Laura Weyrich

Laura Weyrich

School of Biological Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


My research aims to reconstruct the human microbiome in the past using ancient DNA techniques. We are actively reconstructing oral microbial communities from ancient humans on six continents over the past 20,000 years. Our goal is to describe how and why microbial communities in the human body adapt and change in response to alterations in lifestyle, diet, and environment. Understanding these changes may allow us to develop novel treatment strategies to prevent or cure many microbiome-associated diseases in modern populations, such as obesity, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and poor oral health.

A quick overview of my research can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N1Ma7TBIAw.

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 Co-Supervisor Developing Oral Microbiome Transplants in Australia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Don Hashan Kevin Ketagoda
    2014 Principal Supervisor Genomic evolution of pathogenic oral microbial in homo sapiens using DNA samples from ancient and modern dental Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Luis Arriola
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2021 - 2022 Co-Supervisor Restoring Urban and Human Microbiotas Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jacob Geoffrey Mills
    2020 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Gut microbiome insights into the pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Gina Lucille Guzzo
    2018 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Insights from a multidisciplinary approach to Indigenous microbiome research Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Matilda Handsley-Davis
    2017 - 2021 Principal Supervisor Low-biomass Human Microbiomes: Another Piece to the Puzzle for Non-communicable Diseases Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Caitlin Alyssa Selway
    2017 - 2021 Principal Supervisor The functional role of the fish microbiome Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Thibault Philippe Raymond Albert Legrand
    2016 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Processes of Industrialisation Influencing the Human Oral Microbiome Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Emily Jean Skelly
    2016 - 2019 Co-Supervisor The Role of Epigenetic Modifications and Microbiome Evolution in Bovid Adaption to Environmental Changes Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Yichen Liu
    2015 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Ancient and Contemporary Analyses of the Impact of the Agricultural Transition on the Human Oral Microbiome Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Muslihudeen Abdul-Razaq Abdul-Aziz
    2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor New and Refined Tools and Guidelines to Expand the Scope and Improve the Reproducibility of Palaeomicrobiological Research Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Raphael Alexandre Eisenhofer Philipona
    2014 - 2016 Co-Supervisor Ancient DNA of New Zealand's extinct avifauna: Using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to research the paleoecology of the megaherbivore moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) and the phylogenetics of the enigmatic gruiform Aptornis (Aves: Aptornithidae) Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Alexander Peter Boast
    2014 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Metagenomic amplicon sequencing as a rapid and high-throughput tool for aquatic biodiversity surveys Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Jennifer Shaw
    2013 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Ancient DNA Studies of Dental Calculus Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Andrew Graham Farrer
    2013 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Application of DNA metabarcoding and high-throughput sequencing for enhanced forensic soil DNA analysis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Jennifer Young

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