The David Reich Lab is a research laboratory located within the Department of Genetics at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Led by population geneticist David Reich, the lab is known for industrializing the fields of

ancient DNA Ancient DNA (aDNA) is DNA isolated from ancient sources (typically Biological specimen, specimens, but also environmental DNA). Due to degradation processes (including Crosslinking of DNA, cross-linking, deamination and DNA fragmentation, fragme ...

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and among populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as Adaptation (biology), adaptation, s ...

, and

human evolutionary genetics Human evolutionary genetics studies how one human genome differs from another human genome, the evolutionary past that gave rise to the human genome, and its current effects. Differences between genomes have anthropological, medical, historical and ...

. As of 2020 it had produced the majority of the published data for research into ancient DNA.

Overview

The lab was established by David Reich, a professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

. It focuses on analyzing ancient and modern human DNA to better understand population migrations, ancestry, and human evolution. The lab works closely with the

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

and Harvard and collaborates with researchers in archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and genomics across the globe. Its aim is to create an "Ancient DNA Atlas of Humanity".

Research Areas

Major areas of focus include: * Ancient DNA: Recovery and analysis of DNA from ancient human remains. * Human evolution: Study of interactions between modern humans and archaic hominins such as

Neanderthals Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

and

Denisovans The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower Paleolithic, Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thou ...

. * Population genetics: Analysis of genetic variation to reconstruct historical demographic events. * Computational genomics: Development of statistical and bioinformatic methods to analyze degraded DNA.

Major Contributions

The lab has made significant contributions to the understanding of global human history, including: * Revealing complex patterns of migration into

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. * Mapping population histories across regions such as

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. * Contributing to the study of the

spread Spread may refer to: Places * Spread, West Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film. * ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers * "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album ''Speakerboxxx/T ...

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

using ancient DNA.

Criticism

In 2019, David Reich faced criticism following a ''New York Times Magazine'' article that highlighted his lab's prominent role in ancient DNA research. Critics argued that the Reich Lab's rapid expansion and accumulation of ancient DNA samples led to concerns about monopolization of resources and underrepresentation of non-Western collaborators in research publications. Additionally, some scholars expressed unease over the lab's interpretations of genetic data, suggesting that certain conclusions might oversimplify complex population histories. There is apprehension that such interpretations could inadvertently support outdated or harmful narratives about human populations.

References

Papers

* * * * * * {{cite journal , last1=Reich , first1=David , last2=Green , first2=Richard E. , last3=Kircher , first3=Martin , last4=Krause , first4=Johannes , last5=Pääbo , first5=Svante , title=Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia , journal=Nature , volume=468 , issue=7327 , pages=1053–1060 , date=December 2010 , doi=10.1038/nature09710 , pmid=21179161 , pmc=4306417 , bibcode=2010Natur.468.1053R , name-list-style=amp Genetics or genomics research institutions Research institutes in the United States Harvard University Population genetics