Love Dalén is a Professor of evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University, and one of the founding members of the Swedish Centre for Palaeogenetics. He is a member of the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group, and a scientific advisor to the International Commission for Missing Persons in the Hague.
Research
His research is focused on using ancient DNA technology to investigate the ecology and evolutionary history of both extinct and extant wild animals, including mammoths, lemmings, bears and cave lions, with specific focus on how past environmental changes determine the distribution and abundance of organisms. The work by his research group is focused on mammalian demographic change, adaptive evolution, and hybridisation during the last 2.5 million years, especially in the context of Pleistocene climate change.
His research group is renowned for being the first to sequence the complete woolly mammoth and rhinoceros genomes. In 2021, he led an international consortium that sequenced the oldest genomes ever recovered, from mammoth remains that were more than one million years old.
Grants and awards
His current research is funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and an ERC Advanced Grant.
Selected bibliography
- Bergström, Anders, Laurent Frantz, Ryan Schmidt, Erik Ersmark, Ophelie Lebrasseur, Linus Girdland-Flink, Audrey T. Lin, et al. 2020. “Origins and Genetic Legacy of Prehistoric Dogs.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 370 (6516): 557–64.
- Díez-Del-Molino, David, Fatima Sánchez-Barreiro, Ian Barnes, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, and Love Dalén. 2018. “Quantifying Temporal Genomic Erosion in Endangered Species.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 33 (3): 176–85.
- Palkopoulou, Eleftheria, Swapan Mallick, Pontus Skoglund, Jacob Enk, Nadin Rohland, Heng Li, Ayça Omrak, et al. 2015. “Complete Genomes Reveal Signatures of Demographic and Genetic Declines in the Woolly Mammoth.” Current Biology: CB 25 (10): 1395–1400.
- Valk, Tom van der, Patrícia Pečnerová, David Díez-Del-Molino, Anders Bergström, Jonas Oppenheimer, Stefanie Hartmann, Georgios Xenikoudakis, et al. 2021. “Million-Year-Old DNA Sheds Light on the Genomic History of Mammoths.” Nature 591 (7849): 265–69.