Margherita Colucci
Postdoc - Impact of disease in early humans
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Evolutionary Ecology Group (Department of Zoology) & Human Palaeosystems Research Group, Pan-Ev. at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (Jena, Germany).
- I am interested in the impact of disease in early human groups, focusing on human-pathogens co-evolution, and the role of infectious diseases in shaping human habitat choice. In exploring these dynamics, I consider the palaeoclimatic and epidemiological framework, and the genetic adaptation of human populations to pathogens.
My research also includes:
studying human local adaptation using bioinformatic models to reconstruct evolution of traits under selection (e.g., migraine, malaria resistance mutations), integrating past climate, environment, human demographies and genetics;
focusing on tools and methods to determine biogeographical ancestry, phenotypes and kinship estimates from DNA data for both genealogical and forensic applications.