My research interests lie in human growth and development, human reproductive ecology, ecological immunology, the oral and gut microbiome, and evolutionary medicine. I am particularly interested in biosocial and evolutionary frameworks to study body-environment interactions in indigenous and rural populations in Latin America. More specifically, the relationship between socioeconomic changes, physical environment, and trade-offs in biological functions during adolescence.
As a human bioarchaeologist, I have been involved in the study of early life experience in post-medieval England with Profs. Janet Montgomery, Becky Gowland and Dr. Anwen Caffell at Durham University. This included macroscopic analysis of human skeletal remains and stable isotope analysis of incremental dentine. The purpose was to bring together different lines of evidence to evaluate physiological stress, disease load and mortality, while underscoring the importance of the historical context and skeletal data in the interpretation of biomolecular data.