Friday, June 3, 2022
Dr. Alexis Dolphin (Anthropology) and Dr. Andrew Doxey (Biology) are recipients of the 2022 Waterloo Interdisciplinary Trailblazer Fund.
Their new project, titled "Reconstructing the origins and evolution of infectious diseases through ancient DNA metagenomics" will perform large-scale metagenomic analyses of ancient archaeological samples, surveying these samples for potentially ancient strains of modern viral and bacterial pathogens.
Additionally, this work will also pilot a study of ancient pathogen diversity present among individuals excavated from the Early Bronze Age (3600-2600 BC) site of Wadi Faynan 100, Jordan.