Rasmus Nielsen (born January 27, 1970) is a Danish biologist and professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. His research focuses on

statistical genetics Statistical genetics is a scientific field concerned with the development and application of statistical methods for drawing inferences from genetic data. The term is most commonly used in the context of human genetics. Research in statistical ge ...

and

computational genomics Computational genomics refers to the use of computational and statistical analysis to decipher biology from genome sequences and related data, including both DNA and RNA sequence as well as other "post-genomic" data (i.e., experimental data obtained ...

as they relate to

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

. Much of his research has focused on the molecular mechanisms of evolutionary

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the p ...

s. For example, in 2010, his research group discovered the variant in the

EPAS1 Endothelial PAS domain-containing protein 1 (EPAS1, also known as hypoxia-inducible factor-2alpha (HIF-2α)) is a protein that is encoded by the ''EPAS1'' gene in mammals. It is a type of hypoxia-inducible factor, a group of transcription factor ...

gene that allows Tibetans to live at high altitudes. His research has also identified an evolved genetic adaptation among the

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

that allows them to metabolize

fatty acid In chemistry, in particular in biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either saturated and unsaturated compounds#Organic chemistry, saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an ...

References

External links

Faculty page
* 1970 births Living people Danish geneticists 21st-century Danish biologists Evolutionary biologists Statistical geneticists Danish emigrants to the United States UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Population geneticists Cornell University faculty University of Copenhagen alumni Sloan Research Fellows {{Geneticist-stub