Irina Marie Velsko

Irina Marie Velsko is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA), Department of Archaeogenetics in Leipzig, Germany. She leads research on ancient dental calculus and oral microbiome evolution, focusing on microbial coevolution with humans and the impact of cultural transitions on oral health. Her work integrates wet-lab and computational methods, including bacterial genomics and ancient metagenomics.

Education:

• PhD in Biomedical Sciences, University of Florida College of Medicine (2014)
• BA in Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies (2010)

Research Interests:

• Ecology and evolution of the oral microbiome
• Host-microbiome interactions
• Applications of ancient biomolecules
• Coevolution of human and microbial systems

Key Contributions:

• Standardized protocols for oral microbiome data analysis
• Publications foundational to ancient microbiome research
• Leadership in open data initiatives like AncientMetagenomeDir

Grants & Awards:

• NIH F31 pre-doctoral fellowship (2010–2014)

Lab & Collaborations: Core member of the Microbiome Group led by Dr. Christina Warinner, contributing to interdisciplinary projects on Paleolithic microbiota and ancient biomolecule analysis.