Nicolas Brucato

My research covers Human Population Genetics and Epigenetics. I have studied genomic variants in diverse human populations to reconstruct the scenarios of their dispersal, inferring several events that may have shaped the modern gene pool, such as selective pressure or admixture. Among these genetic variants, I am particularly interested in those that may involve epigenetic elements, regulatory factors that change the gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence.

In my current research, I am interested in making connections between genetics and language. As language is a complex trait relying on different biological features and processes, such as brain lateralisation, then I am using several approaches. Genetic and epigenetic association studies permit examination of specific cognitive phenotypes to find genes of interest. Evolutionary approaches, comparing the same DNA sequences among all animal genomes available, enable detection of signals of selection that could imply a biological role in language origins.