Stone Age bears, ancient DNA and population genetics, with Bianca De Sanctis

In this episode, Ruby and Laura spoke to Bianca De Sanctis, a PhD student in Professor Eske Willerslev’s research group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. Bianca's research focuses on genome reconstruction using ancient DNA samples to gain a snapshot of what ancient ecosystems looked like. Bianca fills us in on a recently published study where she and her colleagues reconstructed the genomes of a Stone Age American black bear and an extinct short-faced bear using environmental DNA samples from a remote cave in Mexico. She also discusses the difficulty of working with ancient DNA samples, and how the use of ancient environmental DNA samples has provided a huge leap forward in the world of ancient genomics. You can find out more about Bianca's latest paper here: The BlueSci Podcast is run by the Cambridge University Science Magazine. This episode was hosted by Ruby Coates, Simone Eizagirre and Laura Chilver and sponsored by Greiner Bio-One and Nature Careers . Visit to access our free magazine, and find out how to get involved. If you enjoyed this episode, please

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Stone Age bears, ancient DNA and population genetics, with Bianca De Sanctis is an episode from BlueSci Podcast by Cambridge Uni Science Magazine.

This episode is 00:28:02 long.

This episode was published on Nov 15, 2021.

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