Lab page: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Ramachandran_Lab/
I received my bachelor's degree in Mathematical and Computational Sciences at Stanford University in 2002 — applied math, computer science, and statistics are all used extensively in my research. I received my PhD from Stanford University in Biological Sciences in 2007, working with Professor Marcus Feldman on human population genetics. I was elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows in 2007 and did postdoctoral work with John Wakeley, studying coalescent theory.
I joined the faculty at Brown University as an Assistant Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology during July 2010, and was promoted to Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on July 2017. I am also Director of the Center for Computational Molecular Biology and Associate Professor of Computer Science (July 2017 - present). In 2012 I was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Pew Scholar; in 2015 I received an NSF CAREER award for our research on the inference of deep history from extant genome sequence data, and in 2016 I received an NIH R01 for our research on localizing genomic elements underlying adaptive evolution. I was also a junior PI on Brown University's COBRE: Center for Computational Biology of Human Disease, and I actively contributed to the funded proposal. Beginning July 2018, along with Bjorn Sandstede, Eliezer Upfal, and Zhijin Wu, I am PI on a newly funded NIH training grant (T32) entitled "Predoctoral Training Program at Brown University in Biological Data Science".
Sugden, Lauren Alpert, Atkinson, Elizabeth G., Fischer, Annie P., Rong, Stephen, Henn, Brenna M., Ramachandran, Sohini. "Localization of adaptive variants in human genomes using averaged one-dependence estimation." Nature Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018. |
Feldman, Marcus W., Ramachandran, Sohini. "Missing compared to what? Revisiting heritability, genes and culture." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 373, no. 1743, 2018, pp. 20170064. |
Atkinson EG, Audesse AJ, Palacios JA, Bobo DM, Webb AE, Ramachandran S, Henn BM. "No Evidence for Recent Selection at FOXP2 among Diverse Human Populations." Cell, vol. 174, no. 6, 2018, pp. 1424-1435.e15. |
Nakka, Priyanka, Archer, Natalie P., Xu, Heng, Lupo, Philip J., Raphael, Benjamin J., Yang, Jun J., Ramachandran, Sohini. "Novel Gene and Network Associations Found for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Using Case-Control and Family-Based Studies in Multiethnic Populations." Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, vol. 26, no. 10, 2017, pp. 1531-1539. |
Nakka, P., Raphael, B. J., Ramachandran, S. "Gene and Network Analysis of Common Variants Reveals Novel Associations in Multiple Complex Diseases." Genetics, 2016. |
Sugden LA, Ramachandran S. "Integrating the signatures of demic expansion and archaic introgression in studies of human population genomics." Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, vol. 41, 2016, pp. 140-149. |
Behr, Aaron A., Liu, Katherine Z., Liu-Fang, Gracie, Nakka, Priyanka, Ramachandran, Sohini. "pong: fast analysis and visualization of latent clusters in population genetic data." Bioinformatics, 2016, pp. btw327. |
Creanza, Nicole, Ruhlen, Merritt, Pemberton, Trevor J., Rosenberg, Noah A., Feldman, Marcus W., Ramachandran, Sohini. "A comparison of worldwide phonemic and genetic variation in human populations." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 112, no. 5, 2015, pp. 1265-1272. |
Palacios JA, Wakeley J, Ramachandran S. "Bayesian Nonparametric Inference of Population Size Changes from Sequential Genealogies." Genetics, vol. 201, no. 1, 2015, pp. 281-304. |
Soemedi R, Vega H, Belmont JM, Ramachandran S, Fairbrother WG. "Genetic variation and RNA binding proteins: tools and techniques to detect functional polymorphisms." Systems Biology of RNA Binding Proteins, vol. 825, 2014, pp. 227-66. |
Smith KF, Goldberg M, Rosenthal S, Carlson L, Chen J, Chen C, Ramachandran S. "Global rise in human infectious disease outbreaks." Journal of The Royal Society Interface, vol. 11, no. 101, 2014, pp. 20140950. |
Smith, K. F., Goldberg, M., Rosenthal, S., Carlson, L., Chen, J., Chen, C., Ramachandran, S. "Global rise in human infectious disease outbreaks." Journal of The Royal Society Interface, vol. 11, no. 101, 2014, pp. 20140950-20140950. |
Leiserson MD, Eldridge JV, Ramachandran S, Raphael BJ. "Network analysis of GWAS data." Current opinion in genetics & development, vol. 23, no. 6, 2013, pp. 602-10. |
Wakeley J, King L, Low BS, Ramachandran S. "Gene genealogies within a fixed pedigree, and the robustness of Kingman's coalescent." Genetics, vol. 190, no. 4, 2012, pp. 1433-45. |
Porder, Stephen, Ramachandran, Sohini. "The phosphorus concentration of common rocks—a potential driver of ecosystem P status." Plant Soil, vol. 367, no. 1-2, 2012, pp. 41-55. |
Ramachandran S, Rosenberg NA. "A test of the influence of continental axes of orientation on patterns of human gene flow." Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., vol. 146, no. 4, 2011, pp. 515-29. |
Henn BM, Gignoux CR, Jobin M, Granka JM, Macpherson JM, Kidd JM, Rodríguez-Botigué L, Ramachandran S, Hon L, Brisbin A, Lin AA, Underhill PA, Comas D, Kidd KK, Norman PJ, Parham P, Bustamante CD, Mountain JL, Feldman MW. "Hunter-gatherer genomic diversity suggests a southern African origin for modern humans." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 108, no. 13, 2011, pp. 5154-62. |
Novembre J, Ramachandran S. "Perspectives on human population structure at the cusp of the sequencing era." Annual review of genomics and human genetics, vol. 12, 2011, pp. 245-74. |
Casto AM, Li JZ, Absher D, Myers R, Ramachandran S, Feldman MW. "Characterization of X-linked SNP genotypic variation in globally distributed human populations." Genome Biology, vol. 11, no. 1, 2010, pp. R10. |
Bustamante CD, Ramachandran S. "Evaluating signatures of sex-specific processes in the human genome." Nature Genetics, vol. 41, no. 1, 2009, pp. 8-10. |
Ramachandran S, Rosenberg NA, Feldman MW, Wakeley J. "Population differentiation and migration: coalescence times in a two-sex island model for autosomal and X-linked loci." Theoretical population biology, vol. 74, no. 4, 2008, pp. 291-301. |
Li JZ, Absher DM, Tang H, Southwick AM, Casto AM, Ramachandran S, Cann HM, Barsh GS, Feldman M, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Myers RM. "Worldwide human relationships inferred from genome-wide patterns of variation." Science, vol. 319, no. 5866, 2008, pp. 1100-4. |
Wang S, Lewis CM, Jakobsson M, Ramachandran S, Ray N, Bedoya G, Rojas W, Parra MV, Molina JA, Gallo C, Mazzotti G, Poletti G, Hill K, Hurtado AM, Labuda D, Klitz W, Barrantes R, Bortolini MC, Salzano FM, Petzl-Erler ML, Tsuneto LT, Llop E, Rothhammer F, Excoffier L, Feldman MW, Rosenberg NA, Ruiz-Linares A. "Genetic variation and population structure in native Americans." PLOS Genetics, vol. 3, no. 11, 2007, pp. e185. |
Rosenberg NA, Mahajan S, Ramachandran S, Zhao C, Pritchard JK, Feldman MW. "Clines, clusters, and the effect of study design on the inference of human population structure." PLOS Genetics, vol. 1, no. 6, 2005, pp. e70. |
Ramachandran S, Deshpande O, Roseman CC, Rosenberg NA, Feldman MW, Cavalli-Sforza LL. "Support from the relationship of genetic and geographic distance in human populations for a serial founder effect originating in Africa." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 102, no. 44, 2005, pp. 15942-7. |
Macpherson JM, Ramachandran S, Diamond L, Feldman MW. "Demographic estimates from Y chromosome microsatellite polymorphisms: analysis of a worldwide sample." Human genomics, vol. 1, no. 5, 2004, pp. 345-54. |
Ramachandran S, Rosenberg NA, Zhivotovsky LA, Feldman MW. "Robustness of the inference of human population structure: a comparison of X-chromosomal and autosomal microsatellites." Human genomics, vol. 1, no. 2, 2004, pp. 87-97. |
Complete information on the research interests and specific projects of the Ramachandran Lab can be found at http://www.brown.edu/Research/Ramachandran_Lab
I focus on studying the spatial distribution of human genetic variation, both geographically and within the genome (i.e., comparing X-chromosomal and autosomal genetic variation).
Other current interests are in:
inferring human evolutionary history from extant human genomic data,
identifying genomic targets of adaptation using novel methodologies from machine learning,
identifying pathways underlying common diseases (collaborating with Ben Raphael at Princeton University),
and understanding the role of genetic variation in therapy outcomes for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (collaborating with Jun J. Yang at St Jude Children's Research Hospital and Philip Lupo at Texas Children's Hospital).
National Institutes of Health, R01
National Institutes of Health, junior PI on Brown University's COBRE: Center for Computational Biology of Human Disease
National Science Foundation, CAREER Award
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (as Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow)
Pew Charitable Trusts (through Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences)
Year | Degree | Institution |
---|---|---|
2007 | PhD | Stanford University |
2002 | BS | Stanford University |
National Institutes of Health R01 (PI), Novel statistical methods to localize genomic elements underlying adaptive evolution; $1,607,269 (6/2016-5/2021)
National Science Foundation CAREER Award (PI), Next-generation inference of evolutionary parameters from genome-wide sequence data; $1,029,319 (2/2015-1/2020)
Associate Editor, Genetics (Population and Evolutionary Genetics Theory; 9/2014 - present)
Pew Scholar, Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences; $240,000 (2012-2016)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow; $50,000 (2012-2014)
Editorial Board, Investigative Genetics (2012-4/2016 and journal closure)
Associate Editor, Molecular Biology and Evolution (1/2011-present)
Center for Computational Molecular Biology Seed Award, $5,000 (2010)
William H. Milton Fund, Harvard University, $30,204 (2008-2010)
Samuel Karlin Prize in Mathematical Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University (2008)
Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows (2007-2010)
Name | Title |
---|---|
Crawford, Lorin | Associate Professor of Biostatistics |
Sandstede, Bjorn | Alumni-Alumnae University Professor of Applied Mathematics |
Statistical Analysis of Biological Data (BIOL 0495). This is a first course in statistics, covering probability distributions, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, correlation and regression, and nonparametric tests. Offered spring semesters.
Human Population Genomics (BIOL 1465). This is an introduction to human genomics and the evolutionary forces that shape observed genetic variation across humans today. Topics will include the relationship among humans and other primates, human population genetics and genomics, and examples of the concomitant evolution of both cultural traits and domesticated organisms. Offered in the fall, even years.
Graduate seminars are offered on various special topics in population genomics; contact me for details.
BIOL 0495 - Statistical Analysis of Biological Data |
BIOL 2150 - Scientific Communication |
BIOL 2430 - Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
BIOL 2440 - Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |