This story originally appeared on the .
Cole Williams was crunched for time. The genetics and genomics senior was deep into the world of human population genetics. In the , Williams was trying to parse apart familial relationships in African hunter-gatherer and pastoralist groups, some of which are the most diverse human populations on Earth.
But he ran into a problem. The publicly available computer algorithms Williams used couldn’t make sense of his study population’s genomic data.
“Most [of the algorithms] were developed with European-descent groups in mind,” said Henn, who holds appointments in the Department of Anthropology and the 鶹ý Genome Center. “They don’t work well for populations with multiple ancestries, cousin-cousin marriages or situations where there are many half-siblings in a population.”
Such was the case with the African populations Williams and Henn studied, like the Himba, from northern Namibia. To further emphasize Henn’s point, an article published in reported that 78 percent of individuals in “genome-wide association studies” are of European descent. , Europeans make up only about 10 percent of the world’s population.
Williams needed a fix. He’d spent nearly eight months on a project with little more than an inkling of advancement. He knew an original algorithm was needed, but with graduation looming, he didn’t have time to write it. Then the California wildfires hit and the 鶹ý campus closed. Williams turned the closure into an opportunity and wrote the algorithm.
The result, according to Henn, was an algorithm capable of handling diverse populations, technical artifacts and complex family genealogies that runs rapidly on human genomic datasets.
“Cole solved a major problem we were facing, in other words how to accurately construct multi-generational pedigrees in African genomes,” said Henn. “He really put the time into understanding the technical difficulties inherent in genomic data and how other research groups tackled the problem previously.”
For his outstanding research and service, Williams, who graduated this month, was named the 2019 College of Biological Sciences Undergraduate of the Year.
“This award is a testament to my passion for human genetics and all of my hard work of the past four years,” said Williams. “It has been such a privilege to be at 鶹ý studying and researching the subject I love; to be given this award is just the cherry on top of such an amazing time here.”
Preserving childhood wonder
Williams can trace his affinity for genetics back to fifth grade, when he was introduced to Punnett squares, diagrams used to predict the probability of heritable traits, such as eye or hair color. He became fascinated by the potential power of genetics to help solve diseases. Raised in Davis in an Aggie household, Williams followed his parents’ footsteps and enrolled at 鶹ý due to its strong reputation for genetics and because he wanted to stay close to home.
During his freshman year living in the Tercero Residence Hall, Williams learned about , a nationwide student-run organization that runs camps for children of cancer patients. As a child, Williams’ father was taken by cancer. He was all too familiar with the emotional toll surrounding such a loss and joined the program as a camp counselor. According to Williams, the camp is all about providing a space for kids to just be kids. He now serves as the 鶹ý chapter’s treasurer.
“When your parent has cancer, you’re kind of forced to grow up,” he said. “You kind of miss out on some of your childhood.”
Williams himself felt the experience was a struggle and now, he’s ensuring other children don’t feel as he did.
“It turned out it was the most impactful thing that I’ve done,” he said of volunteering. “I’ve had a lot of success with my research and my academics, but I think I’m most proud of the work I’ve done with Camp Kesem.”
Choreographing the ancestral dance of genetics and anthropology
