How did our species, Homo sapiens, become what it is today? How did our ancestors spread across the globe? How did their bodies and minds evolve?

The study of these fascinating questions has seen a veritable revolution in recent years: genome sequencing of ancient and extant humans, and their relatives, has revealed our evolutionary history in unprecedented detail and sheds light on how humans adapted; new analyses of fossils and archaeology reveal what makes humans so unique.

Our Cell Symposium ‘Evolution of Modern Humans — From Bones to Genomes’ pays homage to this revolution by bringing together an uniquely broad mix of world-class researchers who study the evolution of our species from various angles — from palaeoanthropology to genetics, genomics and archaeogenetics, through to the study of cultural and cognitive processes. This meeting will synthesize our current picture of the evolution of modern humans and formulate the most exciting questions for future research.

Session Topics:
- Human genetics and genomics
- Adaptation
- Archaeogenetics
- Palaeoanthropology
- Cognition and culture