The projects in our lab aim to better understand how natural selection has contributed to the evolution of our species and to which extent past selection events impact present-day susceptibility to disease. Our group studies the genetic basis of differences in immune response among different individuals and human populations as well as the phenotypic evolution of immune responses in primates. Most projects in the lab are multidisciplinary and combine the use of cutting edge genomic techniques (e.g., RNA-seq) with immunological and evolutionary genetic tools.

News

June 1st 2018
A new paper done in collaboration with Bana Jabri’s laboratory came out recently in Nature. Congrats to Alain and Luis for that awesome work!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0125-z

Jan 11th 2018
Our new paper is out!! Done in collaboration with Maziar Divangahi Laboratory! Check it out in Cell!
http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)31511-8

Jan 8th 2018
Vote for us!! Quebec Science discovery of the year!
http://www.quebecscience.qc.ca/10-decouvertes-2017/3-Pauvre-comme-rhesus

Dec 1st 2017
In June 2018 our lab will be moving to the University of Chicago! We have several postdoc and PhD positions available!

Sep 18 2017
Hey all! It’s been a while since the last post! Here’s some news since the last time!
A whole new review done in collaboration with Jenny Tung has just been published in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development.
The contribution of admixture to primate evolution

Furthermore, we would like to congratulate Luis for being nominated in the College of the Royal Society of Canada! Congrats Luis!
https://rsc-src.ca/en/about-us/our-people/our-priorities/royal-society-canada-welcomes-2017-members-college-new-scholars

Feb 10 2017
The team section has a new look now on Mac/PC. Check it out, descriptions will come soon!

Jan 25 2017
Lab just came back from an incredible lab retreat! Plenty of ideas came out and that fresh air loaded up our batteries for this new year to come!

Nov 30 2016
New Neanderthal paper out!!! Check it out! Congrats Lab!
Genome Biol.

Nov 24 2016

New paper out in Science! Great work with great collaborators! Thanks to the Tung lab for that amazing collaboration! Check it out, hot as it can be!
Our paper

Oct 20 2016

Our new paper is making the cover of Cell! An amazing long time effort by the lab! Check it out!
Cell, Volume 167, Issue 3
Our paper

Selected Publications

Aaron J. Sams, Anne Dumaine, Yohann Nédélec, Vania Yotova, Carolina Alfieri, Jerome E. Tanner, Philipp W. Messer and Luis B. Barreiro (2016) Adaptively introgressed Neandertal haplotype at the OAS locus functionally impacts innate immune responses in humans. Genome Biol. – Genome Biol.

Snyder-Mackler N, Sanz J, Kohn JN, Brinkworth JF, Morrow S, Shaver AO, Grenier JC, Pique-Regi R, Johnson ZP, Wilson ME, Barreiro LB, Tung J. (2016) Social status alters immune regulation and response to infection in macaques. Science – Science

Nédélec Y, Sanz J, Baharian G, Szpiech ZA, Pacis A, Dumaine A, Grenier JC, Freiman A, Sams AJ, Hebert S, Pagé Sabourin A, Luca F, Blekhman R, Hernandez RD, Pique-Regi R, Tung J, Yotova V, Barreiro LB. (2016) Genetic Ancestry and Natural Selection Drive Population Differences in Immune Responses to Pathogens. Cell – Cell

Pai AA, Baharian G, Pagé Sabourin A, Brinkworth JF, Nédélec Y, Foley JW, Grenier JC, Siddle KJ, Dumaine A, Yotova V, Johnson ZP, Lanford RE, Burge CB, Barreiro LB. (2016) Widespread Shortening of 3′ Untranslated Regions and Increased Exon Inclusion Are Evolutionarily Conserved Features of Innate Immune Responses to Infection. PLoS Genet . – PLoS Genet

Alain Pacis, Ludovic Tailleux, Alexander M Morin, John Lambourne, Julia L Maclsaac, Vania Yotova, Anne Dumaine, Anne Danckaert, Francesca Luca, Jean-Christophe Grenier, Kasper D Hansen, Brigitte Gicquel, Miao Yu, Athma Pai, Chuan He, Jenny Tung, Tomi Pastinen, Michael S Kobor, Roger Pique-Regi, Yoav Gilad and Luis B Barreiro. (2015) Bacterial infection remodels the DNA methylation landscape of human dendritic cells. Genome Res. – Genome Res

Jenny Tung, Luis B Barreiro, Michael B Burns, Jean-Christophe Grenier, Josh Lynch, Laura E Grieneisen, Jeanne Altmann, Susan C Alberts, Ran Blekhman, Elizabeth A Archie. (2015) Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons. eLife. – eLife

Perry GH, Foll M, Grenier JC, Patin E, Nédélec Y, Pacis A, Barakatt M, Gravel S, Zhou X, Nsobya SL, Excoffier L, Quintana-Murci L, Dominy NJ, Barreiro LB. (2014) Adaptive, convergent origins of the pygmy phenotype in African rainforest hunter-gatherers.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. – PNAS