Last week, our group travelled to Maputo, Mozambique, for PANAF 2026 🇲🇿! We had a great time sharing our research through talks, catching up with collaborators, and making new connections across the community. Thanks to everyone who made the conference such a stimulating and enjoyable experience! 🌍

Our new paper is out! Our review explores the current evidence for ancient pathogen genomics in Africa, highlights major knowledge gaps, and discusses future directions for the field. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌍🦠🧬 Congrats to Maja and co-authors! 🎉👏🎊 #AncientDNA #Paleogenomics #Africa

Our colleague Francesco Giannelli presented this great poster at #SMBE2026: Reconstructing the Bantu Expansion Through an Individual-Based Simulation His work uses SLiM forward-time simulations to jointly model genetic and linguistic evolution among Bantu-speaking populations. 🧬 🗣️ 💻

Great talk by Andrea Soler i Núñez at #SMBE2026 on AMY1 CNVs and starch adaptation, highlighting the importance of controlling for demography in adaptation associations. Paper available on BioRxiv! doi.org/10.64898/202...

The Schlebusch Group had a great time at #ICP2026 in Stockholm! Several group members attended, and Maja Vukovikj presented her poster, Ancient Pathogen Genomics in Africa. Great work, Maja! 👏 #AncientDNA #Palaeogenomics

Excited to share our new paper in Communications Biology! We generated >1000 new complete mitochondrial genomes from understudied regions in sub-Saharan Africa, providing an updated overview of maternal genetic diversity and demographic history across the continent. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Revisiting the African mtDNA landscape through complete mitochondrial genomes - Communications Biology

A study provides an updated, continent-wide portrait of African human mtDNA diversity, sharpening mtDNA-based demographic inferences regarding the Niger-Congo-associated and Bantu-associated demograph...

nature.com

Some of us from Carina Schlebusch’s group took part in Uppsala Africa Days at EBC (May 21–22). We gave three short talks on African genetics research and had the chance to connect with researchers working on Africa-related topics across a wide range of disciplines.

We have a new preprint! - "Ancient Pathogen Genomics in Africa – Current Evidence and Future Directions" A review of current evidence, challenges, and opportunities for studying past epidemics and host–pathogen evolution using ancient DNA from African contexts. www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...

New preprint! with @a-solernunez.bsky.social Rethinking a textbook example of human adaptation "AMY1 copy number evolution in light of demographic history" Once population structure is accounted for, the classic starch–agriculture narrative becomes much less clear www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We were very happy to host our Ethiopian collaborator Zelalem Tolesa during his visit to Uppsala! We had great discussions, and shared ideas and experiences. The visit also included good food and conversation at a Lebanese restaurant. Looking forward to continuing our collaboration 🌍

Our new ancient DNA paper has just been published! We present 28 new genomes from southern Africa - several of them high-coverage whole genomes. Exciting to be moving towards population-level representation of ancient southern African genetic diversity! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Homo sapiens-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes - Nature

The genomes of 28 ancient southern African individuals dated to between 10,200 and 150 years before present offer insights into the evolution of Homo sapiens.

nature.com

Our new paper is out! 🪶 “The coevolution of languages, peoples & environments in Central Africa’s Kwilu-Kasai region since ~1000 BCE” revisits Jan Vansina’s ideas using new linguistic, archaeological & genetic data - revealing the region was a hub of Bantu diversification. doi.org/10.1016/j.qe...

The coevolution of languages, peoples and environments in Central Africa’s Kwilu-Kasai region since ∼1000 BCE: A dialogue with Jan Vansina

In this article, Jan Vansina’s essay on the deep-time population history of the Kwilu-Kasai region, now more than half a century old, is revisited thr…

sciencedirect.com

This week, we welcomed our colleague Modeste Zeye from Burkina Faso to Uppsala. 🌍 It was great to meet in person again and catch up. One evening, we had dinner at Messob, an Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant — a nice chance to chat and enjoy some really good food! 🍲

We welcome Francesco Giannelli, who started as a postdoc in the group!

A big congrats to Imke Lankheet + co-authors for this new publication on genetic ancestry in the South African Coloured population. We reveal fine-scale regional differences in SAC, shaped by complex history and social factors @schlebuschgroup.bsky.social bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Wide-scale geographical analysis of genetic ancestry in the South African Coloured population - BMC Biology

Background The South African Coloured (SAC) population, a prominent admixed population in South Africa, reflects centuries of migration, admixture, and historical segregation. Descendants of local Kho...

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com

Interested in investigating human history? Still a chance to join us in Uppsala as a junior or senior fellow! Closing date soon!

Center for the Human Past (CHP)@humanpastcenter.bsky.social · last yr.

The Call is open: Human Past #Fellowships 2026-27. Deadline: 2 June 2025. centerforthehumanpast.se/index.php/20... #opportunity #humanpast #research @haam-community.bsky.social @cschlebu.bsky.social #genetics #linguistics #archaeology #indoeuropean #bantu #austronesian @vetenskapsradet.bsky.social