My lab deals with a host of topics in the general fields of molecular evolution, computational biology, and genetics. Among the topics that are currently actively pursued are: Recent human Recent advances in ancient DNA sequencing yielded complete high-coverage evolution genomes of the Neandertal and the Denisovan. My lab is interested in identifying phenotypic differences between these human groups, especially those that are related to cognition. Based on the understanding that many phenotypic differences between closely related species may be attributed to changes in gene regulation, we devise algorithms that predict the epigenetics of ancient DNA, and that identifies which genes are differently regulated in modern humans and in ancient humans. We identified hundreds of such genes, and initiated a series of experiments to measure the phenotypic effects of some leading candidates. Among them are genes that affect human neuronal development, and we study their effect in mouse models.