Publications

(Google Scholar, ORCiD)

Full List

Journal papers + preprints

  1. Prehistoric genomes from Yunnan reveal ancestry related to Tibetans and Austroasiatic speakers
    Tianyi Wang, Melinda A. Yang, Zhonghua Zhu, Minmin Ma, Han Shi, Leo Speidel, ..., Qiaomei Fu
    Science 388, eadq9792 (2025)

  2. Ancient Borrelia genomes document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever
    Pooja Swali, Thomas Booth, ..., Leo Speidel, ..., Lucy van Dorp, Pontus Skoglund
    Science 388, eadr2147 (2025)

  3. High-resolution genomic history of early medieval Europe.
    Leo Speidel, Marina Silva, Thomas Booth, Ben Raffield, Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Christopher Barrington, Anders Götherström, Peter Heather, Pontus Skoglund.
    Nature 637, 118–126 (2025)
    Preprint: bioRxiv:2024.03.15.585102
    Code: https://leospeidel.github.io/twigstats
    Featured in:
  4. A disease-associated gene desert directs macrophage inflammation through ETS2.
    Christina T. Stankey, Christophe Bourges, ..., Leo Speidel, ..., James C. Lee.
    Nature 630, 447–456 (2024)

  5. Detection of chromosomal aneuploidy in ancient genomes.
    Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Marina Silva, Thomas Booth, Leo Speidel, ..., Pontus Skoglund.
    Communications Biology 7, 14 (2024)
    Preprint: bioRxiv:2022.09.22.509027

  6. The Selection Landscape and Genetic Legacy of Ancient Eurasians.
    Evan K Irving-Pease, Alba Refoyo-Martínez, Andrés Ingason, Alice Pearson, Anders Fischer, William Barrie, ..., Leo Speidel, ..., Peter H Sudmant, Daniel J Lawson, Richard Durbin, Thorfinn Korneliussen, Thomas Werge, Morten E Allentoft, Martin Sikora, Rasmus Nielsen, Fernando Racimo, Eske Willerslev.
    Nature 625, 312-320 (2024)
    Preprint: bioRxiv:2022.09.22.509027

  7. Integrative analysis of GWAS and co-localisation data suggests novel genes associated with age-related multimorbidity.
    Clare E West, Mohd Karim, Maria J Falaguera, Leo Speidel, ..., Brian Marsden.
    Scientific Data 10, 655 (2023)
    Preprint: medRxiv:2022.11.11.22282236

  8. Balancing selection on genomic deletion polymorphisms in humans.
    Alber Aqil, Leo Speidel, Pavlos Pavlidis, Omer Gokcumen.
    ELife 12, e79111 (2023)

  9. Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs.
    Anders Bergström, ..., Leo Speidel, ..., Pontus Skoglund.
    Nature volume 607, 313–320 (2022)

  10. Multi-ancestry genetic study of type 2 diabetes highlights the power of diverse populations for discovery and translation.
    Anubha Mahajan, Cassandra N Spracklen*, Weihua Zhang*, Maggie CY Ng*, Lauren E Petty*, Hidetoshi Kitajima*, Grace Z Yu*, Sina Rueger*, Leo Speidel*, ..., Mark I McCarthy, Andrew P Morris. (*joint second authors)
    Nature Genetics 54, 560–572 (2022)
    Preprint: medRxiv:2020.09.22.20198937

  11. Sex-specific phenotypic effects and evolutionary history of an ancient polymorphic deletion of the human growth hormone receptor.
    Marie Saitou, ..., Leo Speidel, ..., Omer Gokcumen.
    Science Advances 7, eabi4476 (2021)

  12. Inferring population histories for ancient genomes using genome-wide genealogies.
    Leo Speidel, Lara Cassidy, Robert W. Davies, Garrett Hellenthal, Pontus Skoglund, Simon R. Myers.
    Molecular Biology and Evolution 38, 3497–3511 (2021)
    Preprint: bioRxiv:2021.02.17.431573v1
    Code: https://github.com/leospeidel/Colate

  13. Disentangling selection on genetically correlated polygenic traits using whole-genome genealogies.
    Aaron J. Stern, Leo Speidel, Noah A. Zaitlen, Rasmus Nielsen.
    American Journal of Human Genetics 108, 219-239 (2021)
    Preprint: bioRxiv:2020.05.07.083402
    Code: https://github.com/35ajstern/palm

  14. A method for genome-wide genealogy estimation for thousands of samples.
    Leo Speidel, Marie Forest, Sinan Shi, Simon R. Myers.
    Nature Genetics 51, 1321-1329 (2019)
    Preprint: bioRxiv:550558
    Code: https://myersgroup.github.io/relate/
    Data: https://zenodo.org/record/3234689
    Featured in:
  15. Topological data analysis of continuum percolation with disks.
    Leo Speidel, Heather A. Harrington, S. Jonathan Chapman, Mason A. Porter.
    Physical Review E 98, 012318 (2018)
    Preprint: arXiv:1804.07733
    Code: https://github.com/leospeidel/TDA_of_continuum_percolation_with_disks

  16. Asynchronous rumor spreading on random graphs.
    Konstantinos Panagiotou, Leo Speidel (alphabetical order).
    Algorithmica 78, 968-989 (2017)
    Preprint: arXiv:1608.01766

  17. Temporal interactions facilitate endemicity in the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model.
    Leo Speidel, Konstantin Klemm, Victor M. Eguiluz, Naoki Masuda.
    New Journal of Physics 18, 073013 (2016) [open access]
    Preprint: arXiv:1602.00859

  18. Community detection in directed acyclic graphs.
    Leo Speidel*, Taro Takaguchi*, Naoki Masuda (*contributed equally).
    European Physical Journal B 88, 203 (2015) [open access]
    Preprint: arXiv:1503.05641
    Code: https://github.com/leospeidel/dag_community_paper
    Featured in:
  19. Steady state and mean recurrence time for random walks on stochastic temporal networks.
    Leo Speidel, Renaud Lambiotte, Kazuyuki Aihara, Naoki Masuda.
    Physical Review E 91, 012806 (2015) [open access]
    Preprint: arXiv:1407.4582

Book chapters/thesis

  1. Reconstructing the genealogical relationships of hunter-gatherers and farmerss.
    Leo Speidel.
    In Ancient DNA and the European Neolithic Relations and Descent (Oxbow Books, UK, 2023), pp. 51-62.

  2. Genealogy estimation for thousands of samples.
    Leo Speidel.
    DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2019.

  3. Epidemic threshold in temporally-switching networks.
    Leo Speidel, Konstantin Klemm, Victor M. Eguiluz, Naoki Masuda.
    Temporal Network Epidemiology (Springer, Singapore, 2017), pp. 161-177.

Misc

  1. What Our DNA Can Tell Us About the History of Humans.
    Leo Speidel, Clare Bycroft.
    Front. Young Minds. 8:106 (2020) [open access]
    • We wrote this article for young scientists (aged 8-15); it describes how we can use maths, stats, and computers to find out about our genetic history.