Pontus Skoglund is the group leader of the Francis Crick Institute’s Ancient Genomics laboratory. He obtained his PhD in evolutionary genetics from Uppsala University in 2013 with Mattias Jakobsson, and thereafter did his postdoctoral research with David Reich at Harvard Medical School. His research has focused on developing new approaches to propel the field of ancient DNA into the genomic era. His PhD research revealed population migrations as catalyzers for the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculture in Europe, and he expanded this to worldwide regions in his postdoc research. In 2018, he founded the first high-throughput ancient DNA laboratory in Britain at the Francis Crick Institute. His independent lab has used ancient DNA to pioneer research revealing the origin and evolution of dogs and their wild ancestors, the evolution of bacteria and human immunity in prehistory, and pioneered a new method to reconstruct genetic history in higher resolution than ever before in 2025. He is a Wellcome Trust Investigator, ERC starting and consolidator grantee, EMBO Young Investigator, Vallee Foundation Scholar and Blavatnik Award finalist.
Homepage: www.skoglundlab.org
Twitter: @pontus_skoglund
Ancient genome evolution in humans and bacteria