Former VIGRE Postdoc Emilia Huerta-Sanchez and her advisor, Rasmus Nielsen, have found a genetic link between Tibetans, Sherpas and an extinct race, the Denisovans. The gene enables its bearers to live at very high altitudes. "Sorting out obscure genetic evidence like this required intricate statistical calculations, and it was Huerta-Sánchez who did it," Nielsen said.