• Mission
• People
• Events
• Research
• Resources
• Fellowships
• Contact

People

• Director
• Associates
  • Clarence-Smith, W.
  • Freitag, U.
  • Pearson, M.
  • Prakash, O.
  • Ray, H. P.
  • Sheriff, A.
  • Schottenhammer, A.
  • Soodyall, H.
  • Warren, J.
  • Worden, N.
• Research Associates
  • Machado, P.
  • Vink, M.
  • Vernet, T.
• McGill Faculty Affiliates
  • Echenberg, M.
  • Elbourne, E.
• PhD Students
  • Ferguson, M.
  • Ghabrial, S.
  • Rath, Andrew
  • Serels, S.
  • Tesfaye, F.
• MA Students
  • Shivji, N.
• Graduate Assistants
  • Chowdhury, R.
  • Sayles, J.
  • Seagle, C.
• Past Affiliates

• ---

• Website Designers

IOWC Associates

Himla Soodyall

Professor Himla Soodyall is Director of the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit (HGDDRU) established by the South African Medical Research Council in conjunction with the National Health Laboratory Service and University of the Witwatersrand

She received degrees from the University of Durban-Westville: B.Sc: (Microbiology, Biochemistry), 1985; B.Sc (Honours): (Microbiology), 1986 and the University of the Witwatersrand: M.Sc: (Biotechnology), 1986; PhD: (Human Genetics), 1993. Professor Soodyall was nominated to the Academy of Science, South Africa in 2003 and received the Order of Mapungubwe, Bronze medal, from President Mbeki for her contribution to science

Professor Soodyall’s primary research goal is to “map and model genetic diversity in sub-Saharan African populations to reconstruct the history of African populations as well as to understand the mechanism of population susceptibility to disease.”

In 2005, Professor Soodyall became the sub-Saharan African Principal Investigator of the Genographic Project  in which capacity she has forged a collaboration with Gwyn Campbell of the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill.

Publications

DE accredited & (ii) Peer reviewed Journals

• Merriwether, D.A., Clark, A.G., Ballinger, S.W., Schurr, T.G., Soodyall, H., Jenkins T., Sherry, S.T., and Wallace, D.C. (1991). The structure of human mitochondrial DNA variation. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 6: 543-555.
• Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T. (1992). Mitochondrial DNA studies in the South African Indian population. Gene Geography, 6:127-137.
• Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T. (1992). Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Khoisan populations form Southern Africa. Annals of Human Genetics, 56:315-324.
• Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T. (1993). Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Negroid populations from Namibia: new light on the origins of the Dama, Herero and Ambo. Annals of Human  Biology, 20:477-485.
• Sherry, S.T., Rogers, A.R., Harpending, H., Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., and Stoneking, M. (1994). Mismatch distributions of mtDNA reveal recent human population expansions. Human Biology, 66:761-775.
• Soodyall, H., Stoneking, M., and Jenkins, T. (1995).  Polynesian mtDNA in the Malagasy. Nature Genetics, 10:377-378.
• Jorde, L.B., Bamshad, M.J., Watkins, W.S., Zenger, R.,  Fraley, A.E., Krakowiak, P.A.,Carpenter,  K.D., Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., and Rogers, A.R. (1995). Origins and  affinities of modern humans: a comparison of mitochondrial  and nuclear genetic data. American Journal of Human Genetics, 57:523-538.
• Soodyall, H., Vigilant, L., Hill, A. V., Stoneking, M., and Jenkins, T. (1996a).   Mitochondrial DNA control region sequence variation suggests multiple independent origins of  an "Asian-specific" 9-bp deletion in sub-Saharan Africans.  American Journal of Human Genetics, 58:595-608.
• Stoneking, M. and Soodyall, H. (1996b).  Human evolution and the mitochondrial genome. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 6: 731-736.
• Melton, T., Ginther, C., Sensabaugh, G., Soodyall, H., and Stoneking, M. (1997). Extent of heterogeneity in mitochondrial DNA of sub-Saharan African populations. Journal of Forensic Science, 42:582-592.
• Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., Mukherjee, A., du Toit, E., Roberts, D.F., and Stoneking, M (1997). The founding mitochondrial DNA lineages of Tristan da Cunha Islanders. American  Journal of Physical Anthropology, 104: 157-166.
• Stoneking, M., Fontius, J.F., Clifford, S.L., Soodyall, H., Arcot, S.S., Saha, N., Jenkins, T., Tahir, M.A., Deininger, P.L., and Batzer, M.A (1997). ALU insertion  polymorphisms and human evolution: evidence for a larger population size in Africa. Genome Research, 7:1061-1071.
• Jazin, E., Soodyall, H., Jalonen, P., Lindholm, E., Stoneking, M., and Gyllensten, U. (1998). Mitochondrial mutation rate revisited: hot spots and polymorphism. Nature Genetics, Feb,18(2):109-110.
• Hammer, M.F, T. M. Karafet, A. J. Redd, H. Jarjanazi, Snatachiara-Benerecetti, A.S., Soodyall, H. and S. L. Zegura (2001). Hierarchical patterns of global human Y-chromosome diversity.  Molecular Biology and Evolution: 18(7):1189-203.
• Hide, W., Mizrahi, V., Venkatesh, B., Brenner, S., Simpson, A., Blatch, G., Soodyall, H., Denby, K., Wingfield, M., Wingfield, B., van Helden, P., Ramesar, R., Dorrington, R., Kelso, J., Oppon, E., Goyvaerts, E., Ramsay. M,, de Villiers, E., van Heerden, C., Allsopp, B., and Seoighe, C. (2001). A platform for genomics in South Africa.  South  African  Medical  Journal: 91(12):1006-7.
• Osier, M.V., Pakstis, A.J., Soodyall, H., Comas, D., Goldman, D., Odunsi, A., Okonofua, F., Parnas, J., Schulz, L.O., Bertranpetit, J., Bonne-Tamir, B., Lu, R.B., Kidd, J.R., Kidd, and K.K. (2002).  American Journal of Human Genetics  71: 84-99.
• Pakendorf, B., Morar, B., Tarskaia, L.A., Kayser, M., Soodyall, H., Rodewald, A., and Stoneking, M. (2002). Y-chromosomal evidence for a severe reduction in male population size of Yakuts. Human Genetics 110:198-200.
• Lane, A.B., Soodyall, H ., Arndt, S., Ratshikhopha, M.E., Jonker, E., Freeman, C., Young, L., Morar, B., Toffie, L. (2002).  Genetic substructure in South African Bantu-speakers: evidence from autosomal DNA and Y chromosome studies.  American Journal of Physical Anthropology 119:175-85.
• Pakendorf, B., Wiebe, V., Tarskaia, L,A., Spitsyn, V,A., Soodyall, H., Rodewald, A., and Stoneking, M.. (2003). Mitochondrial DNA evidence for admixed origins of central Siberian populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 120: 211-24.
• Soodyall, H., Nebel, A.3, Morar, B, and Jenkins, T. (2003). Genealogy and genes: tracing the founding fathers of Tristan da Cunha.  European Journal of Human Genetics. 11: 705-709.

