Alon Keinan has been a bit busy. The Robert N. Noyce Assistant Professor in Life Science and Technology in the Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology has published a whopping 11 papers in the past year, contributing to a total of 27 since 2007, many in top journals such as Nature Genetics, PNAS and Science.
The self-described “genetic historian” has had a meteoric rise since joining CALS four years ago, and recently received recognition from Dean Kathryn J. Boor with a college Early Achievement Award. It is one of many for the rising star in his field; others include a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2011, a New Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation in 2012, and an award for highly promising young investigators from the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation in 2013.
With an interdisciplinary educational background in computer science, statistics and genetics, Keinan is perfectly suited to the task at hand: developing new computational methodologies for improving the search for complex disease genes in humans. His research characterizing human population genomics informs the design and analysis of medical genetic studies and has expanded our knowledge of human evolution. Among his early accomplishments, he designed new approaches for detecting genes underlying autoimmune diseases, lipid levels, neurodevelopmental disorders and malaria resistance. More recently, he has been examining the impact of the explosive growth of human populations on the structure of genetic variation, which could help us understand the genetic basis of complex chronic disease.
