Ainash Childebayeva

Dr. Ainash Childebayeva is a biological anthropologist specializing in ancient and modern population genetics, natural selection and epigenetics. During her PhD at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she worked on high-altitude adaptation in modern Andean populations (Quechua) using a combination of genetics, epigenetics, and ancient DNA. As a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institutes for Science of Human History and Evolutionary Anthropology, she worked on the ancient genomics of European and northern Eurasian populations from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Dr. Childebayeva is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her laboratory employs interdisciplinary methods to study ancient and modern human genetic variation and natural selection in Central Eurasia, integrating genomic, archaeological, and anthropological data to elucidate patterns of migration, admixture, and adaptation. Her group also investigates high-altitude adaptation in contemporary populations and the epigenetics of stress exposure. In addition to her role at UT Austin, Dr. Childebayeva holds a research position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.