SEMINAR ; Dr Ellen C.Royrvik - HLA in Norwegians and autoimmune Addison’s Disease

Ellen's research interests focus on DNA, from molecules to populations. She works on DNA in a broad sense: from evolution and replication as a molecular process, to medical and population genetics, and the interfaces between these topics, aiming to harness knowledge of population structure and molecular mechanisms to improve the efficacy and design of medical therapies. Her work has appeared in top cross-disciplinary journals from Nature to Antiquity and she has appeared in international TV, radio, and newspaper features disseminating her research.

Following an M.Sc. in cancer genetics at the University of Oslo, Ellen completed a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford as part of the ground-breaking Peoples of the British Isles project, where she coupled genetic analysis of geographically representative blood samples from British and European volunteers with linguistic and archaeological evidence to examine the population structure and history of Britain, allowing her to incorporate her B.A. interests in European archaeology and Celtic and Germanic philology. She then moved to the University of Warwick as a research fellow, where she worked on the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication and elucidating the medical implications of genetic stratification in human populations (with recent work on mtDNA diversity informing UK health policy on so-called "three-parent baby" gene therapies). Her current work focuses on the genetics of autoimmune diseases, specifically Autoimmune Addison's Disease, with continuing work on the history of population structure in northwest Europe.