"Our research has far reaching consequences, ranging from assisting in genetic counselling through identifying factors contributing to infertility and chromosomal abnormalities, to understanding pathogenic rearrangements frequently seen in cancers and some inherited disorders."

"Interestingly, understanding how recombination influences patterns of diversity can also shed valuable light into the history and origins of various human populations. Studying recombination is thus, not only of basic scientific importance, but also allows valuable insights into issues ranging from medicine to history and ancestry."

"At the heart of the problem is the fact that although vast catalogues of human genetic variation now exist, little is known about the processes that give rise to these in the first place."

This research is funded by The Royal Society, the U.K. Medical Research Council and the Louis-Jeantet Foundation.

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