Books and Chapters in Books

• Soodyall, Himla Ed. (2006). The Prehistory of Africa. Tracing the Lineage of Modern Man .Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball
• Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., Hewitt, R., Krause, A., and Stoneking, M. (1996a). The peopling of Madagascar. In:  Molecular biology and human diversity, ed. A.J. Boyce and C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor, pp.156-170. Cambridge University Press.
• Roberts, D.F. and Soodyall, H. (1996b). Population ancestry on Tristan da Cunha - the evidence of the individual. In: Molecular biology and human diversity, ed. A.J. Boyce  and C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor, pp. 196-204. Cambridge University  Press.
• Deininger, P.L., Sherry, S.T., Risch, G., Chadwick, D., Robichaux, M.B., Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., Sheen, F., Swergold, G., Stoneking, M., Batzer, M.A. (1999). Interspersed repeat insertion polymorphisms for studies of human molecular anthropology. In Genomic Diversity: Applications in Human Population Genetics, ed. Papiha, Deka and Chackraborty, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp 201-212, New York.
• Tobias, P.V., Raath, M.A., Moggi-Cecchi J. Doyle, G. Assisted by Kuykendall, K. and Soodyall, H. (2001). Humanity from African Naissance to coming Millennia: Colloquia in Human Biology and Palaeo-anthropology. Firenze University Press and Witwatersrand University Press.
• Soodyall, H., Morar, B. and Jenkins, T. (2002). The human genome as archive. In: Refiguring the Archive, ed. C. Hamilton, V. Harris, J. Taylor, M. Pickover, G. Reid & R. Saleh. David Philip Publishers, pp 179-192, Cape Town, South Africa.
• Soodyall, H. (2002). The language of the genes. In Rebirth of Science in Africa: A shared vision for life and environmental sciences, ed. H. Baijnath & Y. Singh. Umdaus Press, Hatfield, South Africa, pp.51-59.
• Soodyall, H. (2003). A walk in the Garden of Eden: Genetic trails into our African past. Social Cohesion and Integrated Research Programme, Africa Human Genome Initiative Occasional Paper Series No.2, HSRC Publishers, Cape Town.
• Soodyall, H. (2004). Genes, ancestry and history. In Toward new histories for South Africa, ed S. Jeppie. Juta Gariep, p37-44.

Published Conference Proceedings

• Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T. (1998).  Khoisan prehistory: the evidence of the genes. In Proceedings of the Khoisan Identities & Cultural Heritage Conference - Cape Town July 1997, ed. A. Bank, H. Heese, and C. Loff, Institute For Historical Research, University of the Western Cape.
• Raath, M.A., Soodyall, H., Barkhan, D., Kuykendall, K.L and Tobias, P.V. (1998). Abstracts of Contributions to the Dual Congress, 28 June – 4 July, Sun City, South Africa.
• Soodyall, H. (2003). Reflections and prospects for anthropological genetics in South Africa. In Genetic Nature/Culture: Anthropology and Science beyond the Two-Culture Divide, ed by Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heath, and M. Susan Lindee. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. p200.

Other Publications

• Soodyall H. Human origins – evidence in the genes. Science in Africa, July 2001.
• Contribution to SA Encyclopaedia (in press). Contact person .

Thesis

• Soodyall, H. (1993). Mitochondrial DNA variation in southern African populations. PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand.

Upcoming Events

• 
• IOWC Visiting Lecturer: Himanshu Prabha Ray
  28 November 2008, 5-7pm
  The Greeks in the Western Indian Ocean and the Coming of Islam

• ---

• 
• International Conference on Debt & Slavery
  7-9th May, 2009
  Please note the timeline for submission of papers has changed.

• ---

• ---

• Contact
• Site Map