I currently direct the research activities of the Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory.  I facilitate the sample testing for our projects with Family Tree DNA, National Geographic, and The DNA Shoah Project.  My primary research interests are in population genetics and phylogeography.  I am especially interested in questions of population movements, population history and how we can use this information for both academic research and wildlife conservation.

In 1993 I moved to Tucson, Arizona and took a position as a research technician in the Laboratory Molecular Systematics and Evolution at the University of Arizona.  In this capacity I provided technical support and training to a wide assortment of students and staff working on projects in the field of evolutionary genetics.

After two years I entered the University of Arizona's doctoral program in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  My doctoral project focuses on a comparison of the population genetics and population history of the mountain spiny lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii, and its malarial parasite, Plasmodium chiricahuae, in the mountains of southern Arizona.


As a graduate research assistant to Dr. Michael Hammer, I worked on several research projects using the Y chromosome and mitochondria DNA to investigating the population genetics and population history of Jewish populations.

In the fall of 1999 I started a collaborative project between the University of Arizona and Family Tree DNA in Dr. Hammer's laboratory testing DNA for genealogical reconstruction.  I developed the protocols and infrastructure for this project.  Over the following five years this collaboration grew at a very rapid rate, testing tens of thousands of individuals.  In April of 2005 Family Tree DNA and our laboratory teamed up to provide public DNA testing for National Geographic and IBM's Genographic Project. My research group performs all public testing for the Genographic Project, and has tested over 260,000 samples for this project since April 2005.

My laboratory is currently coordinating the sample collections and DNA testing for participants in the DNA Shoah Project.  This project is a humanitarian effort that seeks to use DNA information from Holocaust survivors and their family members to reunite families .

Matthew E. Kaplan
Associate Staff Scientist
Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory
Arizona Research Laboratories
Division of Biotechnology
University of Arizona

PUBLICATIONS:

Schlecht J, Kaplan ME, Barnard K, Karafet T, Hammer MF, et al. 2008
Machine-Learning Approaches for Classifying Haplogroup from Y Chromosome STR
Data. PLoS Computational Biology 4(6): e1000093
doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000093

Behar DM, Hammer MF, Garrigan D, Villems R, Bonne-Tamir B, Richards M, Gurwitz
D, Rosengarten D, Kaplan M, Della Pergola S, Quintana-Murci L, Skorecki K.
2004 MtDNA evidence for a genetic bottleneck in the early history of the
Ashkenazi Jewish population.  European Journal of Human Genetics 12 (5)
pp355-364.

Behar DM, Garrigan D, Kaplan ME, Mobasher Z, Rosengarten D, Karafet TM,
Quintana-Murci L, Ostrer H, Skorecki K, Hammer MF.  2004 Contrasting patterns
of Y chromosome variation in Ashkenazi Jewish and host non-Jewish European
populations.  Human Genetics 114 (4) pp354-365

Goldberg, C. S., M. E. Kaplan, and C. R. Schwalbe. 2003. From the frog's mouth:
buccal swabs for the collection of DNA from amphibians. Herpetological Review
34:220-221.

Edwards, T., C. S. Goldberg, M. E. Kaplan, C. R. Schwalbe, and D. E. Swann.
2003. PCR primers for microsatellite loci in the desert tortoise (Gopherus
agassizii, Testudinidae). Mol. Ecol. Notes 3:589-591.

Goldberg, C. S., T. Edwards, M. E. Kaplan, and M. Goode. 2003. PCR primers for
microsatellite loci in the tiger rattlesnake (Crotalus tigris, Viperidae). Mol.
Ecol. Notes 3:539-541.

Hammer MF, Garrigan D, Behar DM, Kaplan ME, Skorecki K.  2003 MtDNA evidence for
a genetic bottleneck in the early history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population.
American Journal of Human Genetics 73 (5) pp 187-187

Bonne-Tamir B, Korostishevsky M, Redd AJ, Pel-Or Y, Kaplan ME, Hammer MF.  2003
Maternal and paternal lineages of the Samaritan isolate: Mutation rates and
time to most recent common male ancestor Annals of Human Genetics 67 pp153-164

Ellis N, Hammer M, Hurles ME, Jobling MA, Karafet T, King TE, de Knijff P,
Pandya A, Redd A, Santos FR, Tyler-Smith C, Underhill P, Wood E, Thomas M,
Cavalli-Sforza L, Ellis N, Jenkins T, Kidd J, Kidd K, Forster P, Zegura S,
Kaplan M.  2002 A nomenclature system for the tree of human Y-chromosomal
binary haplogroups. GENOME RESEARCH 12 (2) pp 339-348

Tillquist C, Kaplan M, Blackmer F, Karafet T, Jarjanazi H, Remigereau M, Arnason
E, Sigurgislason H, Hammer M. 2002. Evidence of Y chromosome clines in Europe:
post-glacial re-colonization from Upper Paleolithic refugia?  Am erican Journal
of Physical Anthropology Supplement 34 pp155-155

Ellis N, Hammer M, Hurles ME, Jobling MA, Karafet T, King TE, de Knijff P,
Pandya A, Redd A, Santos FR, Tyler-Smith C, Underhill P, Wood E, Thomas M,
Cavalli-Sforza L, Ellis N, Jenkins T, Kidd J, Kidd K, Forster P, Zegura S,
Kaplan M 2002 A nomenclature system for the tree of human Y-chromosomal binary
haplogroups.  Genome Research 12 (2) pp 339-348

Moran NA; Kaplan ME; Gelsey MJ; Murphy TG; Scholes EA  1999  Phylogenetics and
evolution of the aphid genus Uroleucon based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA
sequences.  Systematic Entomology 1999, Vol 24, Iss 1, pp 85-93