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Eran Elhaik

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Eran Elhaik
Born1980 (age 43–44)
Israel
NationalityIsraeli and American
Alma materUniversity of Houston
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics, bioinformatics, Population genetics
InstitutionsJohns Hopkins University, University of Sheffield, Lund University
Doctoral advisorDan Graur
Websitewww.eranelhaiklab.org

Eran Elhaik (born 1980) is an Israeli-American geneticist and bioinformatician, an associate professor of bioinformatics at Lund University in Sweden and Chief of Science Officer at an ancestry testing company called Ancient DNA Origins owned by Enkigen Genetics Limited, registered in Ireland.[1] His research uses computational, statistical, epidemiological and mathematical approaches to fields such as complex disorders, population genetics, personalised medicine, molecular evolution, genomics, paleogenomics and epigenetics.

Career

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After completing undergraduate studies in Israel, he obtained a PhD in molecular evolution under the supervision of Dan Graur at the University of Houston in 2009, followed by postdoctoral research fellowships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. In 2011, after concerns emerged about the retention of private genetic data of individuals in surveyed populations, the Genographic Project hired Elhaik and asked him to design a method that would enable analysts to extract only historical information from the accumulating genomic evidence of populations in order to ensure that the personal health data of sampled individuals remained private.[2] From 2014 to 2019 he worked at the University of Sheffield Department of Animal and Plant Sciences in the United Kingdom.[3] Since 2019 he has been an associate professor of bioinformatics at the Department of Biology at Lund University in Sweden.[4][5]

Research

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In the field of molecular evolution, Elhaik worked on the compositional domain model that describes the compositional organization of animal genomes.[6]

In the field of complex disorders, he proposed that the allostatic load theory could be used to explain bipolar disorder[7] and Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).[8] According to this theory, the accumulation of perinatal and prenatal stressors has neurotoxic effects with consequences to one's health.

In the field of genetics, Elhaik was part of the team that designed the GenoChip microarray for the Genographic Project and their online tests.[9] He also contributed to the development of algorithms for data compression.[10] in earlier ancestry studies, modern paternal or maternal haplogroups were used to trace migrations in antiquity. Elhaik was diffident about the method, considereding it problematic 'since the modern frequencies of haplogroups do not represent the past very accurately.' To this end he developed his aGPS algorithm to establish place of origin with greater precision.[11]

In the field of population genetics, Elhaik has published papers analyzing the ancestries of European Jews[12][13][14] and Druze,[15][16] including work related to the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, a contentious subject that has received media attention.[17]

Elhaik acknowledges the presence of a Middle Eastern signature amongst Ashkenazi Jews, but he isn't certain if this suggests ancient Judean or Iranian Ancestry. He has previously proposed that Ashkenazi Jews are of mixed Irano-Turko-Slavic and southern European descent.[18] Most of Elhaik's population genetic research uses the GPS (Geographic Population Structure) algorithm designed by him and co-authors.[19]

Elhaik himself initially contacted Harry Ostrer, who, along with most other scientists in the field, proposes that the Jews are genetically related and relatively homogeneous, to obtain permission to access the data basis used by Ostrer and his colleagues to establish their result. Ostrer was willing to share his data provided that Elhaik submit a proposal showing that the project met several criteria, including that it be "non-defamatory nature toward the Jewish people", which Elhaik viewed as evidence of bias and which pediatrician Catherine D. DeAngelis called "peculiar".[20]

Elhaik has said that while his paper "has attracted the attention of anti-Zionists and 'anti-Semitic white supremacists'", his intention was not to disprove a connection to biblical Jews, but rather "to eliminate the racist underpinnings of anti-Semitism in Europe".[20]

In the field of paleogenetics, Elhaik has published papers that identified ancient ancestry informative markers (aAIMs), which can be used for the biolocalization of ancient individuals [21] He has also developed an AI-based method called Temporal Population Structure (TPS) to date ancient individuals from their DNA without prior knowledge.[22]

In the field of forensics, Elhaik has published applications and legal papers. His applications include GPS that allows geolocations of human DNA[19] and mGPS,[23] an AI-based tool which employs the water, soil, and urban environment microbiome for geolocation and can be used forensically to complement or replace DNA and fingerprint evidence. Elhaik has also published a legal opinion on how privacy laws should be amended to accommodate advancements in metagenomics.[24]

