Meriam GUELLIL

My research interest is in microbial palaeogenomics and metagenomics, particularly of human pathogens. Focus of my research is the analysis of ancient bacterial and viral pathogen genomes and their evolution within a socio-temporal context. Another major part of my work is the development and application of metagenomic screening workflows designed to detect very small amounts of degraded microbial pathogen DNA in human remains and the subsequent reconstruction of full genome data. As ancient DNA research is best used within a multidisciplinary context, I make use of my experience in osteology and archaeology to better integrate generated data with archaeological, bioarchaeological and historical data.

My previous research includes studies describing the first ancient genomes for microbial species such as Haemophilus influenzae, Borrelia recurrentis, Herpes simplex virus 1 and Human betaherpesvirus 6. I have also worked extensively on other previously identified bacterial and viral pathogens such as Yersinia pestis and Mycobacterium leprae.
I was awarded a BA in Prehistoric Archaeology from the University of Vienna, an MSc in Human Osteology from the University of Sheffield and a PhD in Genomics from the University of Oslo. I joined the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna in 2022, where I am currently leading an FWF project on childhood health.