“Evolution and Genomics”, Professor Anna Olivieri is guest of the new Science in the Valley meeting

“Evolution and Genomics: How DNA Changed Our View of the Past,” this is the title of the meeting organized by the association Science in the valley Thursday, December 21, at 6 pm at the association’s headquarters a. Volta Scientific Secondary School San Giovanni Castle (via Nazario Sauro 23). Topic will be covered Anna Oliveriprofessor of genetics at the University of Pavia.

the topic
History (and prehistory) can be studied from different perspectives, including archaeology, anthropology, and genetics. Today we are witnessing a real revolution due to the emergence of genetic archaeology, which allows the valorization of ancient biological discoveries by combining archaeological/anthropological analyzes with the latest genetic sequencing technologies. Advances in genomics allow scientists to study ancient DNA still preserved in bones dating back hundreds or even thousands of years. A geneticist, like a molecular archaeologist, can shed light on the genetic identity of individuals who inhabited a place and whose remains are still preserved. Anna Olivieri’s presentation will take us into the laboratory of ancient DNA to discover how genomes extracted from biological discoveries from the past are studied and what questions can be answered. We will follow the geneticist’s experiments step by step, and also discover the difficulties encountered in trying to reconstruct DNA buried hundreds of years ago.

Anna Oliveri
Anna Olivieri, geneticist, obtained her PhD in Genetic and Biomolecular Sciences from the Department of Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Pavia. She began her career as a young student recipient of the L’Oréal Italia Women and Science Scholarship, then became one of the first Italian researchers for a fixed term, as Futuro coordinator in the Ricerca projects, and then as Associate Professor of Genetics at the University of Pavia. . His research has focused on genomics in humans and animals, with an emphasis on the analysis of modern genetic variation. Since 2020, he has contributed to introducing a new line of research in his department, building and managing an ancient DNA laboratory, the first in northwestern Italy, to be able to study the genetic variation of individuals from the past.