Palamara Lab
University of Oxford, Department of Statistics.
We are currently advertising a 3-year ERC-funded postdoc in Statistical Machine Learning for Genomics. Full job posting and application details.
We are a research group based at Oxford University’s Department of Statistics and the Centre for Human Genetics, working at the intersection of computer science, statistics, and genetics. We develop statistical and machine learning algorithms to study human genetic variation, population history, and the genetic basis of complex traits. Our research focuses on two connected areas:
- Statistical genetics. Developing methods in computational statistics, machine learning, and AI for biobank-scale genomic and health datasets. We combine evolutionary, functional, and phenotypic information to understand the genetic architecture and biological mechanisms of heritable traits, identify causal variants, and improve prediction of traits and disease risk.
- Population genetics. Developing methods to reconstruct and analyze genealogical relationships within and across populations, using both modern and ancient genomes. We use these relationships to study ancestry, migration, and changes in population size, and to understand evolutionary processes such as natural selection, mutation, and recombination.
Oct 1, 2026
James Briant (research software engineer) and Zhangziyan Jiang (DPhil student) joined the group!
Sep 1, 2026
Pier gave talks at the SMARTbiomed Symposium in Oxford, ProbGen in Berkeley, the University of Zurich, Aarhus University, and the EMBO | EMBL Symposium on Reconstructing the human past: using ancient and modern genomics. He also taught at the SMARTbiomed Aarhus summer school.
May 1, 2026
The lab has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant.
Feb 11, 2026
Zhu et al., “Leveraging ancestral recombination graphs for scalable mixed-model analysis of complex traits”, now published in Cell Genomics. New collaborative papers and preprints on repeat expansions (Hujoel et al., Nature), rare coding variant heritability (Liu et al., bioRxiv) and deep admixtures in human evolution (Loya et al., bioRxiv).
Jan 1, 2026
Elena Sabbioni (postdoc) and Shadi Zabad (postdoc) joined the group!
Jan 1, 2026
Hrushi, Jiazheng, and Zoi defended their DPhil theses!
Feb 5, 2025
Jan 9, 2025
New paper on Quickdraws, “A scalable variational inference approach for increased mixed-model association power”, published in Nature Genetics.
The Quickdraws software is available here, summary statistics are available here.
Nov 29, 2024
New collaborative papers on ancient DNA analysis of early farmers of central Europe (Gelabert et al. Nature Human Behaviour, news coverage) and on Genomics England genotype imputation of the UK Biobank (Shi et al. Nature Genetics); preprints on the genetic origins of the Indo-Europeans (Lazaridis et al. bioRxiv) and on the causes and consequences of DNA repeat expansions (Hujoel et al. bioRxiv).
Nov 23, 2024
Zoi gave a featured plenary talk (15 out of ~3,400 submitted abstracts) on inferring genealogical relationships between ancient and modern genomes at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG 2024) meeting in Denver (CO). She also received a Trainee Research Excellence Award (6 out of ~900 trainee abstracts). Congratulations!