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Where are Kiwis from? Study investigates

Newshub interviews Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith about Kiwis, to try to work out where we come from.

"The majority of the diversity that we see worldwide we actually have represented here in our New Zealand population," she says.

See the original tv news story:

Where are Kiwis from? Study investigates (Newshub, 29 January 2017)

You are your DNA?

Catch Lisa and other speakers at this event in Dunedin.

YOU ARE YOUR DNA? High Speed Pitches and a Hot Debate. 5:30pm Thursday, 14 July at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
DNA debate poster (PDF 955KB)

Wairau Bar DNA testing

Newshub reported on DNA testing on New Zealand's oldest human remains at Wairau Bar. The DNA will be compared with that of local iwi to discover how Māori genetics have changed over time.

Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith was interviewed about the implications of the research.

"Have we lost particular lineages due to the introduction, for example, of European diseases? Do we see the genetic markers that we found in modern Māori and Pacific people that suggest they have a genetic predisposition to particular diseases like gout and type 2 diabetes?"

Wairau Bar DNA testing hope to link past with present (Duration 1:54) Newshub website

DNA study of ancient Phoenician

Jesse Mulligan interviews Lisa about the remains of an ancient Phoenican man which could change what we know about human migration. Professor Matisoo-Smith lead a DNA study on the 2500 year old remains of a North African man, known as the Young Man of Byrsa.

DNA study of ancient Phoenician finds European ancestry (Duration 10:54) RNZ website

Gene Genie: Family and genealogy

BBC 4 science presenter and geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford looked at the implications of the increasing availability of genetic information for sex, paternity, medicine, weight control, food, species restoration and perhaps even human survival in a five-part discussion series broadcast by RNZ: Gene Genie (2016).

Allan Wilson at Otago members Lisa Matisoo-Smith and Hamish Spencer participated in the Family and genealogy discussion:

Gene Genie series (51:51 duration), Royal Society's website

Polynesian migration

Speaking with Graham Hill on RadioLive in March 2015, Lisa prises legend from fact about who went where when, and how. Some intriguing evidence emerges of a late migration throughout Polynesia from South Asia.

Polynesian migration (39:41 duration), RadioLive website

We're all family under the skin

Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith's article in the New Zealand Herald, 9 January 2015, on just how closely related humans are, proved poignant following the murder of journalists in Paris.

We're all family under the skin New Zealand Herald website

The last great human migration

This presentation, in four parts, was recorded at the University of Queensland in 2011.

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