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The unknown origins of humans on Swedish radio
Mattias Jakobsson was featured on Swedish Radio’s morning program (Förmiddag i P1) today, 29 Sept 2026. His conversation with Nicke Nordmark, the program leader, is available at: https://www.sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/manniskans-okanda-ursprung (in Swedish). They talked about Homo Sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans and their coexistence; the unknown DNA in our genes; and the possibility that humans as we know…
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New face in the Jakobsson Lab
Linda Pratesi is a PhD student in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology at the University of Florence, Italy. She has a strong background in molecular biology and direct experience in ancient DNA research. During her Master’s internship in forensic molecular anthropology, Linda developed advanced laboratory skills and became increasingly interested in evolutionary molecular anthropology, which is…
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Tan Xujie continues with the Jakobsson Lab in a new role
Xujie Tan (he wants to be called Tan), our junior research trainee in the spring, will stay with us for a whole academic year. This time, in the role of a master’s student. He will continue working with mutation spectra models under Per Sjödin’s supervision. Welcome back to our group!
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Mark starts in a new position
Mark Chernyshev, a postdoctoral researcher in the Jakobsson Lab for the past year, is leaving Uppsala University to start the next exciting chapter in his professional life. In his own words: “I’m super thrilled to announce that I started a new role as a Senior Bioinformatics Engineer at MiLaboratories! It feels extremely fulfilling to be…
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Diachronic reuse of Neolithic burial monuments by Bronze Age newcomers in Southwestern Britain
A new paper, co-authored by Nikola Vuković, Carolina Bernhardsson and Mattias Jakobsson, has recently been published in Scientific Reports:Vuković, N., Bernhardsson, C., Edlund, H., Delbarre, G., Smith, M., Darvill, T., Green, M., Endicott, P. & & Jakobsson, M. (2026). Diachronic reuse of Neolithic burial monuments by Bronze Age newcomers in Southwestern Britain. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 26819. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-66094-z…
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Equal in death: Ancient genomic analysis of children’s early Christian burials
Sexing the skeletal remains of young individuals is crucial yet notoriously difficult in archaeology. Children, who cannot be reliably sexed morphologically, are often excluded from gender-related research, limiting our understanding of past childhood. This issue is compounded in contexts lacking grave goods, such as early Christian burials. We conducted genomic screening of 142 individuals from…
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Ancestry, admixture, and pathogens in contemporaneous Neolithic farmers and foragers on the Island of Gotland
Several researchers from the Human Evolution Program and the Jakobsson Lab co-authored a new publication on the Neolithic. Two archaeological cultural complexes; the Neolithic Funnelbeaker culture (FBC) and the Pitted ware culture (PWC), coexisted on Gotland for over 500 years, between ~3300 and 2800 calBCE. The ancestry of the FBC farmers and PWC marine foragers…
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We’re saying goodbye to Luciana
After 11 years in various roles at Uppsala University and the Human Evolution Program, Luciana Simões starts a new chapter in her professional career. The VR-funded international postdoc grant allows her to run her own research project with Emilia Huerta-Sanchez at Trinity College Dublin and the Natural History Museum in Stockholm. We certainly hope she’ll…
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What’s on at ICP2026 this week
For many at the Jakobsson Lab (if not all), the summer starts with the International Paleogenomics Conference in Stockholm, 23-26 June. On Tuesday, Mattias delivered a keynote on The unique genomics of ancient southern Africans. In the afternoon, Nik gave a talk on Local hunter-gatherer legacies in Neolithic Iberian genomes (4300-1700 yrs BCE). We are…
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Tan Xujie’s research training completed
Tan’s research training, supervised by Per Sjödin, has come to an end prior to the start of studies towards a Master’s degree. Tan presented the results of his work on “Differences in Mutation Spectrum Across Human Populations”, focusing on mutation drivers and methods, at last week’s group meeting. Thanks for your contribution to the team…
