Zuzana’s research focuses on ancient DNA (aDNA) obtained from human remains to study ancient societies, their practices and their development over time. She is a trained anthropologist, geneticist, and archaeologist. Her thesis involved generating up to 10,000 years old ancient human genomes and it contributed to resolving longstanding questions of Neolithisation in Europe and Middle East.
As an EMBO Fellow she conducts research into demographies of past societies, especially looking into historical and prehistorical cultural barriers that had limited genetic flow and changes during past demographic turnovers that affected social structure. One of her current projects is to characterize the social implications of the Neolithic revolution in Europe through aDNA by comparing the genetic diversity of autosomes and sex-linked markers as aDNA provides a unique opportunity to infer social practices of past societies such as sex-biased migration, descent rules or transmission of social status.
While still supervising wet-lab projects that generate ancient DNA data, Zuzana is currently developing computational and statistical tools to fully utilize genetic material obtained through destructive analysis of fossils. The inference methods developed integrate genotype uncertainty, allow for reference-free quality score recalibration and take into account the specific nature of damaged aDNA. The parameters inferred directly from data via machine learning methods (e.g. local heterozygosity, inter-individual distance) are in her research further combined with archaeological information.