Sally Wasef

I am a female Forensic Research Fellow in Paleogenetics's exciting but male-dominated field, with over 12 years of experience working on population genetics and history. I have expertise in ancient DNA (aDNA) retrieval, Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), target enrichment and Bioinformatics analyses. I am the only woman of colour among a small group of ancient DNA experts in Australia with many years of experience researching population genetics and history using advancements in the ancient DNA field. I have successfully retrieved ancient DNA from human remains in arid and humid tropical environments like Egypt, Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Throughout my academic career, I have undertaken high-quality research that has a measurable impact on policy and practice in the wider community, generates media interest and attracts competitive research funding.

Travelling back in time has always fascinated us all. People have an insatiable curiosity to know what people were like and how they shaped the world we live in today. Through the new and exciting research of Paleogenetics, I can travel back in time to answer some of these questions. We can find out what ancient humans looked like, lived, moved, their lifestyles, the types of diseases they experienced and environmental changes around them. These events leave different readable markers in their genomes, and I can read and interpret them by studying ancient DNA(aDNA). It is challenging! From the moment you die, your body, cells, and DNA quickly start to degrade, especially in the tropics. Afterwards, DNA becomes almost impossible to detect, let alone read in older samples. I can piece the past together only through my years of experience and the technology available. Currently, I am using aDNA to help Indigenous communities identify and repatriate the remains of their ancient people that have been kept in museums and other institutes. Many of these remains have no details of where they were from. I can successfully connect those remains to their closest kin through my work.