Our Team Members
Laura S. Weyrich
Principal Investigator
My research focuses on microbiome adaptation and evolution in different ecologies. I use a mixture of ancient DNA, anthropological microbial genomics, and experimental models to explore and identify mechanisms of microbial community change and adaptation and translate these mechanisms to improve the world around us today.
Iyunoluwa Jesudemilade
PhD Graduate Student
Iyunoluwa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from the University Of Ibadan, Nigeria. Using ancient DNA techniques, oral microbiome, and embedded starch grain analyses of dental calculus, she is interested in understanding the impact of the Atlantic era (slave trade and colonialism) on diet, oral microbial profile, and the overall health status of West African populations and how this translates to health disparities of Africans/Black Americans in the diaspora.
Crystal Crabb
Graduate Student
Crystal holds a B.S and M.A in Anthropology from Texas State University. She is interested in the human oral microbiome and its relation to the manifestation of inequality and environmental stress within human dentition, particularly focusing on periodontitis within Hispanic and Latinx populations. In studying the evolution of microbes within Hispanic and Latinx communities, she aims to understand the impact of environmental stress and its relation to heredity and the oral microbiome.
Christine Ta
Dual-Title PhD Candidate
Christine holds a BS in Forensic Science-Toxicology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a MSc in Bioarchaeological and Forensic Anthropology from University College London, UK. She aims to contextualize the evolutionary history of antimicrobial resistance genes within the oral microbiome in hopes of understanding the potential link between changes in cultural and ecological factors and the shift in the disease landscape.
Juliana Simas Coutinho Barbosa
PhD Graduate Student
Juliana holds a Bachelor's in Biotechnology from the University of Brasília; she then relocated to Rio de Janeiro and received a Master's in Computational Modeling from the National Laboratory of Scientific Computing. Juliana's research utilizes prokaryotic and eukaryotic DNA entrapped within ancient dental calculus to reconstruct the pre-agricultural (Paleolithic and Mesolithic) oral microbiomes as well as ancient diets. Juliana is interested in elucidating how diet and climate events (specifically, the 8.2 ka cooling event) shaped the oral microbiota of ancient humans and in uncovering potential adaptations to those environmental factors.
Cameron Pauly
MD/PhD Graduate Student
Cameron holds a Bachelor's in Anthropology from Colgate University and a Master's in Medical Science from Drexel University College of Medicine, and is pursuing a joint MD/PhD degree with a dual-title in Anthropology and Microbiome Sciences. Cameron is interested in how social factors drive the evolution of the human oral microbiome, particularly the effects of colonialism on Native American & other Indigenous communities, and how oral microbiota influence systemic health. He is also interested in how microbiota are inherited from generation to generation and the developmental origins of health and disease. His clinical focus is on high-risk obstetrics, women's health, and oral health, especially for Indigenous and rural communities. Cameron is also a Rural Health Scholar through the College of Medicine and serves on the American Physician Scientists Association's Social Sciences and Humanities Ad Hoc Committee.
Shah Imran Hossain
Graduate Student
I grew up in Bangladesh, completed my BSc and MS in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology at the University of Chittagong, and am now pursuing my Master of Biotechnology at Penn State. I am currently working on the Oral Microbiome Transplants (OMT) project, exploring how microbial communities in the mouth can be modulated to treat oral diseases such as caries, periodontal disease, gingivitis, and oral cancers. I also have a broader interest in human microbiota and the molecular and cell biology of cancer.
Affiliated Members
Will Vuyk
PhD Graduate Student from the Socio-ecological Histories of Estuarine Landscapes (SHEL) Lab
Will is interested in using ancient and environmental DNA techniques to better understand the ecological legacies that humans leave on the places they inhabit. Co-advised by Dr. Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz, Will’s work is primarily focused on the environmental reconstruction of archaeological sites in the Southeastern US using sedDNA. By investigating how past human-environment interactions have shaped modern ecologies, Will aims to inform how we engineer regenerative human ecosystems today and into the future.
