NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Coalescent Modeling of Sex Chromosome Evolution with Gene Flow and Analysis of Sexed-versus-Gendered Effects in Human Admixture

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该项目的目标是深入了解人类进化史上的事件，例如种群之间的相互作用，如何从现代基因组数据中推断出来。这项工作旨在加深对塑造人类历史的生物和社会因素的理解。这项研究还将产生理论，将人类进化基因组中的身份分类背景化，并进一步发展有助于理解人类多样性的方法。此外，该项目将为该研究员提供种群遗传学中使用的数学和计算技术方面的培训，并促进该研究员在公共宣传、指导学员以及在布朗大学博士后群体中培育包容性社区方面的活动。该项目将使研究员有机会继续发展理论种群遗传学方面的技能，特别是在聚结理论和模拟方面。该项目将包括开发一个凝聚模型，该模型可以描述具有倒位的非常染色体染色体的进化，这是混合偏置模式建模的关键组成部分。此外，该研究员将使用种群间基因流动的前时间种群遗传模拟，在基因-环境和文化决定迁移概率的新模型下，产生对亲缘关系模式的期望。然后，该研究员将使用理论和模拟工作的结果来深入了解人类人口历史如何受到文化和生物因素的影响。该项目将建立在科学技术研究、数学和进化生物学的基础上，对种群在面对混合和基因流动时如何进化产生跨学科的理解。最后，在整个项目过程中，该研究员将通过与布朗大学现有团体合作，通过教学、指导和社区组织来支持STEM领域代表性不足的学生。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The goal of this project is to generate insights about how events in human evolutionary history, such as interactions between populations, can be inferred from modern genome data. This work seeks to deepen the understanding of biological and social factors that have shaped human history. The research will also generate theories to contextualize identity categories within human evolutionary genomics, and further develop approaches to help understand human diversity. In addition, this project will provide the fellow with training in the mathematical and computational techniques used in population genetics, and promote the fellow’s activities in public outreach, mentoring of trainees, and fostering inclusive community within Brown University’s postdoctoral body.This project will give the fellow an opportunity to continue developing skills in theoretical population genetics, with a particular focus on coalescent theory and simulations. The project will include the development of a coalescent model which can describe the evolution of non-autosomal chromosomes with inversions, a critical component of modeling patterns of bias in admixture. In addition, the fellow will use forward-time population genetic simulations of gene flow between populations to generate expectations of patterns of relatedness under novel models of gene-by-environmental and cultural determination of migration probability. The fellow will then use the results of the theory and simulation work to generate insights into how human demographic history has been impacted by cultural and biological factors. This project will build on work in science and technology studies, mathematics, and evolutionary biology to generate an interdisciplinary understanding of how populations evolve in the face of admixture and gene flow. Finally, throughout the course of the project, the fellow will support underrepresented students in STEM through teaching, mentorship, and community organizing in collaboration with existing groups at Brown University.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.