IOWC Associate: 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.

• 2006 (ed.), The Prehistory of Africa. Tracing the Lineage of Modern Man (Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball).
• 2004 “Genes, ancestry and history,” in Shamil Jeppie (ed.), Toward New Histories for South Africa: on the Place of the Past in our Present (Cape Town: Juta Gariep): 37-44.
• 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 (Cape Town: HSRC Publishers).
• 2002 Soodyall, H., Morar, B. and Jenkins, T., “The human genome as archive,” in C. Hamilton, V. Harris, J. Taylor, M. Pickover, G. Reid & R. Saleh (eds.), Refiguring the Archive (Cape Town: David Philip): 179-192.
• 2002 “ The language of the genes,” in H. Baijnath & Y. Singh (eds.), Rebirth of Science in Africa: A shared vision for life and environmental sciences (Hatfield, South Africa: Umdaus Press): 51-59.
• 2001 Tobias, P.V., Raath, M.A., Moggi-Cecchi J. Doyle, G. Assisted by Kuykendall, K. and Soodyall, H., Humanity from African Naissance to coming Millennia: Colloquia in Human Biology and Palaeo-anthropology (Florence: Firenze University Press and
  Witwatersrand University Press).
• 1999 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., “Interspersed repeat insertion polymorphisms for studies of human molecular anthropology,” in Surinder Singh Papiha, Ranjan Deka, and Ranajit Chakraborty (eds.), Genomic Diversity: Applications in Human Population Genetics (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers): 201-212.
• 1996 Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., Hewitt, R., Krause, A., and Stoneking, M., “The peopling of Madagascar,” in A.J. Boyce and C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor (eds.), Molecular biology and human diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 156-170.
• 1996 Roberts, D.F. and Soodyall, H., “Population ancestry on Tristan da Cunha - the evidence of the individual,” in A.J. Boyce and C.G.N. Mascie-Taylor (eds.), Molecular biology and human diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 196-204.

• 2003 Pakendorf, B., Wiebe, V., Tarskaia, L,A., Spitsyn, V,A., Soodyall, H., Rodewald, A., and Stoneking, M., “Mitochondrial DNA evidence for admixed origins of central Siberian Populations,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 120: 211-24.
• 2003 Soodyall, H., Nebel, A.3, Morar, B, and Jenkins, T., “Genealogy and genes: tracing the founding fathers of Tristan da Cunha,” European Journal of Human Genetics 11: 705-709.
• 2002 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., “A global Perspective On Genetic Variation At The ADH Genes Reveals Unusual Patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium And Diversity,” American Journal of Human Genetics 71: 84-99.
• 2002 Pakendorf, B., Morar, B., Tarskaia, L.A., Kayser, M., Soodyall, H., Rodewald, A., and Stoneking, M., “Y-chromosomal evidence for a severe reduction in male population size of Yakuts,” Human Genetics 110: 198-200.
• 2002 Lane, A.B., Soodyall, H ., Arndt, S., Ratshikhopha, M.E., Jonker, E., Freeman, C., Young, L., Morar, B., Toffie, L., “Genetic substructure in South African Bantu-speakers: evidence from autosomal DNA and Y chromosome studies,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 119: 175-85.
• 2001 Hammer, M.F, T. M. Karafet, A. J. Redd, H. Jarjanazi, Snatachiara-Benerecetti, A.S., Soodyall, H. and S. L. Zegura, “Hierarchical patterns of global human Y-chromosome Diversity,” Molecular Biology and Evolution 18(7): 1189-203.
• 2001 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., “A platform for genomics in South Africa,” South African Medical Journal 91(12): 1006-7.
• 1998 Jazin, E., Soodyall, H., Jalonen, P., Lindholm, E., Stoneking, M., and Gyllensten, U., “Mitochondrial mutation rate revisited: hot spots and polymorphism,” Nature Genetics 18(2): 109-110.
• 1997 Melton, T., Ginther, C., Sensabaugh, G., Soodyall, H., and Stoneking, M., “Extent of heterogeneity in mitochondrial DNA of sub-Saharan African populations,” Journal of Forensic Science 42: 582-592.
• 1997 Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., Mukherjee, A., du Toit, E., Roberts, D.F., and Stoneking, M., “The founding mitochondrial DNA lineages of Tristan da Cunha Islanders,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 104: 157-166.
• 1997 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., “ALU insertion polymorphisms and human evolution: evidence for a larger population size in Africa,” Genome Research 7: 1061-1071.
• 1996 Soodyall, H., Vigilant, L., Hill, A. V., Stoneking, M., and Jenkins, T., “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.
• 1996 Stoneking, M. and Soodyall, H., “Human evolution and the mitochondrial genome,” Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 6: 731-736.
• 1995 Soodyall, H., Stoneking, M., and Jenkins, T., “Polynesian mtDNA in the Malagasy,” Nature Genetics 10: 377-378.
• 1995 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., “Origins and
  affinities of modern humans: a comparison of mitochondrial and nuclear genetic data,” American Journal of Human Genetics 57: 523-538.
• 1994 Sherry, S.T., Rogers, A.R., Harpending, H., Soodyall, H., Jenkins, T., and Stoneking, M., “Mismatch distributions of mtDNA reveal recent human population expansions,” Human Biology 66: 761-775.
• 1993 Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T., “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.
• 1992 Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T., “Mitochondrial DNA studies in the South African Indian Population,” Gene Geography 6: 127-137.
• 1992 Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T., “Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Khoisan populations form Southern Africa,” Annals of Human Genetics 56: 315-324.
• 1991 Merriwether, D.A., Clark, A.G., Ballinger, S.W., Schurr, T.G., Soodyall, H., Jenkins T., Sherry, S.T., and Wallace, D.C., “The structure of human mitochondrial DNA variation,” Journal of Molecular Evolution 6: 543-555.

• 2003 “Reflections and prospects for anthropological genetics in South Africa,” in Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heath, and M. Susan Lindee (eds.), Genetic Nature/Culture: Anthropology and Science beyond the Two-Culture Divide (Berkeley: University of California Press): 200.
• 1998 Soodyall, H. and Jenkins, T., “Khoisan prehistory: the evidence of the genes,” in A. Bank, H. Heese, and C. Loff (eds), Proceedings of the Khoisan Identities & Cultural Heritage Conference - Cape Town July 1997 (University of the Western Cape: Institute For Historical Research).

• 2001 “Human origins – evidence in the genes” – Science in Africa (July)

• 1993 ‘Mitochondrial DNA variation in southern African populations,’ PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand.