Claudio Ottoni

I am a paleogeneticist and I obtained my doctoral degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2008, at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy). My research interests focus on biomolecular archaeology and the study of ancient DNA as a tool to reconstruct the past of human and animal populations. In particular, by combining genetic information and multiple archaeological and biomolecular data, I investigate animal domestication, the shifts in subsistence and economic strategies of past human populations, and changes in the oral microbiome associated with diet and lifestyle in ancient humans and animals.
From 2009 to 2016, I worked as post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Archaeological Sciences (CAS) of the KU Leuven University, in Belgium, where I investigated the domestication of cats and pigs. In 2016 I started a post doc at the Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) of the University of Oslo, in Norway, to study plague pandemics and the evolution of Yersinia fish pathogens. From November 2018, I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Diet and Ancient Technology Laboratory (DANTE) of the Sapienza University of Rome. Here I reconstruct the oral microbiome of ancient humans through the analysis of ancient DNA in dental calculus.