Researcher
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London
SW7 5BD
Tel:
Email: s.brace@nhm.ac.uk
Scholar: [Papers in Google Scholar]
Research Overview
I’m a biologist who works with ancient and degraded DNA to investigate species-level and evolutionary processes. I am interested in late Quaternary environmental changes and how these impact on species. Exploring genetic variation and population structure through time. Also island colonization events and the evolutionary processes involved in adaptive radiation.
Current Research
PDR for a Wellcome funded project: Human adaptation to changing diet and infectious disease loads, from the origins of agriculture to the present. A link between urban living, and an increase in the number of deaths due to transmissible disease and poor diet has often been suggested. This project aims to establish the extent to which humans have evolved to fit the demands of these fundamental changes in living. The team will be examining genetic data from both modern and archaeological individuals, and developing mathematical models to examine how changes in gene frequencies indicate human adaptation.