In terms of pure theory, Elhaik has published a critique of the methodology of PCA that undergirds the whole structure of population genetics. Re-analyzing 12 PCA applications he found that the method lends itself to generating desired outcomes, and is characterized by cherrypicking and circular reasoning. The design flexibility of PCA enables anyone to buttress preconceived claims about ethnogenesis. He illustrated the point by instancing the case of genetic studies of the origins of Ashkenazi Jews.[25] This thesis was ranked among the top 100 downloaded scientific papers published by Nature Portfolio in 2022.[26]

Reactions

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The accuracy and reliability of Elhaik's population genetic theory of the Khazars met with strong criticism from a number of other geneticists,[27][28] as well as from linguists who took exception to his use of Paul Wexler's theories of the origins of Yiddish.[29][30]

In particular the validity of the proxy population used in his first Khazar paper was criticized on methodological grounds.[31][32][33][34][35] Marcus Feldman has said that Elhaik is "just wrong" about the Khazar hypothesis, where he "appears to be applying the statistics in a way that gives him different results from what everybody else has obtained from essentially similar data".[20] Elhaik argues that ancestry of Jewish populations is poorly understood,[36] and also that principal component analysis, employed to identify population structures and their ancestry, has serious flaws that generate erroneous results.[37]

In a 2015 overview of the issue of attempts to derive an inclusive genetic profile of all Jews, Raphael Falk, touching on Elhaik's contribution to the argument in 2013, wrote:

The findings support the hypothesis that posits that European Jews are comprised of Caucasus, European, and Middle Eastern ancestries, and portray the European Jewish genome as a mosaic of Caucasus, European, and Semitic ancestries, thereby consolidating previous contradictory reports of Jewish ancestry.[38]

Falk then noted the follow-up paper by Behar challenging Elhaik's results argued that the southern Caucasus populations, sampled by Elhaik were related to countries further south. The problem, he concluded, was that 'the risk of circularity of the argument is exposed: Geneticists determine the genotypic details of socio-ethnologists' classifications, whereas socio-demographers rely on geneticists findings to bolster their classifications.[39]

References

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  1. ^ About Ancient DNA Origins, 2020
  2. ^ Christine Kenneally, The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, Penguin Books, 2014 ISBN 978-0-698-17629-4:'In 2011 Eran Elhaik was hired to solve one of the biggest jigsaw puzzles in the history of the human race. ‘Following the failed Human Genome Diversity Project, National Geographic launched the Genographic Project in 2005 to develop a way of reading people's Y chromosome and mttDNA). In 2011 Genographic decided to include all the chromosomes and analyse autosomal DNA as well. Elhaik was asked to design a method that would extract the most information from a sample but at the same time extract only historical information and not anything to do with an individual's health or features.'
  3. ^ "Dr Eran Elhaik". University of Sheffield.
  4. ^ Eran Elhaik, Lund University
  5. ^ "Eran Elhaik – new senior lecturer". Biologibloggen. 7 November 2019.
  6. ^ Elhaik, Eran; Graur, Dan; Josić, Krešimir; Landan, Giddy (2010). "Identifying compositionally homogeneous and nonhomogeneous domains within the human genome using a novel segmentation algorithm". Nucleic Acids Research. 38 (15): e158. doi:10.1093/nar/gkq532. PMC 2926622. PMID 20571085.
  7. ^ Elhaik, Eran; Zandi, Peter (2015). "Dysregulation of the NF-κB pathway as a potential inducer of bipolar disorder". Journal of Psychiatric Research. 70: 18–27. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.08.009. PMID 26424419.
  8. ^ Elhaik, Eran (2016). "A 'Wear and Tear' Hypothesis to Explain Sudden Infant Death Syndrome". Frontiers in Neurology. 7: 180. doi:10.3389/fneur.2016.00180. PMC 5083856. PMID 27840622.
  9. ^ "Genome Biology and Evolution | Oxford Academic".
  10. ^ Chanda, P; Elhaik, E; Bader, JS (27 July 2012). "HapZipper: sharing HapMap populations just got easier". Nucleic Acids Research. 40 (20): e159. doi:10.1093/nar/gks709. PMC 3488212. PMID 22844100.
  11. ^ Conversations with Eran Elhaik: Tracking ancient migrations Scientific Inquirer 6 July 2017
  12. ^ Elhaik, E (1 January 2013). "The missing link of Jewish European ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian hypotheses". Genome Biology and Evolution. 5 (1): 61–74. doi:10.1093/gbe/evs119. PMC 3595026. PMID 23241444.
  13. ^ Das, R (19 April 2016). "Localizing Ashkenazic Jews to Primeval Villages in the Ancient Iranian Lands of Ashkenaz". Genome Biology and Evolution. 8 (7): 1132–49. doi:10.1093/gbe/evw046. PMC 4860683. PMID 26941229.
  14. ^ Elhaik, E (5 August 2016). "In search of the jüdische Typus: A Proposed Benchmark to Test the Genetic Basis of Jewishness Challenges Notions of "Jewish Biomarkers"". frontiers in Genetics. 7 (141): 141. doi:10.3389/fgene.2016.00141. PMC 4974603. PMID 27547215.
  15. ^ Elhaik, E (1 January 2013). "The missing link of Jewish European ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian hypotheses". Genome Biology and Evolution. 5 (1): 61–74. doi:10.1093/gbe/evs119. PMC 3595026. PMID 23241444.
  16. ^ Marshall, S (16 November 2016). "Reconstructing Druze population history". Scientific Reports. 6 (35837): 35837. Bibcode:2016NatSR...635837M. doi:10.1038/srep35837. PMC 5111078. PMID 27848937.
  17. ^ Keys, David (20 April 2016). "Scientists reveal Jewish history's forgotten Turkish roots". The Independent.
  18. ^ Ranajit Das, Paul Wexler, Mehdi Pirooznia and Eran Elhaik,'The Origins of Ashkenaz, Ashkenazic Jews, and Yiddish,'Frontiers in Genetics 21 June 2017
  19. ^ a b Elhaik, Eran; Tatarinova, Tatiana; Chebotarev, Dmitri; Piras, Ignazio S; Calò, Carla Maria; De Montis, Antonella; Atzori, Manuela; Marini, Monica; Tofanelli, Sergio; Francalacci, Paolo; Pagani, Luca; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Xue, Yali; Cucca, Francesco; Schurr, Theodore G.; Gaieski, Jill B.; Melendez, Carlalynne; Vilar, Miguel G.; Owings, Amanda C.; Gómez, Rocío; Fujita, Ricardo; Santos, Fabrício R.; Comas, David; Balanovsky, Oleg; Balanovska, Elena; Zalloua, Pierre; Soodyall, Himla; Pitchappan, Ramasamy; GaneshPrasad, ArunKumar; Hammer, Michael; Matisoo-Smith, Lisa; Wells, Spencer R.; The Genographic Consortium (2014). "Geographic population structure analysis of worldwide human populations infers their biogeographical origins". Nature Communications. 5: 3513. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.3513.. doi:10.1038/ncomms4513. PMC 4007635. PMID 24781250.
  20. ^ a b c Rubin, Rita (7 May 2013). "'Jews a Race' Genetic Theory Comes Under Fierce Attack by DNA Expert".
  21. ^ Umberto Esposito, Ranajit Das, Syakir Syed, Mehdi Pirooznia, and Eran Elhaik, 'Ancient Ancestry Informative Markers for Identifying Fine-Scale Ancient Population Structure in Eurasians,' Genes (Basel) 9 December 2018 vol. 9 (12): 625
  22. ^ Sara Behnamian, Umberto Esposito, Grace Holland, Mehdi Pirooznia, Conrad Brimacombe, Eran Elhaik, 'Temporal population structure, a genetic dating method for ancient Eurasian genomes from the past 10,000 years,' Cell Reports Methods, Vol. 2, Issue 8, August 2022
  23. ^ Yali Zhang, Leo McCarthy, S Emil Ruff, and Eran Elhaik, 'Microbiome Geographic Population Structure (mGPS) Detects Fine-Scale Geography,'Genome Biology and Evolution 7 October 2024
  24. ^ Eran Elhaik, Sofia Ahsanuddin, Jake M. Robinson, Emily M. Foster, and Christopher E. Mason, 'The impact of cross-kingdom molecular forensics on genetic privacy,'Microbiome 20 May 2021 vol. 9(1): 114]
  25. ^ Elhaik, Eran (2022). "Principal Component Analyses (PCA)‑based findings in population genetic studies are highly biased and must be". Scientific Reports. 12 (1). 14683. Bibcode:2022NatSR..1214683E. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-14395-4. PMC 9424212. PMID 36038559.
  26. ^ Scientific Reports in 2022, Scientific Reports 2023
  27. ^ Behar, Doron M.; Mespalu, Mait; Baran, Yael; Kopelman, Naama M. S; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Gladstein, Ariella; Tzur, Shay; Sahakyan, Hovhannes; Bahmanimehr, Ardeshir; Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Tambets, Kristiina; Khusnutdinova, Elza K.; Kushiniarevich, Alena; Balanovsky, Oleg; Balanovsky, Elena; Kovacevic, Lejla; Marjanovic, Damir; Mihailov, Evelin; Kouvasti, Anastasia; Triantaphylldis, Costas; King, Roy J.; Semino, Ornella; Torroni, Antonio; Hammer, Michael F.; Metspalu, Ene; Skorecki, Karl; Rosset, Saharon; Halperin, Eran; Willems, Richard; Rosenberg, Noah A. (2013). "No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews". Human Biology. 85 (6): 859–900. doi:10.3378/027.085.0604. PMID 25079123. S2CID 2173604.
  28. ^ Flegontov, Pavel; Kassian, Alexei; Thomas, Mark G.; Fedchenko, Valentina; Changmai, Piya; Starostin, George (2016). "Pitfalls of the Geographic Population Structure (GPS) Approach Applied to Human Genetic History: A Case Study of Ashkenazi Jews". Genome Biology and Evolution. 8 (7): 2259–2265. doi:10.1093/gbe/evw162. PMC 4987117. PMID 27389685.
  29. ^ Aptroot, Marion (2016). "Yiddish Language and Ashkenazic Jews: A Perspective from Culture, Language, and Literature". Genome Biology and Evolution. 8 (6): 1948–1949. doi:10.1093/gbe/evw131. PMC 4943202. PMID 27289098.
  30. ^ Kutzik, Jordan (28 April 2016). "Don't Buy the Junk Science That Says Yiddish Originated in Turkey". The Forward. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  31. ^ Thomas, Matthew (12 May 2014). "So many genes, so close to home". BioNews (Issue 753). Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  32. ^ Liphshiz, Cnaan (3 May 2016). "Scholars dismiss theory tracing Ashkenazi Jews to Turkey". The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  33. ^ Ostrer, Harry (11 September 2017). "How 23andMe Fell For Anti-Semitic 'Khazar' Canard". The Forward. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  34. ^ Beider, Alexander (25 September 2017). "Ashkenazi Jews Are Not Khazars.Here's The Proof". The Forward. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  35. ^ Yardumian, Aram; Schurr, Theodore G. (June 2019). "The Geography of Jewish Ethnogenesis". Journal of Anthropological Research. 75 (2): 206–234. doi:10.1086/702709. S2CID 167051866.
  36. ^ Elhaik, Eran (2017). "Editorial: Population Genetics of Worldwide Jewish People". Frontiers in Genetics. 8: 101. doi:10.3389/fgene.2017.00101. PMC 5532521. PMID 28804494.
  37. ^ Elhaik, Eran (29 August 2022). "Principal Component Analyses (PCA)-based findings in population genetic studies are highly biased and must be reevaluated". Scientific Reports. 12 (1). Bibcode:2022NatSR..1214683E. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-14395-4. PMC 9424212.
  38. ^ Falk, Raphael (21 January 2015). "Genetic markers cannot determine Jewish descent". Frontiers in Genetics. 5. doi:10.3389/fgene.2014.00462. PMC 4301023.
  39. ^ Falk, Raphael (21 January 2015). "Genetic markers cannot determine Jewish descent". Frontiers in Genetics. 5. doi:10.3389/fgene.2014.00462. PMC 4301023.
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