Hendrik Poinar

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Hendrik Nicholas Poinar (born May 31, 1969 in Utrecht, The Netherlands [1]) is an evolutionary biologist specializing in ancient DNA. [2] [3] Poinar first became widely known for successfully extracting DNA sequences from ground sloth coprolites. [4] He is presently director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. [5]

[edit] Education and academic career

The son of noted entomologist George Poinar, Jr. and Eva Poinar, Poinar received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in 1992 and 1999 respectively before earning a Ph.D. in 1999 from the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, after which he was a postdoctoral researcher from 2000 to 2003 at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. [1] In 2003 he was hired as an assistant professor in the anthropology department at McMaster University in Canada. [1] [5]

In a joint 2000 paper in Science, Poinar and Dr. Alan Cooper argued that much existing work in human ancient DNA has not been sufficiently rigorous to prevent DNA contamination from modern human sources, and that many reported results for ancient human DNA may therefore be suspect. [6]

In 2003, Poinar and others from the Max Planck Institute published genetic sequences isolated from coprolites of the extinct Shasta giant ground sloth [4], with an estimated age of 10500 years using radiocarbon dates. This were the first genetic sequences retrieved from any extinct ground sloth. [7]

In 2005 Poinar was reported to be working on the sequencing of the wooly mammoth genome. [8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Curriculum Vitae of Hendrik Nicholas Poinar. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  2. ^ Pickrell, John. "Prehistoric DNA to Help Solve Human-Evolution Mysteries?", National Geographic News, March 25, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-08-29. 
  3. ^ "Hunt for ancient human molecules", BBC News, 16 February, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-08-29. 
  4. ^ a b Poinar H, Kuch M, McDonald G, Martin P, Pääbo S (2000). Nuclear gene sequences from a Late Pleistocene sloth coprolite. Current Biology . 13: 1150-1152, doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00450-0 [1]
  5. ^ a b Profile from the McMaster Department of Anthropology. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  6. ^ Cooper A and Poinar H. (2000). Ancient DNA: Do It Right or Not at All. Science. 289(5482): p. 1139, doi:10.1126/science.289.5482.1139b [2]
  7. ^ Berkowitz, Jacob. "The poop on ancient man", The Globe and Mail, June 19, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-08-28. 
  8. ^ McIlroy, Anne. "Will woolly mammoths live again? Ancient DNA found in frozen mammoth", The Globe and Mail, December 20, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-08-29. 
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