SCAS News - 15 December, 2020

Reflections by a Fellow - Sohini Ramachandran

Evolutionary Modeling, Medical Genomics, and Family Life in Uppsala

I am a population geneticist, and study the evolutionary processes that produce and maintain genetic
variation in our own species, Homo sapiens. When I applied to graduate programs in 2002 following
undergraduate study in applied mathematics, the draft sequence of the human genome had just been
published and the fields of genomics and bioinformatics were growing rapidly. The goal of these new
fields was to use emerging and unprecedented amounts of genomic data to infer past evolutionary pro-
cesses and personalize medical care for diverse individuals throughout the world. These same goals
occupy and thrill me eighteen years later. For me, coming to SCAS as a Natural Sciences Fellow in
Theoretical Biology was doubly amazing, not only because of the wonderful resources and inter-
disciplinary environment at SCAS (as mentioned by other Fellows in their reflections), but because
SCAS is just 550 m away from Uppsala Universitet Evolutionsbiologiskt Centrum, where I spent most
afternoons with my colleagues Mattias Jakobsson, Carina Schlebusch, and Torsten Günther and their
groups. Being able to immerse myself in both an interdisciplinary peer community of SCAS Fellows as
well as in my own discipline made for an amazingly rich experience. What resulted was a new line of
inquiry in my research that is a major focus for my laboratory at Brown University: how can we unify
prediction of genetic risk for complex traits and diseases for all individuals? In practice, genomic studies
of disease have focused almost exclusively on studying individuals of European ancestry, in the hopes
that results transfer to all individuals, regardless of ancestry. Yet, evolutionary theory and intuition suggest
that there will be some traits for which their genetic basis differs across individuals — due to ancestry-
specific selection pressures or due to differences in the trait architecture itself (e.g., early-onset heart
disease versus late-onset). Bringing evolutionary modeling together with medical genomics is now a focus
of much of my work, and one that my time at SCAS allowed me to develop by giving me the freedom to
think deeply and access to both the Fellows and colleagues at UU.

Moreover, SCAS was not just my “home base” in Uppsala but also home base to my family: my husband
the historian Jeremy Mumford (who was a visiting researcher at the UU Historiska Institutionen in Engelska
Parken), and our daughters Anarkali Mumford (then 6) and Neerja Mumford (then 2). We had many family
gatherings and potlucks with other Fellows in Prefektvillan on nights and weekends. Our apartment was a
rranged by SCAS with our needs in mind, SCAS staff connected us with Uppsala Kommun to arrange our
daughters’ Förskola, and we spent many cozy weekends walking in Stora Torget, playing in Uppsala’s
beautiful playgrounds, riding the train to Stockholm, navigating the aisles of Hemköp, and eating many more
semlor than I would like to admit. A common winter afternoon involved sledding at Uppsala Slottet; playing
at Pelle Svanslös lekplats; running into SCAS for cookies and fruit; then visiting the children’s room at the
library and heading home for dinner. I wish more of my academic travels and conferences had welcomed
my family as warmly as SCAS did. I am so thankful we were able to experience SCAS together; it was a gift
and adventure for the whole family, and we still talk about it fondly.

Sohini Ramachandran is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Associate Professor of
Computer Science, and Director, Center for Computational Molecular Biology, Brown University. She was a
Natural Sciences Fellow in residence at the Swedish Collegium in the spring of 2019.

Read more about Sohini Ramachandran >>

Previous contributions to the Reflections by a Fellow series:
Merja Polvinen: The IAS Network and Interdisciplinary Careers
Terje Falck-Ytter: A Bridge Between Faculties
Susanne A. Wengle: My Year at SCAS - the Liberal Arts Education That I Never Had
Steve Chenoweth: Steve Chenoweth Reflects on His Time as a Fellow of the SCAS Natural Sciences Programme
Anders Hillborg: What Is It Like to be a Composer-in-residence at an Institute for Advanced Study?