In December 2013, the nonprofit Simons Foundation launched its Genome Diversity Project with 25 human genome sequences from 13 diverse populations around the world. The genomes include Sudanese, Han, Papuan, Australian, and French individuals, among others. The data was released in conjunction with a Nature paper that reported the first complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal.
The foundation, which sponsors research in basic science and mathematics, offers the data for download as a pilot initiative for the project, which will eventually contain 250 genomes from 125 diverse populations. Simons Foundation officials hope the data will be useful to scientists studying human genetic variation, such as evolutionary biologists and historians of human migration.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
