Human Evolutionary Genetics is a groundbreaking text which for the first time brings together molecular genetics and genomics to the study of the origins and movements of human populations.

 

Starting with an overview of molecular genomics for the non-specialist (which can be a useful review for those with a more genetic background), the book shows how data from the post-genomic era can be used to examine human origins and the human colonisation of the planet, richly illustrated with genetic trees and global maps. For the first time in a textbook, the authors outline how genetic data and the understanding of our origins which emerges, can be applied to contemporary population analyses, including genealogies, forensics and medicine.

Mark Jobling earned a degree in Biochemistry and a DPhil at the University of Oxford, UK, and in 1992 came to the University of Leicester, UK, where he is now a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Basic Biomedical Sciences and Reader in Genetics. Mark's interests are in Y chromosome diversity as a tool for addressing questions in human evolution, genealogy and forensics, and also male infertility and haploid mutation processes.

 

Matthew Hurles earned his degree in biochemistry at Oxford University, UK, and PhD in Leicester, UK. He was until recently a Research Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University, UK, analyzing genetic variation with the aim of improving our understanding of the human past. He is now at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, UK, investigating the unusual evolutionary dynamics of recently duplicated genomic regions.

 

Chris Tyler-Smith earned his degree in biochemistry at Oxford University, UK, and PhD in Edinburgh, UK. For the last few years he has been a University Research Lecturer in the Biochemistry Department at Oxford, UK, working on the structure and function of human centromeres, and the application of Y-chromosomal DNA variation to the understanding of the human past. He is now at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, UK, studying the genetic changes that have taken place during recent human evolution.