The Search for Leonardo’s Genome

On June 6, 2022, the Academy’s New York Program Committee hosted a dinner discussion on DNA and Art: In Search of the Genome of Leonardo da Vinci,
featuring Jesse H. Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University. Mr. Ausubel described the project he is leading, which is aiming to employ the latest techniques from molecular biology and genetics to make discoveries about da Vinci’s attributes and ancestors. A lightly revised and extended version of Mr. Ausubel’s presentation follows.