring human history using DNA (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, G. Band, G. Busby, C. Capelli) Who Do You Think You Are Live, Birmingham, United Kingdom (April 7, 2016)

Inferring genetic history using haplotype patterns (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, W.Bodmer, P. Donnelly, G. Band, G. Busby, C. Capelli, D. Lawson, S. Leslie, J. Wilson, B. Winney) Organismal Biology and Biological and Experimental Psychology Seminar, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom (Dec 10, 2015)

The power of painting: using haplotype patterns to infer history (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, W. Bodmer, P. Donnelly, S. Leslie, B. Winney, L. Quinn, S. Mead) Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) Annual Meeting, Vienna, Austria (July 14, 2015)

The genetic history of the United Kingdom: the POBI project (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, W.Bodmer, P. Donnelly, S. Leslie, B. Winney) 15th Annual International Tartu Gene Forum, Tartu, Estonia (June 18, 2015)

Unraveling our genetic history (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, G. Band, G. Busby, C. Capelli, D. Lawson, W.Bodmer, P. Donnelly, S. Leslie, B. Winney) TEDx Goodenough College, United Kingdom (May 15, 2015)

The genetic history of the United Kingdom: the POBI project (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, W.Bodmer, P. Donnelly, S. Leslie, B. Winney) Who Do You Think You Are Live, Birmingham, United Kingdom (April 16, 2015)

Making inferences from genome diversity (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, W.Bodmer, P. Donnelly, G. Band, G. Busby, C. Capelli, D. Lawson, S. Leslie, J. Wilson, B. Winney) EMBO: Human evolution in the genomic era, University of Leicester, United Kingdom (April 2, 2014)

Inferring genetic history using haplotype sharing (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, J. Wilson, C. Capelli, G. Busby) Wellcome Trust Human Genetics and Genomics Meeting, Ashridge House, United Kingdom (March 20, 2014)

A new haplotype-based approach to identifying and dating historical admixture events (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, J. Wilson, C. Capelli, G. Busby) Reich Group Seminar, Harvard Medical School, Boston (May 3, 2013)

Identifying and dating historical admixture events in humans using DNA (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, J. Wilson, C. Capelli, G. Busby) Bloomsbury Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics Seminar, London School Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (March 12, 2013)

Inferring Human Admixture History and Relatedness Using DNA (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson) MiR@W - Models and Inference in Population Genetics, University of Warwick (Oct 15, 2012)

New Haplotype-Based Methods for Inference of Population Structure and Admixture Events (work with S. Myers, D. Falush, D. Lawson, C. Capelli, G. Busby) UCL Genetics Institute Seminar, University College London (Aug 23, 2011)

Identifying and Dating Population Admixture Events Using SNP Data (work with S. Myers, D. Falush) Department of Human Evolution Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Dec 7, 2010)

The genetics of multiple sclerosis susceptibility (on behalf of WTCCC2, IMSGC) Genomics of Common Diseases Annual Meeting 2010, Houston (Oct 8, 2010)

Identifying and Dating Population Admixture Events Using Dense Genetic Variation Data (work with S. Myers, D. Falush) Greek Stochastics Annual Meeting 2010, Lefkada (Aug 26, 2010)

Genome-wide Association Analysis of Multiple Sclerosis (on behalf of WTCCC2) International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium Annual Meeting, Toronto (April 11, 2010)

Estimating Human Admixture History Using a Copying Model (work with D. Falush, S. Myers) Centre for Biostatistics Seminar, Imperial College London (Oct 24, 2008)

Inferring Human Colonization History Using a Copying Model (work with D. Falush, S. Myers) Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Annual Meeting 2008, Barcelona (June 6, 2008)

Inference of the peopling of the world under sequential bottlenecks with admixture (work with D. Falush) American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting 2007, San Diego (Oct 27, 2007)

Testing SNPs Imputed with HapMap Data Polygene Group Meeting, deCODE genetics (June 4, 2007)

Exploring Rates and Patterns of Variability in Gene Conversion and Crossover in the Human Genome (work with M. Stephens) Mathematical Biology Seminar Series, University of Oxford (Jan 16, 2007)

Estimating crossover recombination and gene conversion rates from the human genome (work with M. Stephens) Evolution and Population Genetics Seminar, University of Washington (Jan 31/Feb 2, 2006)

msHOT: Simulating Crossover and Gene Conversion Hotspots with the ms Simulator (work with M. Stephens) American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting 2006, New Orleans (Oct 9, 2006) (poster here)

Genome-wide variation in rates of gene conversion and crossver (work with M. Stephens) American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting 2005, Salt Lake City (Oct 28, 2005) (poster here)

A New Method For Estimating Rates of Gene Conversion in Humans (work with M. Stephens) Western North Atlantic Region (WNAR) Annual Meeting 2005, University of Fairbanks ( 2005)


Selected Publications

van Dorp, L; Balding, D; Myers, S; Pagani, L; Tyler-Smith, C; Bekele, E; Tarekegn, A; Thomas, MG; Bradman, N; Hellenthal, G (2015) Evidence for a common origin of Blacksmiths and Cultivators in the Ethiopian Ari within the last 4500 years: Lessons for clustering-based inference. PLoS Genetics 11(8):e1005397.

