An international study investigating the genomic diversity of the Sudanese population reveals that the Copts originating in Egypt –who settled in the country between the seventh and eleventh centuries– have acquired a genetic variant that protects them from contracting malaria. “The acquisition of this variant has taken place very quickly, in just 1,500 years, after a group of Copts mixed with Sudanese populations with sub-Saharan characteristics”, explains David Comas, principal investigator at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-Pompeu Fabra University) and a full professor and researcher at the UPF Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, who has led the research. The study of 125 high-coverage genomes representing five of the country’s ethnolinguistic groups has enabled describing more than a million novel genetic variants, 1,500 of which could have implications for diseases.