Attending the 2nd Congress of the Brazilian Society for Evolutionary Biology (SBBE) 2026? 🇧🇷🧬 Be sure to check out Juliana Simas Coutinho Barbosa's poster (Poster #61) on Wednesday, July 15! See the flyer for more details.

Did Neanderthals practice medicine? 🤔 Check out this Science Friday feature with Laura Weyrich discussing what injuries, disease, and archaeological evidence reveal about Neanderthal health, caregiving, and the origins of medicine. www.sciencefriday.com/segments/nea...

How did Neanderthals deal with illness and injuries?

Up to 94% of Neanderthals suffered at least one traumatic injury in their lifetime. How did their healthcare keep up?

sciencefriday.com

New publication alert! Check out this new paper showing that salivary microbiomes may serve as biomarkers of later-stage esophageal cancer across populations, highlighting their potential for large-scale screening. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42227762/

Multi-cohort comparative analysis of salivary microbiotas reveals rural Ethiopians harbor a distinct composition correlated with lower esophageal cancer prevalence - PubMed

Esophageal cancer (EC) results in high mortality due to difficulty in early diagnosis, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, including the African EC belt typified by high prevalence, earl...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

We are grateful for the opportunity to have returned to southwestern Uganda, where microARCH Lab member Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola spent time in May sharing findings from our oral microbiome research with Batwa communities and local partners.

The annual One Health Microbiome Symposium starts today!! 🧬 Be sure to check out Juliana’s poster today — Poster #63.

The annual One Health Microbiome Symposium is coming up May 13–14, and guess what? Dr. Laura Weyrich will be giving a talk on May 13 from 11:10–11:30 AM—see the flyer for more details. www.huck.psu.edu/institutes-a...

Going to the #SAA2026 in San Francisco and a Penn State alum/affiliate—or just curious about Penn State Anthropology? Join the Penn State Anthropology meetup this Friday (see flier for details)! The microARCH Lab will be well represented Come say hi!

We’re excited to share that our article has been published in American Journal of Biological Anthropology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... In this paper, we propose a culturally grounded ethical framework for conducting genetics research with Indigenous& historically marginalized communities

Come attend the Penn State Department of Anthropology Alumni Summit tomorrow at the Palmer Museum (April 17, 3–5 PM)! Even better—the microARCH lab will be there with a poster session showcasing some of our exciting projects 🧬

Congratulations to our very own Christine Ta on receiving the Penn State Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award! A well-deserved recognition for her outstanding instruction and impact on the learning experiences of hundreds of Penn State students. We are super proud of you!

Looking for something fun to do in the State College area this Saturday? Come attend AnthroFest, the annual community outreach event hosted by Penn State Anthropology! 📅 Saturday, April 11 | ⏰ 10 AM – 3 PM 📍 Penn State Arboretum Children’s Garden Fun activities for all ages,hope to see you there!

Great job to the microARCH team on today’s ENVISION outreach hosted by Penn State’s Eberly College of Science, showcasing how scientists study DNA from long-gone organisms Always exciting to share ancient DNA research with the next generation of scientists!

Going to #IADR2026? Don’t miss Dr. Laura Weyrich’s talk: Oral Microbiome Transplantation Reduces Dental Caries Development and Periodontitis Bone Loss in Murine Models. Session: Microbial Diversity, Dysbiosis, and Challenges in Oral Microbiome Research March 26 | 2:15–2:30 PM | Room 33A

The #AABAs were great! Great job, Christine on your talk!

MicroARCH_lab@microarch-lab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Christine Ta – Mechanisms Driving Changes in the Human Oral Microbiome via The Great Acceleration Session 15 (Human Biology: Stress, Health, and Disease) | Thurs, March 19 Come say hi and check out our work!

To support faculty, students, and staff as they navigate the complexities of research data management and sharing, Penn State has launched the Research Data Stewardship Program, a partnership between University Libraries and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research. 🔗 buff.ly/SRkyW7N

New program helps faculty and students manage and share research data | Social Science Research Institute

Federal sponsors like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have long encouraged researchers to manage and share the data from their work with the public and other…

buff.ly

Fascinating piece on how our ancestors used mushrooms not just as food, but for medicine, fire-starting, and technology—showing how small biological resources can have big impacts on human history 🍄 www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

How our ancestors used mushrooms to change the course of human history

Mushrooms have been used by ancient humans for millennia, but archaeologists have only just uncovered their pivotal role in shaping civilisation

newscientist.com

Are you going to be at #AABA2026? Don’t miss presentations from our team! 🧬🦷 Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola – Food, Microbes, and Contact: Biological Consequences of Atlantic-era Diet in Coastal Ghana Poster 8, #11 | Thurs, March 19

