Prof Martin Richards

BSc Special Honours First Class in Genetics, Sheffield, PhD, UMIST
Professor of Archaeogenetics
Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology

Background: GRA, UMIST: Yeast genome sequencing project (1988-1989) PDRA, University of Oxford: Ancient DNA (1990-94) PDRA, University of Oxford: Modern human mtDNA variation (1994-1996) Wellcome Trust Bioarchaeology fellow: PDRA, University of Oxford: mtDNA variation in Europe, Africa and the Pacific (1996-1999) Research fellow, UCL: Human mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation (1999-2000) Senior Lecturer in Biological Science, University of Huddersfield (2000-2004)

Office: Astbury 8.109
Phone: +44(0) 113 34 32984
Email: email address for Prof Martin Richards 

Publications

List Prof Richards's Publications


The Archaeogenetics Research Group

The Archaeogenetics Group studies the geographic distribution of modern human genetic variation, with the aim of addressing questions from archaeology, anthropology and history. We do this by combining the phylogenetic relationships between the lineages with their geographic distribution and diversity converted to time depth using the molecular clock, an approach termed ‘phylogeography’. Our main target until recently has been mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited without recombination down the female line of descent, allowing us to make inferences from estimates of the human maternal genealogy. We are increasingly also applying the phylogeographic approach to Y-chromosome variation, which traces the male line of descent, and hope in the future to study non-recombining blocks of the X chromosome and the autosomes in a similar fashion.
  
Our main avenue of research in the past few years, funded initially by the British Academy, has been the prehistory of Southeast Asia. Our findings challenge the consensus view of archaeologists and linguists concerning the history of the region, in which expanding farming communities from South China and Taiwan play the major role. This work, focused primarily on mtDNA, parallels our earlier research on the prehistory of Europe where we have shown that the demographic contribution of pre-farming hunter-gatherer populations to the modern-day gene pool had been under-estimated in the past. Our work on west Eurasia has continued with an active collaboration between ourselves and archaeologists, exemplifying the group’s philosophy of a harmonious marriage between archaeology and genetics.

We have also worked with prehistorians on the reconstruction of human dispersals in Africa, and with historians on the genetic consequences of slavery. In research published last year in the journal Science, funded by the Royal Society and the Discovery Channel, we focused on the process of the initial dispersal of modern humans out of Africa and the peopling of the world and, with funding from the Bradshaw Foundation, we are exploring the details of the dispersal process, including the possible role of the eruption of the super-volcano Toba about 75,000 years ago. We have also recently embarked on a project focused on the Y chromosome, which will try to map out in detail the dispersals on the male side that contributed to the formation of modern Southeast Asian populations.

Further information

Highly recommended background reading: Jobling M.A., Hurles, M.E., Tyler-Smith, C. Human Evolutionary Genetics. Oxford: Garland, 2004  

News of the route out of Africa, as published in the journal Science last spring:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4543767.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/13/nsea13.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/13/ixnewstop.html http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/308/5724/1034.pdf?ijkey=QWTbNGl4UEtZk&keytype=ref&siteid=sci.pdf http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/308/5724/965.pdf  

Our early work on the settlement of Europe was covered in New Scientist in 1997:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15520895.500.html  

A Guardian Comment on genetic ancestry testing, February 21, 2003:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,900065,00.html

An Analysis (BBC Radio 4) on human genetics and race – “The Colour-Coded Prescription” (broadcast 17 November, 2005):
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/analysis/4423018.stm 

mtDNA rate calculator

 http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/staff/Richards/Soares_mtDNA_rate_calculator.xls

 

Current Projects

The Bradshaw Foundation: “The prehistoric settlement of Southeast Asia and Greater Australia”, October 2004–September 2006, £40,000 – website at http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/ The British Academy: “Y-chromosome phylogeography in Southeast Asia and the Pacific” April 2006–March 2007, £80,000 – website at http://www.britac.ac.uk/  

Studentship information

See also: