Daniel Harris

Daniel Harris

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Research Interest

I study genetic variation to model African demographic history, which includes archaic introgression and population divergences. I also research African genetic architecture of cardiometabolic diseases, such as diabetes.

Education

2019



2014

Ph.D. Molecular Medicine with a focus in Genome Biology.
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Dissertation: Characterizing Genetic Drift and Migration between Populations
Advisor: Timothy D. O'Connor

B.A.Biology
St. Mary's College of Maryland
Advisor: Kevin J. Emerson
Thesis: Primate epigenetic evolution: An analysis of CpG island evolution in the human, chimpanzee, gibbon, and rhesus monkey genomes.

Research Experience

August 2019 – Present


June - July 2019



2014 – 2019

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania
Advisor: Sarah A. Tishkoff, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Advisor: Timothy D. O'Connor, Ph.D.

Graduate Research Assistant
University of Maryland, Baltimore

Presentations at Meetings

1. Recent Samoan Population History Suggests Dynamic Population Size Changes and Migrations. Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Manchester, ENG, 2019. Harris, D.N., Kessler, M.D., Shetty, A.C., Weeks, D.E., Minster, R.L., Browning, S., Cochrane, E.E., Deka, R., Hawley, N.L., Reupena, M.S., Naseri, T., Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, TOPMed Population Genetics Working Group, McGarvey, S.T., and O’Connor, T.D. Poster.

2. Mapping recent Plasmodium falciparum and Anopheles gambiae migration with rare Variants. 4th Annual Future of Malaria Research Symposium. Rockville, MD, USA. 2018. Harris D.N., Takala-Harrison S., O’Connor T.D. Oral

3. Estimated Effective Migration Surfaces with Rare Variation and application to Anopheles gambiae. Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Yokohama, JPN. 2018. Harris D.N., Takala-Harrison S., O’Connor T.D. Poster

4. The Evolutionary Genomic Dynamics of Peruvians Before, During, and After the Inca Empire. Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C. Washington D.C., USA, 2018. Harris, D.N., Song, W., Shetty, A.C., Levano, K., Caceres, O., Padilla, C., Borda, V., Tarazona, D., Trujillo, O., Sanchez, C., Kessler, M.D., Galarza, M., Capristano, S., Montejo, H., Flores-Villanueva, P. O., Tarazona-Santos, E., O'Connor, T.D., Guio, H. Oral

5. The Evolutionary Genomic Dynamics of Peruvians Before, During, and After the Inca Empire. The Pre-Columbian Society at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia, USA. 2017. Harris, D.N., Song, W., Shetty, A.C., Levano, K., Caceres, O., Padilla, C., Borda, V., Tarazona, D., Trujillo, O., Sanchez, C., Kessler, M.D., Galarza, M., Capristano, S., Montejo, H., Flores-Villanueva, P. O., Tarazona-Santos, E., O'Connor, T.D., Guio, H. Oral

6. The Evolutionary Genomic Dynamics of Peruvians Before, During, and After the Inca Empire. University of Maryland School of Medicine Institute for Genome Sciences Seminar. Baltimore, USA. 2017. Harris, D.N., Song, W., Shetty, A.C., Levano, K., Caceres, O., Padilla, C., Borda, V., Tarazona, D., Trujillo, O., Sanchez, C., Kessler, M.D., Galarza, M., Capristano, S., Montejo, H., Flores-Villanueva, P. O., Tarazona-Santos, E., O'Connor, T.D., Guio, H. Oral

7. Evolution of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Metabolism: From Africa to the New World. Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Austin, USA. 2017. Harris, D.N., Ruczinski, I., Yanek, L.R., Becker, L.C., Becker, D.M., Guio, H., Cui, T., Chilton, F.H., Mathias, R.A., O'Connor, T.D. Poster

