Assistant Professor Eduardo Amorim, the newest member of the Biology Department faculty, is launching his CSUN lab with a big boost from the National Institutes of Health, via an R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for early-state investigators.
The R35 award will provide $1.71 million over five years for Amorim’s group to investigate natural selection and host-pathogen evolutionary interactions in historical human populations using ancient DNA. The project centers on developing new resources (datasets and methods) and studying ancient populations from the Americas and Europe that have been affected by epidemics in the past. Dr. Amorim will soon be searching for a postdoc to work on the project, and is looking for masters’ students to join in the Fall 2022.
Image: An illuminated manuscript letter D featuring a skull and altar (British Library, via Picryl)