Alon Keinan

Alon
Keinan
Associate Professor
Biological Statistics & Computational Biology

Alon Keinan studies how human genetic variation has arisen from evolutionary history. His research focuses on elucidating the history of modern human populations and on developing computational methods for searching for genes important in human biology. With a background in computer science and statistics, Keinan develops theoretical tools and applies them to genomic data sets, bridging theoretical population genetics and empirical studies.

Publications
  • L. Ma, A. G. Clark, and A. Keinan. Gene-Based Testing of Interactions in Association Studies of Quantitative Traits. PLoS Genetics, 9, e1003321 (2013).
  • A. Keinan and A. G. Clark. Recent explosive human population growth has resulted in an excess of rare genetic variants. Science, 336, 740-743 (2012). (Supplementary information).
  • L. Ma, A. Brautbar, E. Boerwingle, C. F. Sing, A. G. Clark, and A. Keinan. Knowledge-driven analysis identifies a gene-gene interaction affecting high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in multi-ethnic populations. PLoS Genetics, 8, e1002714 (2012).
  • D. Chang and A. Keinan. Predicting signatures of "synthetic associations" and "natural associations" from empirical patterns of human genetic variation. PLoS Computational Biology, 8, e1002600 (2012).
  • L. Arbiza, E. Zhong, and A. Keinan. NRE: A tool for exploring neutral loci in the human genome. BMC Bioinformatics, 13, 301 (2012). (NRE webserver).
  • L. Ma, C. M. Ballantyne, J. W. Belmont, A. Keinan, and A. Brautbar. Interaction between SNPs in the RXRA and near ANGPTL3 gene region inhibits apoB reduction after statin-fenofibric acid therapy in individuals with mixed dyslipidemia. Journal of Lipid Research, 53, 2425-2428 (2012).
  • S. Gottipati, L. Arbiza, A. Siepel, A. G. Clark, and A. Keinan. Analyses of X-linked and autosomal genetic variation in population-scale whole genome sequencing. Nature Genetics, 43, 741-743 (2011). (Supplementary information).
  • Y. Y. Waldman, T. Tuller, A. Keinan, and E. Ruppin. Selection for translation efficiency on synonymous polymorphisms in recent human evolution. Genome Biology and Evolution, 3, 749-761 (2011).
  • The International HapMap3 Consortium. Integrating common and rare genetic variation in diverse human populations. Nature, 467, 52-58 (2010). (Supplementary information).
  • A. Keinan and D. Reich. Human population differentiation is strongly correlated with local recombination rate. PLoS Genetics, 6, e1000886 (2010).
  • A. Keinan, J. C. Mullikin, N. Patterson, and D. Reich. Accelerated genetic drift on chromosome X during the human dispersal out of Africa. Nature Genetics, 41, 66-70 (2009). (News and Views; Supplementary information; Data).
  • A. Keinan, J. C. Mullikin, N. Patterson, and D. Reich. Measurement of the human allele frequency spectrum demonstrates greater genetic drift in East Asians than in Europeans. Nature Genetics, 39, 1251-5 (2007). (Supplementary information; Data).