8. Peruvian Genome Project: A study in Pre and Post Peruvian Inca Demography and their Evolutionary Dynamics. Molecular Medicine Research Retreat. Baltimore, USA. 2016. Harris, D.N., Song, W., Shetty, A.C., Levano, K., Caceres, O., Padilla, C., Borda, V., Tarazona, D., Trujillo, O., Sanchez, C., Kessler, M.D., Galarza, M., Capristano, S., Montejo, H., Flores-Villanueva, P. O., Tarazona-Santos, E., O'Connor, T.D., Guio, H. Oral

9. The Evolutionary Genomic Dynamics of Peruvians Before, During, and After the Inca Empire. 4th Annual Meeting of the Evolutionary Demography Society. Charlottesville, US. 2016. Harris, D.N., Song, W., Shetty, A.C., Levano, K., Caceres, O., Padilla, C., Borda, V., Tarazona, D., Trujillo, O., Sanchez, C., Kessler, M.D., Galarza, M., Capristano, S., Montejo, H., Flores-Villanueva, P. O., Tarazona-Santos, E., O'Connor, T.D., Guio, H. Oral

10. Ancient European Haplotype Enrichment in Modern Eurasian Populations. American Society of Human Genetics. Baltimore, USA. 2015. Harris, D.N and O'Connor, T.D. Poster

Publications

1. Asgari, S., Luo, Y., Akbari, A., Belbin, G.M., Li, X., Harris, D.N.,Selig, M., Bartell, E., Calderon, R., Slowikowski, K., Contreras, C., Yataco, R., Galea, J.T., Jimenez, J., Coit, J.M., Farroñay, C., Nazarian, R.M., O’Connor, T.D., Dietz, H.C., Hirschhorn, J.N., Guio, H., Lecca, L., Kenny, E.E., Freeman, E., Murray, M.B., Raychaudhuri, S. A positively selected, common, missense variant in FBN1 confers a 2.2 centimeter reduction of height in the Peruvian population. (Under Review)

2. Harris, D.N.,Kessler, M.D., Shetty, A.C., Weeks, D.E., Minster, R.L., Browning, S., Cochrane, E.E., Deka, R., Hawley, N.L., Reupena, M.S., Naseri, T. Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, TOPMed Population Genetics Working Group, McGarvey, S.T., and O’Connor, T.D. Evolutionary Genomics of Samoans. (Under Review)

3. Taliun*, D., Harris*, D.N., Kessler*, M.D., Carlson*, J., Szpiech*, Z.A., Torres*, R., Gagliano Taliun*, S.A., Corvelo*, A., …. Cupples, A.L., Laurie, C.C., Jaquish, C.E., Hernandez, R.D., O'Connor, T.D., Abecasis, G.R. Sequencing of 53,831 diverse genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed Program. (*co-first author, Under Review)

4. Harris, D.N., Ruczinski, I., Yanek, L.R., Becker, L.C., Becker, D.M., Guio, H., Cui, T., Chilton, F.H., Mathias, R.A., O'Connor, T.D. Evolution of Hominin Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Metabolism: From Africa to the New World. Genome Biology and Evolution. 2019.

5. Harris*, D.N., Song*, W., Shetty*, A.C., Levano, K., Caceres, O., Padilla, C., Borda, V., Tarazona, D., Trujillo, O., Sanchez, C., Kessler, M.D., Galarza, M., Capristano, S., Montejo, H., Flores-Villanueva, P. O., Tarazona-Santos, E., O'Connor, T.D., Guio, H. Evolutionary genomic dynamics of Peruvians before, during, and after the Inca Empire. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2018.

6. Gardner, E.J., Lam, V. K., Harris, D.N., Chuang, N.T., Mills, R.E., 1000 Genomes Project Consortium, Devine, S.E. The Mobile Element Locator Tool (MELT) — Population-scale mobile element discovery and biology. Genome Res 27: 1916-1929. 2017. (Performed analyses and interpretation of mobile element insertions in archaic Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes).