The world of microbes is ever-present but we usually only acknowledge it whenever we wash our hands. In truth, the smallest life form tells a lot about human development through history and we shouldn’t overlook its importance. Alisa tells her story about working in a field that intertwines three science disciplines at once: archeology, biology and computer science and how much fascination it holds.
Alisa Kazarina is a microbiologist whose desire is to explore how microbes influence human health and how investigating ancient human-related microorganisms could help researchers to study these relationships.
In her job at the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center, Alisa investigates the remains of ancient human-related microbes that can be found within archaeological material with the help of a new multi-disciplinary area of research – biomolecular archaeology.
In parallel, Alisa Kazarina is working towards her PhD thesis investigating the evolution of human-related microbial communities (i.e. human microbiome) and to detect and study ancient human pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
