מדע וקפה : "Digging for DNA" Viviane Slon

מדע וקפה
« Digging for DNA »
Viviane Slon, palaeogeneticist at Tel Aviv University
Tuesday April 12th at 7 p.m.
Kiosko | HaRav Yizkhak Yedidya Frenkel 31, Tel Aviv

The French Institute in Israel is organizing its next "Café des Sciences" on April 12, 2022 at the Kiosko in Tel Aviv. The concept remains unchanged: to explore a scientific subject in a friendly place where science enthusiasts, curious people or neophytes can discuss scientific questions with researchers and academics experts in the field. Specifically, the Institute chose for this cycle to put women in the spotlight and to invite female scientific researchers. For this 3rd meeting, the palaeogeneticist Viviane Slon will share with us her fascinating research topic on ancient DNA.

Viviane Slon is the Head of the ancient DNA laboratory at the Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research and a senior lecturer at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University. She got a MSc in Medical Sciences and a BSc in Medical and Life Sciences, both from Tel Aviv University. Her PhD and post-doctoral research on ancient hominin DNA were conducted in the Department of Evolutionary Genetics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany). During her post-doc, the palaeogeneticist identified for the first time an ancient individual whose parents belonged to distinct human groups (with a mum being a Neanderthal and a dad being a Denisovan). The scientist also won several awards such as the Otto Hahn Award in 2018. The Otto Hahn Prize is awarded every 2 years by the Society of German Chemists (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker), the German Physical Society (Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft) and the city of Frankfurt am Main for outstanding achievement in the field of chemistry, physics or applied engineering science.

Viviane Slon's research group studies the genetic makeup of prehistoric and proto-historic populations, with a focus on the Levant. Her work aims at recovering DNA of ancient individuals from skeletal remains and from sediments found at archaeological sites. Within her lab, the researchers strive to develop laboratory and analytical techniques to improve the usability of sediments as a source of genetic data in order to study our evolutionary history such as elucidating relationships between populations, retracing migrations or also understanding the effect of past events on our own genomes today.