Dr. Eran Elhaik
Dr. Eran Elhaik is the Chief of Science Officer (CSO) of Ancient DNA Origins.
Dr. Elhaik completed a Ph.D. in Molecular Evolution at the University of Houston, studying the evolution of Mammalian Genomes. He completed two post-docs at Johns Hopkins at the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health, working on population genetics and mental disorders. Dr. Elhaik is currently an Associate Professor at Lund University (Sweden). His research uses computational, statistical, epidemiological and mathematical approaches to fields such as complex disorders, population genetics, personalized medicine, molecular evolution, genomics, paleogenomics, and epigenetics.
Dr Elhaik designed the GenoChip microarray and genetic tests for the Genographic Project of National Geographic. He designed the mini-DREAM microarray and GPS Origins test for Home DNA. Dr. Elhaik's population genetics on modern and ancient DNA (aDNA) work received much attention. His recent works include developing a genetic GPS tool that identifies the geographic origin of DNA, dating the most ancient human Y chromosome "Y chromosomal Adam," and building AI-tool to date ancient genomes.
Dr. Elhaik’s work on studying the origin of Ashkenazic Jews received worldwide attention when his group identified “Ancient Ashkenaz” in northeastern Turkey. His recent works include tools to improve paleogenomic research, such as ancient Ancestry Informatics Markers (aAIMs) that allow studying ancient origins in modern-day populations with high accuracy, which allow comparing modern individuals to ancient people and underlie Ancient DNA Origins tests.