Thank you @lauraweyrich.bsky.social for talking about your standout research and entrepreneurship, and how it could transform oral health outcomes for people worldwide. #oralmicrobiomes #paleomicrobiology #seminarseries

The microARCH Lab and the Penn State Ancient Biomolecules Research Environment (PSABRE) in the Anthropology Department at PSU are excited to announce two new research position openings for motivated scholars eager to work at the forefront of microbial genomics, aDNA, and biomolecular anthropology

Are you in Adelaide or at Adelaide University this week? Don’t miss the School of Biological Sciences seminar with A/Prof Laura Weyrich. From prehistory to precision medicine: Using the History of Our Oral Microbiome to Develop Oral Microbiome Transplantation(OMT)

If you’re in Adelaide this Friday (Feb 20), come hear Prof. Laura Weyrich (Penn State) speak on translating oral microbiome research into real-world therapies. She’ll be speaking about launching Microversal and developing Oral Microbiome Transplant technology.

Are you involved in oral microbiome research (current or past)? Please take this anonymous survey on reporting practices in oral microbiome studies, aimed at improving consistency + reproducibility in the field. You may skip any questions. Survey link: asu.questionpro.com/t/Abm07Z7MY3 Please share!

Building Consensus on Reporting Oral Microbiome Metadata: A Community Survey

Building Consensus on Reporting Oral Microbiome Metadata: A Community Survey

asu.questionpro.com

New paper alert! Check out this new paper "The sociobiome-oral microbiome mediates dental caries among Indigenous Australians" by Nath et al., 2025 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41479542/ Super proud to be a part of this amazing work! Great work, Sonia!!

The sociobiome-oral microbiome mediates dental caries among Indigenous Australians - PubMed

Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with variations in the oral microbiome, and these microbial patterns may explain the link between lower income and dental health caries. Saliva may serve as a sensitive biomarker of socioeconomic gradients in oral health. These findings support integrated app …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

So proud to be part of research projects providing dental care to our participants. If research integrates communities with equal benefits, it needs to be funded to ensure that's possible! Excellent paper, Gina! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Costs of Providing Culturally Safe Dental Care for Indigenous People of Australia: A Follow‐Up Intervention Study

Objectives To establish the monetary costs of supporting the Indigenous community in Australia to receive culturally safe dental care. Methods Financial data was analysed from a follow-up dental i...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Great job to our team member, Shah Imran Hossain, on his excellent presentation ‘From Dysbiosis to Balance: Restoring Oral Health Through Microbiome Transplantation’ at the Penn State Eberly Research Showcase: From Molecules to Galaxies!

New preprint on bioRxiv! The sociobiome–oral microbiome pathway in dental caries among Indigenous Australians” by Sonia Nath et al. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The sociobiome–oral microbiome pathway in dental caries among Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians experience disproportionately high rates of dental caries, yet the biological pathways linking socioeconomic disadvantage to oral health remain unclear. This study examined how ...

doi.org

🎉 New from our team: lab methods can shape what we recover from ancient dental calculus! Extraction & library prep choices influence results, highlighting the importance of careful protocols for reproducible ancient microbiome research. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Check it out today!!

Wet Lab Protocols Matter: Choice of DNA Extraction and Library Preparation Protocols Bias Ancient Oral Microbiome Recovery

Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of archaeological dental calculus has provided a wealth of insights into ancient health, demography and lifestyles. However, the workflow for ancient metagenomics is still...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New preprint on bioRxiv! The sociobiome–oral microbiome pathway in dental caries among Indigenous Australians” by Sonia Nath et al. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The sociobiome–oral microbiome pathway in dental caries among Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians experience disproportionately high rates of dental caries, yet the biological pathways linking socioeconomic disadvantage to oral health remain unclear. This study examined how ...

doi.org

🦠 New Matters Microbial with @markowenmartin.bsky.social! Guest Dr. @lauraweyrich.bsky.social shares how ancient dental plaque DNA reveals: – Neanderthal diets & health – Early “medicine” use – Microbes shared with humans 🎧 www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bc5...

Matters Microbial #108: Neanderthal Oral Health, Ancient Bacteria and DNA

YouTube video by MicrobeTV

youtube.com

Another week, another episode of #MattersMicrobial podcast! This time, @lauraweyrich.bsky.social of Penn State discusses what bacterial DNA from ancient dental plaque can tell us. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord. @univpugetsound @asmicrobiology @microbe.tv youtu.be/6Bc5jhCDWg8?...

Matters Microbial #108: Neanderthal Oral Health, Ancient Bacteria and DNA

YouTube video by MicrobeTV

youtu.be