David Reich

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David Reich (born July 14, 1974 in Washington, DC ) is an American human and population geneticist .

Origin and education

He is the son of psychiatry professor Walter Reich (1995–1998 director of the Holocaust Memorial Museum). David Reich first studied sociology at Harvard University , but then turned to physics as a major (bachelor's degree from Harvard) and received a doctorate in zoology from Oxford University. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School .

research

Separation of humans from great apes

In 2006 he investigated the genetic separation of humans from the great apes (chimpanzees). After that there was a mixture for several million years before the final separation set in 6.3 to 4.5 million years ago. From 2010 he investigated the genetic separation or mixing of modern humans and Neanderthals.

Population Genetics of India

In 2009 he studied the genetic development of the population in India. Two large genetic groups could be distinguished: Ancestral North Indians (ANI) and Ancestral South Indians (ASI). The ANI are linked to populations in Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the ASI are not linked to any group outside of India. They split about 50,000 years ago. Between 2200 BC BC and AD 100 there was a mixture of both groups (with no evidence of significant migration), then hardly any.

Genetic mapping of humanity

In 2011 he and Simon Myers set up a genetic map of mankind, which is currently the "most accurate genetic map"

Part of this study was, among other things, a look at Afro-Americans in the USA. They found around 2 million recombination events in the genetic material of 30,000 African-Americans and evaluated them. To their surprise, they found significant differences to recombination in US Americans with European roots and Europeans. Because, contrary to expectations, in half of the African-Americans observed, the recombination took place at other locations in the genome than in the observed descendants of white Europeans. This could affect the development, type and frequency of hereditary diseases.

Debate about the concept of "race"

In 2018 he published the book Who We Are and How We Got Here for the interested broader public , in which he presented the findings of his research group regarding the genetic history of mankind.

Subsequently, he triggered a dispute in articles in the New York Times because he used the term "race " in an article published there - albeit in quotation marks - and genetic differences of a more complex nature between human populations, some of them with the traditional term "race" would be comprehensive.

For this he was criticized by social scientists such as Alan Goodman and Ann Morning, who emphasized the character of "race" as a social construct.

Reich himself shared the conviction that race is primarily a social category, but stated that in his opinion - due to longer geographical isolation of groups - genetic traits appear condensed, which is often - but not always and not mandatory - with the assignment to a race - correlate. He argued that precise knowledge of the genetic history of populations and the evidence of migratory movements and mixtures that have taken place in genomes are contrary to the conceptions of racist movements.

Reich suspects that these - minor - genetic differences likely have certain - again minor - effects on different traits, including possibly human behavior and cognition. He therefore expects that corresponding future scientific findings would also be exploited by racists, but precisely because of this one would have to prepare for it - based on the fact that corresponding differences and influences would be foreseeable small and would have to be weighted against already proven social influences. To categorically exclude them from the outset against better scientific conviction and integrity, on the other hand, carries the risk of being able to unintentionally even reinforce racist thought patterns.

In his book, accordingly, he had described the concern "that well-meaning people who deny the possibility of biological differences between populations dig themselves into a position that cannot be defended against the onslaught of science."

Awards

In 2017 he received the Dan David Prize , in 2019 he was awarded the NAS Award in Molecular Biology , the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences and the Darwin Wallace Medal .

Fonts

  • Who we are and how we got there , Pantheon Books, Oxford UP 2018

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ N. Patterson, DJ Richter, S. Gnerre, ES Lander, D. Reich: Genetic evidence for complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees, Nature, Volume 441, 2006, pp. 1103-1108.
  2. ↑ Reich u. a .: Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia, Nature, Volume 468, 2010, pp. 1053-1060, PMID 21179161
  3. ↑ Reich u. a .: Denisova Admixture and the First Modern Human Dispersals into Southeast Asia and Oceania, The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 89, 2011, pp. 516-528. PMID 21944045
  4. ↑ Pääbo, Reich u. a .: The Date of Interbreeding between Neandertals and Modern Humans, PLoS Genetics, Volume 8, 2012, e1002947. PMID 23055938
  5. ↑ David Reich, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Nick Patterson, Alkes L. Price, Lalji Singh: Reconstructing Indian population history, Nature, Volume 461, 2009, pp. 489-494, PMID 19779445
  6. ↑ Detail distinguishes map of African-American genomics , Harvard Gazette 07/2011
  7. ↑ Detail distinguishes map of African-American genomics , Harvard Gazette 07/2011
  8. ^ Reich, David (Of Harvard Medical School), Who we are and how we got here: ancient DNA and the new science of the human past . First ed. Oxford, United Kingdom, ISBN 0-19-882125-5 .
  9. ^ David Reich: Opinion | How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race' . In: The New York Times . March 23, 2018, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 20, 2020]).
  10. ↑ Thomas Reintjes : Scientists argue about the term "race", Deutschlandfunk Kultur , April 12, 2018
  11. ^ David Reich: Opinion | How to Talk About 'Race' and Genetics . In: The New York Times . March 30, 2018, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 20, 2020]).
  12. ^ David Reich: Opinion | How to Talk About 'Race' and Genetics . In: The New York Times . March 30, 2018, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 20, 2020]).
  13. ↑ quoted from: Markus Schär: The geneticist David Reich triggers an intellectual dispute over genes and races in the USA | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed June 20, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Rich, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American human geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC