Dr. Anahit Hovhannisyan, Marie Curie Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and a visiting postdoc at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on evolutionary and population genomics. In particular, she is interested in studying the evolutionary processes that have shaped the genetic composition and diversity of
Armenian population, leveraging genomic data from both modern and ancient samples.

Dr. Levon Yepiskoposyan, the head of the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics at the Institute of Molecular Biology within the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. His research focuses on the genetic history of the Armenian population, and the reconstruction of palaeobiodiversity in the Lesser Caucasus through zooarchaeological and paleobotanical materials. He leads the Yeghegis-1 rock shelter field team in the Vayots Dzor region and has previously served as the Rector of Artsakh State University. He is the author of over 100 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and books, and he has authored, co-authored, or edited five books.

This talk will cover a recent study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics (“Demographic history and Genetic Variation of the Armenian Population”), of which the two speakers are among the co-authors, that conducted the first whole-genome analysis of Armenians to explore their genetic history and variation. It revealed that Armenians across different regions are genetically similar, while the Sasun population, previously thought to have Assyrian ancestry, instead developed a slightly distinct genetic profile due to a historical decrease in population size. The study also tested the long-debated theory, originally proposed by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, that Armenians originated from the Balkans but found no genetic evidence to support this claim. Instead, the findings uncovered genetic input from a Levantine source in the region after the Early Bronze Age.

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