Lounès Chikhi
Encyclopedia
Dr Lounès Chikhi is a French
population geneticist
of Algerian
Berber
extraction, based at the Université Paul Sabatier
in Toulouse
, France
, and also at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
in Oeiras
, Portugal
, where he runs the The Population and Conservation Genetics Group (PCG).
in making inferences on human population demographic history. He is also involved in conservation
projects in northern Borneo
and Madagascar
, among others.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
population geneticist
Population genetics
Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population...
of Algerian
Algerian
Algerian may refer to:* Something of, or related to Algeria* A person or people from Algeria, or of Algerian descent. For information about the Algerian people, see Demographics of Algeria and Culture of Algeria. For specific Algerians, see List of Algerians....
Berber
Berber
Berber may refer to:*a member of the Berber people**the Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages**Berberism, a political-cultural term supporting a distinct Berber identity**Berber calendar**Berber cuisine...
extraction, based at the Université Paul Sabatier
Paul Sabatier University
Paul Sabatier University is a French university, in the Academy of Toulouse.Founded in 1229, the University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe. Today’s Toulouse III was named for Paul Sabatier, winner of the 1912 Nobel prize in chemistry, when it was established on the foundations of the...
in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and also at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
The is an international centre for biomedical research and graduate education, located in in Oeiras, Portugal. It was founded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1961. António Coutinho has been the Institute's Director since 1998....
in Oeiras
Oeiras
Oeiras is a town and a municipality in western Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal. It is in conurbation with Lisbon, the parish population is 34,850, and the entire Oeiras Municipality has 168,475 inhabitants. The town of Oeiras is one of the most populous towns in Portugal...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, where he runs the The Population and Conservation Genetics Group (PCG).
Scientific career
Chikhi is notable for leading a number of population genetics studies on the origins and demographic history of various of human populations - including Europeans and the peoples of Japan - and on the conservation genetics of various primate species. He has published a number of influential scientific papers in defense of model-based inference of population history and raising concerns about incautious used of interpretative phylogeographyPhylogeography
Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the contemporary geographic distributions of individuals. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of the patterns associated with a gene genealogy.This term was...
in making inferences on human population demographic history. He is also involved in conservation
Conservation
Conservation may refer to:* Conservation movement, to protect animals, fungi, plants and their habitats** Conservation biology, the science of the protection and management of biodiversity...
projects in northern Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, among others.
Selected Scientific Bibliography
- Beaumont M, Nielsen R, Robert C, Hey J, Gaggiotti O, Knowles L, Estoup A, Panchal M, Corander J, Hickerson M, Sisson SA, Fagundes N, Chikhi L, Beerli P, Vitalis R, Cornuet JM, Huelsenbeck J, Foll M, Yang, Rousset F, Balding D, Excoffier L (2010) In defense of model-based inference in phylogeography. Molecular Ecology, 19 (3), 436-446.
- Quéméré, E, Champeau J, Besolo, A, Rasolondraibe, E Rabarivola, C, Crouau-Roy, B Chikhi, L (2010) Spatial variation in density and total size estimates in fragmented primate populations: the golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli). American Journal of Primatology, 72, 72-80.
- Chikhi L (2009) Genetic data and story-telling: from Archeogenetics to Astrologenetics? An update to “Clinal variation in the nuclear DNA of Europeans” By Chikhi, L., Destro-Bisol, G., Pascali, V., Baravelli V., Dobosz, M., Barbujani, G. Published in 1998 in Human Biology. Human Biology, 81, (5-6), 639-643.
- Rasteiro, R., Chikhi, L. (2009). Revisiting the peopling of Japan: an admixture perspective. Journal of Human Genetics, 54,349-354.
- Parreira, B., Trussart, M., Sousa, V., Hudson, R., Chikhi, L., (2009). SPAms : A user-friendly software to simulate population genetics data under complex demographic models. Molecular Ecology Resources. 9 : 749-753.
- Sousa, V., Fritz, M., Beaumont, M.A., Chikhi, L. (2009) Approximate Bayesian Computation without summary statistics: the case of admixture. Genetics, 181, 187-197.
- Chikhi, L. (2008). News and Commentary: How accurate can genetic data be? Heredity 101 :471-472
- Chikhi, L., (2008). Nos ancêtres dans nos gènes. La Recherche, 37, 77-81.
- Radespiel, U, Rakotondravony, R, Chikhi, L (2008). Natural and anthropogenic determinants of genetic structure in the largest remaining metapopulation of the endangered golden-brown mouse lemur, Microcebus ravelobensis American Journal of Primatology 70 :1-11
- Barbujani G., Chikhi, L. (2007). Human genetic diversity and its history In Handbook of Statistical Genetics, eds D. Balding, M. Bishop, and C. Cannings, 3rd edition.
- Goossens, B.*., Chikhi, L.*., Ancrenaz, M., Lackman-Ancrenaz, I., Andau, M., Bruford, M.W. (2006). Genetic signature of anthropogenic population collapse in orang-utans PLoS, Biology, 4(2) :285-291. *Shared first authorship.
- Chikhi, L. Beaumont, M.. (2005). Modelling Human Genetic History Encyclopaedia of Genetics, Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics.
- Chikhi, L., Bruford, M.W. (2005). Mammalian population genetics and genomics Mammalian Genomics (ed. Ruvinsky A, Marshall Graves J). CABI Publisher 21 :539-583.
- Chikhi, L., Nichols, R.A., Barbujani G., Beaumont M.A. (2002). Y genetic data support the Demic diffusion model. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, USA 98 :11007-11013.
- Goldstein, D.B., Chikhi, L. (2002). Human migrations and population structure : what we know and why it matters Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 3 :129-152.