Who is HLA-net?
HLA-net is born in Geneva, Switzerland, in , as a new web platform maintained by the Laboratory of Anthropology, Genetics and Peopling history (AGP lab) at the Department of Genetics and Evolution of the University of Geneva. It has been built as a result of several years of collaboration involving the following members of the AGP lab:
- Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, full professor, principal investigator of several funded research projects using HLA data in population and evolutionary genetics and leader of the HLA-net project.
- José Manuel Nunes, biomathematician and computer scientist, main creator of the Gene[rate] computer tools and designer of the Gene[va] database. The design of the Gene[va] database has also benefited from the collaboration of Christelle Vangenot, computer scientist and PhD student in biology, and Stephan Weber, computer scientist.
- Da Di, research associate, main collaborator for the design and updating of the Gene[va] database including data analysis, and for the creation of useful computer scripts.
- Stéphane Buhler, research associate, main collaborator for the design and updating of the Gene[va] database including data analysis, and for the creation of useful computer scripts.
- David Roessli, computer scientist and web designer of the HLA-net platform website.
In addition, this project could not have been born without the collaboration of the HLA-NET and AHPD participants.
What do we do?
The AGP lab is involved in many research projects on human genetic evolution with the objective to understand better the dispersal of modern humans around the world and the mechanisms of their biological differentiations. Information from other disciplines, namely archaeology, paleoanthropology and linguistics, are also used to investigate the relationships between biological and cultural evolution. The team principally works in silico by developing computer tools and performing data analysis. One of the main polymorphisms used is HLA, but other genetic markers are also analyzed (mtDNA, Y chromosome, nuclear STRs, etc). Since several years, a big effort is devoted to the improvement of the HLA characterization of human populations from a methodological point of view and the maintenance of large databases.
More information on ua.unige.ch/agp.
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