Photograph by Spencer WellsA San Bushman woman in southern Africa; the San retain links to the deepest branch in the human family tree.
As the first Genographica blog post, it's appropriate that I'm posting from Africa - or 'the homeland', as those of us in the population genetics biz call call her. For the past few days, some of our DC-based science team and myself have been visiting our sub-Saharan Africa regional center at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, headed by Professor Himla Soodyall. So far, we've had a fascinating discussion of the data that's already been generated, planning for several exciting projects to come, as well as a review of our laboratory procedures and other protocols.