David Reich

Who is David Reich?

David Reich is a geneticist and professor in the department of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, and an associate of the Broad Institute, whose research studies comparing human DNA with that of chimpanzees, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Reich's genetics research focuses primarily on finding complex genetic patterns that cause susceptibility to common diseases among large populations, rather than finding specific genetic flaws associated with relatively rare illnesses.

Reich's research team at Harvard University has produced controversial evidence that, over a span of at least four million years, various parts of the human genome diverged gradually from those of chimpanzees. He was a co-leader, along with statistician Simon Myers, of a team of genetics researchers from Harvard University and the University of Oxford that in July 2011 revealed their completion of the world's most detailed human genetic map to date.