I am honored and humbled to receive the Jon van Rood Award for Best Abstract at EFI 2025! My first EFI was amazing and I am looking forward to many more ahead! #EFI2025 #immunogenetics

I have always been proud of my university ODTÜ in Turkey, not only for its academic success but also for the political stance of students. Right now, this is the treatment faced by students who stand up for democracy.

(photo credit unknown for now)

Combining targeted HLA genotyping with the genomewide data, we found that LF individuals carrying DRB1*08:01-DQB1*04:02 haplotype had an excess of WHG ancestry across the MHC region, suggesting that this haplotype introgressed from the hunter-gatherers.

We also observed an increased diversity from EF to LF. We hypothesized that this could result from the admixture between EF and WHG. Using a local ancestry inference method called RFMix and we found that across the MHC region, the WHG ancestry was much higher than the genomewide average.

We next moved to the part that I personally feel closer to: the HLA analysis. Using capture-based sequencing and a stringent genotyping approach, we managed to obtain HLA genotypes of 135 individuals (EF = 45, LF = 90). Overall, the Neolithic HLA diversity was lower than modern populations.

We observed that the WHG ancestry in LF exceeded what we expected from other contemporaneous farmers around Europe. This highlights the regional variation in cultural practices and interactions between communities. Furthermore, the WHG admixture appears to be male-biased.

We analyzed the genetic data of 125 individuals, 49 early farmers (EF) and 76 late farmers (LF). Remains of these individuals were recovered from seven sites within modern central and southern Germany. Right away, we observe an increase in WHG ancestry in the LF group, compared to EF.