Martin Kuhlwilm is Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna, holding a WWTF Vienna Research Group grant. He is leading the Admixture Genomics group, which focuses on developing computational methods for detecting introgressed fragments in genomic variation data, including frameworks using Deep Learning methodologies. Furthermore, the research of his team aims to unravel the evolutionary history of humans and great apes, specifically in terms of their histories of admixture, as well as the evolution of their pathogens.

Understanding human uniqueness using hominin and primate genomic diversity

The “human condition”, understood as the composite set of traits that define us as a species, has its base in the genome, evolving since we split from the common ancestor with our closest relatives, the great apes. However, finding this base is challenging for several reasons. First, with the increasing amount of human genetic diversity data, we recognize that many genetic changes are variable within the human population. Second, when studying primate diversity data, we also find recurrent variants in different lineages which were thought to be human-specific. And finally, archaic hominin genomes revealed a history of genetic exchange that led to shared variation in hominins. I will discuss how to evaluate these patterns in search of human uniqueness, which likely is based on a composite set of variants underlying human-specific traits.