The EthnoAncestry Team

Dr. James F. Wilson, Managing Director. Jim is a population geneticist whose list of publications and credits are familiar to all those interested in genetic genealogy and population genetics. His DPhil is from the University of Oxford where his initial studies with Prof David Goldstein led to the identification of the first genetic signatures of Norse Viking ancestry in the British Isles. He also discovered the "Atlantic Modal Haplotype", which revealed genetic continuity in Britain from the Palaeolithic to the present. This work led on to the BBC "Blood of the Vikings" Project.

He is now at the University of Edinburgh and heads ORCADES, a large genome scanning project focusing on cardiovascular disease. As well as continuing Y chromosome work in SE Asia, he is developing new markers to tease apart European origins and is collecting an unrivalled resource of ten thousand samples with which to understand Scottish and British history. Jim is a native of Orkney, who also has Shetland roots; and is an avid genealogist.

Dr. Gianpiero L. Cavalleri, Director and Senior Scientist, of Italian parentage but born and raised in Ireland, is a population geneticist who trained with Prof Dan Bradley at Trinity College, Dublin before going on to work at Stanford with Prof Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Dr Peter Underhill. He was responsible for the placement of a number of markers on the Y chromosome tree including M201, M207, M222, M223, M242, M267 and M269.

Gianpiero completed a PhD at University College London under Prof David Goldstein studying the genetics of epilepsy predisposition and treatment. Gianpiero is currently researching the genetics and pharmacogenetics of epilepsy at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Angelika B. Kritz, Research Administrator and Chief Scientist. Of Austrian heritage, Angelika has lived in the UK for the last 10 years. She is a geneticist whose work focuses on cardiovascular gene therapy. Her PhD was awarded by University College London and her current research takes place at the University of Glasgow.