Department of Anthropology

Penn State University

Mark Shriver

Associate Proffessor of Biological Anthropology

Faculty Image Office: 512 Carpenter Building
Telephone: (814) 863-1078 Fax: (814) 863-1474
Email:

mds17@psu.edu

Curriculum Vitae
 

Anthropological Genomics Lab

EDUCATION:

  • BS in Biology from SUNY/Stony Brook in 1987
  • Ph.D. in Genetics from University of Texas Health Science Center/Houston in 1993

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS:

Generally, Dr. Shriver's lab works on applications of population genetics to questions of human origins and human evolution with a particular focus on normal and disease phenotypes that may have been subject to recent active natural selection. These phenotypes include chronic diseases such as NIDDM, obesity, and hypertension, and normal variation in common traits, namely skin and hair pigmentation, tooth features, dermatoglyphics, and stature. One approach to these questions that his lab is using is the Mapping by Admixture Linkage Disequilibrium (MALD) method. This method may likely prove one of the most powerful means to identify genes for polygenic traits where the parental populations of the hybrid group differed in the prevalence of the trait interest. Since little is known of the proportions and dynamics of admixture in the US, one major effort is to construct and interpret a US admixture map. His lab uses both molecular and theoretical methods and also has an active field research component.

FIELD WORK:

Dr. ShriverDr. Shriver has an active research program that involves ascertaining study subjects from the resident population of State College and surrounding towns. Subjects are interviewed and examined in the Anthropometrics Laboratory (room 219) in the Penn State General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) which is located in the Noll Laboratory Building on the University Park Campus. The focus of this research is the genetics of normal variation in common traits. Periodically, the Anthropometrics Lab will go on field trips, possibly next to Brazil in the summer of 2000. Please email anthrolab@psu.edu for information on ongoing research protocols.

 

 

 

COURSES TAUGHT:

  • ANTH 021 Introduction to Biological Anthropology
  • ANTH 083S Freshman Seminar
  • ANTH 411 Forensic Anthropology
  • ANTH 461 Molecular Anthropology
  • ANTH 562 Laboratory Methods
  • ANTH 563 Biological Journal Club

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

  • Shriver, M.D., Smith, M.W., Jin, L., Marcini, A., Akey, J.M., Deka, R., Ferrell, R.E. Ethnic affiliation estimation using population-specific DNA markers. in press (1997) Am J Hum Genet 60: 957-964.
  • MacHugh, D.E., Shriver, M.D., Loftus, R.T., Cunningham, P., and Bradley, D.G. (1997) Evolution, domestication and gene flow revealed with polymorphic microsatellites. Genetics 46: 1071-1086.
  • Shriver, M.D., Jin, L., Ferrell, R.E., Deka, R. (1997) Microsatellite data support an earlier population expansion in Africa. Genome Res 7: 586-591.
  • Shriver, M.D., Ethnic variation as a key to the biology of human disease. (1997) Annals of Internal Medicine 127: 401-304.
  • Shriver, S.P., Shriver, M.D., Tirpak, D.L., Bloch, L.M., Hunt, J.D., Ferrell, R.E., Siegfried, J.M. (1998) Trinucleotide reepeat length variation in the human ribosomal Protein L14 gene (RPL14): Localization to 3p21.3 and loss of heterozygosity in lung and oral cancers. Mutation Res. Genomics 406:9-23.
  • Parra, E., Marcini, A., Akey, J., Martinson, J., Batzer, M., Cooper, R., Forrester, T., Allison, D.B., Deka, R., Ferrell, R.E., Shriver, M.D. (1998) Estimating African-American Admixture Proportions by use of Population-Specific Alleles Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63:1839-1851.