Busby, GBJ; Hellenthal, G; Montinaro, F; Tofanelli, S; Bulayeva, K; Rudan, I; Zemunik, T; Hayward, C; Toncheva, D; Karachanak-Yankova, S; Nesheva, D; Anagnostou, P; Cali, F; Brisighelli, F; Romano, V; Lefranc, G; Buresi, C; Chibani, JB: Haj-Khelil, A; Denden, S; Ploski, R; Krajewski, P; Hervig, T; Moen, T; Herrera, RJ; Wilson, JF; Myers, S; Capelli, C (2015) The Role of Recent Admixture in Forming the Contemporary West Eurasian Genomic Landscape. Current Biology 25(19):2518-26.

Silver, MJ; Corbin, KD; Hellenthal, G; da Costa KA; Dominguez-Salas, P; Moore, SE; Owen, J; Prentice, AM; Hennig, BJ; Zeisel, SH (2015) Evidence for negative selection of gene variants that increase dependence on dietary choline in a Gambian cohort. FASEB 29(8):3426-35.

Leslie, S*; Winney, B*; Hellenthal, G*; Davison, D; Boumertit, A; Day, T; Hutnik, K; Royrvik, EC; Cunliffe, B; WTCCC2; IMSGC; Lawson, DJ; Falush, D; Freeman, C; Pirinen, M; Myers, S; Robinson, M; Donnelly, P; Bodmer, W (2015) The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population. Nature 519:309-314.

(related press: Sky News Tonight, BBC Radio Orkney, Christian Science Monitor, Naked Scientists)

Jeffares, DC; Rallis, C; Rieux, A; Speed, D; Prevorovsky, M; Mourier, T; Marsellach, FX; Iqbal, Z; Lau, W; Cheng, TMK; Pracana, R; Mulleder, M; Lawson, JLD; Chessel, A; Bala, S; Hellenthal, G; O'Fallon, B; Keane, T; Simpson, JT; Bischof, L; Tomiczek, B; Bitton, DA; Sideri, T; Codlin, S; Hellberg, JEEU; van Trigt, L; Jeffrey, L; Li, JJ; Atkinson, S; Thodberg, M; Febrer, M; McLay, K; Drou, N; Brown, W; Hayles, J; Carazo Salas, RE; Ralser, M; Maniatis, N; Balding, DJ; Balloux, F; Durbin, R; and Bahler, J (2015) The genomic and phenotypic diversity of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Nature Genetics 47:235-241.

Hellenthal, G; Busby, GBJ; Band, G; Wilson, JF; Capelli, C; Falush, D; and Myers, S (2014) A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History. Science 343:747-751.

(related press: New York Times, Daily Mail Online, BBC World Service: Science in Action)

Lawson, D; Hellenthal, G; Myers, S; and Falush, D (2012) Inference of population structure using dense haplotype data. PLoS Genetics 8(1):e1002453.

Bowden, R; MacFie, T; Myers, S; Hellenthal, G; Nerrienet, E; Bontrop, R; Freeman, C; Donnelly, P; and Mundy, N (2012) Genomic tools for evolution and conservation in the chimpanzee: Pan troglodytes ellioti is a genetically distinct population. PLoS Genetics 8(3):e1002504.

Sawcer, S*; Hellenthal, G*; Pirinen, M*, Spencer, CA*; International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC2) (2011) Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis. Nature 476:214-219. (*denotes joint first authors)

International Parkinson's Disease Genomics Consortium (IPDGC) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2) (2011) A two-stage meta-analysis identifies several new loci for Parkinson's disease. PLoS Genetics 7(6):e1002142.

Sawcer, S; and Hellenthal, G (2011) The major histocompatibility complex and multiple sclerosis: a smoking gun?. Brain 134(3):638-640.

Hellenthal, G; Auton, A; and Falush, D (2008) Inferring Human Colonization History Using a Copying Model. PLoS Genetics 4(5):e1000078.

Hellenthal, G and Stephens, M (2007) msHOT: modifying Hudson's ms simulator to incorporate crossover and gene conversion hotspots. Bioinformatics 23(4): 520-521. (program available here; instructions here)

Hellenthal, G and Stephens, M (2006) Insights into recombination from population genetic variation. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 16: 565-572.

Hellenthal, G; Pritchard, J.K.; and Stephens, M (2006) The Effects of Genotype-Dependent Recombination, and Transmission Asymmetry, on Linkage Disequilibrium. Genetics 172: 2001-2005.

Crawford, D.C.; Bhangale, T.; Li, N.; Hellenthal, G; Rieder, M.J.; Nickerson, D.A.; and Stephens, M (2004) Evidence for substantial fine-scale variation in recombination rates across the human genome. Nature Genetics 36(7): 700-706.