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Office: CAP 01.01 Email: m.mormina@uea.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1603-591988 School Position: Lecturer in Human DNA Analysis |
Background information
2011 – Lecturer in Human DNA Analysis – University of East Anglia
2007-2011 RCUK Fellow in Evolutionary Genetics and Palaeogenetics – University of Cambridge
2003-2007 PhD for Prof Martin Richards, Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds
2002-2003 MSc Molecular Biology, University of Hertfordshire
Research interests
My academic interests revolve around the question of human uniqueness and the evolutionary process that have generated it. Humans are unique in many respects, not least in their ubiquitous distribution. Most of my research is concerned with the geographic distribution of human genetic variation, and how evolutionary forces (gene flow and natural selection) have shaped the genetic makeup of human populations. I use DNA markers (mtDNA, Y-chromosome and autosomal loci) to retrospectively investigate population dynamics and change, an approach that has many applications in the forensic industry. I have applied this approach to the study of extant and extinct populations from Southeast Asia, Australia, Madagascar and the Solomon Islands and currently from South America to assess issues of gene flow into Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
More recently, my research interests concentrate in the genetic basis of adaptations to the environment, with ongoing research in the highlands of South America to investigate the genetics of hypoxia protection.
Selected publications
Ancient voyaging and Polynesian origins.
Soares P, Rito T, Trejaut J, Mormina M, Hill C, Tinkler-Hundal E, Braid M, Clarke DJ, Loo JH, Thomson N, Denham T, Donohue M, Macaulay V, Lin M, Oppenheimer S, Richards MB.
Am J Hum Genet. (2011), 88(2):239-47, PubMed PMID: 21295281; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3035714.
Ancient Solomon Islands mtDNA: assessing Holocene settlement and the impact of European contact.
Ricaut F-X, Thomas T, Mormina M, Cox MP, Bellatti M, Mirazon-Lahr M, and Foley R.
Journal of Archaeological Science (2010), 37(6):1161-1170
DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2009.12.014
Correcting for purifying selection: an improved human mitochondrial molecular clock.
Soares P, Ermini L, Thomson N, Mormina M, Rito T, Röhl A, Salas A, Oppenheimer S, Macaulay V, Richards MB.
Am J Hum Genet. (2009), 84(6):740-59. PubMed PMID: 19500773; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2694979.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.05.001
Climate change and postglacial human dispersals in southeast Asia.
Soares P, Trejaut JA, Loo JH, Hill C, Mormina M, Lee CL, Chen YM, Hudjashov G, Forster P, Macaulay V, Bulbeck D, Oppenheimer S, Lin M, Richards MB.
Mol Biol Evol. (2008), 25(6):1209-18, PubMed PMID: 18359946.
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msn068
