Master students

Research Project: My thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the adaptation of woolly mammoths from Wrangel Island by identifying gene variants and tracking their allele frequencies over time. For this project, I will sequence 25 complete genomes and may apply a hybridization capture approach in case selective-sweep patterns emerge. The goal is to investigate whether new mutations occurred when the population became isolated, and if so, which phenotypic traits were affected.

Research Project: Denisova cave is a bountiful source of prehistory, yet the remains therein are often highly fragmented and thus cannot be morphologically identified. Amongst these remains, deer (Cervidae Goldfuss, 1820) have been identified using aDNA and protein-based analyses. Yet, the methods previously applied have issues providing proper species-level resolution of specimens. Using competitive mapping and mitochrondrial phylogenetics, I will identify which cervid species were present at Denisova Cave from the Middle to Late Pleistocene, and how the specimens relate evolutionarily to other cervids.

Research Project: Interspecific hybridisation has played a crucial role in the evolutionary history of Elephantidae, as research has shown that multiple hybridisation events have occurred within the family. Even though hybridisation between the Asian elephant and the woolly mammoth has been hypothesised, it has yet to be thoroughly investigated. In my project, I conduct genomic analyses to study potential hybridisation between the Asian elephant and the woolly mammoth. By using modern elephant genomes, as well as ancient mammoth genomes dating up to 1 million years, I will enhance our understanding of the evolution of Elephantidae.

Research Project: I am a third-year PhD student at the Laboratory of Palaeogenetics and Conservation Genetics at the University of Warsaw. My PhD research focuses on the population dynamics and evolutionary history of small mammals, particularly common and field voles in the British Isles.

The island biogeography of the British Isles has produced several interesting patterns of species distribution and genetic diversity. These include the only surviving population of common voles (Microtus arvalis) in the UK, which is restricted to the Orkney archipelago, as well as the distinctive “Celtic fringe” pattern observed in mitochondrial lineages of the field vole (Microtus agrestis). I am interested in understanding how and when these populations became established, how their population structure changed through time, and how their evolutionary history was shaped by changing climate and landscapes from the Late Pleistocene into the Holocene.

To investigate these questions, I have sampled archaeological and museum material from around 30 sites across the British Isles through collaborations with several museums. The laboratory work, from ancient DNA extraction to sequencing, has been carried out at the University of Warsaw. During my visit to CPG, I will be working on better understanding the genetic load of the Orkney vole population through time.

Research Project:I am at CPG on a one-year scholarship from Sapienza University of Rome, working on thylacine and ferret samples, as part of two distinct projects.
For the thylacine I focus on DNA extraction optimized to retain longer DNA fragments, as part of a larger project led by Emilio Mármol Sánchez aiming to understand the genetic architecture and regulatory dynamics of the extinct species. For the ferrets, I am working with 18 skin, tooth and bone samples belonging to Mustela nigripes and Mustela eversmannii, aiming to reconstruct the population genetics of ancient ferrets across Eurasia and North America. As part of this project I am also comparing two different library construction methods (single-stranded SCR and double-stranded Meyer and Kircher) to evaluate their performance.