Amanda completed her MSc in Bioinformatics at the University of Guelph in 2023 and is currently a PhD student at the University of Stockholm in Sweden, where she is working with ancient DNA to describe hybridization and introgression in extinct mammals. Prior to her master’s work in the lab, Amanda completed a BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Guelph.
Amanda’s MSc thesis focused on using genomic data to identify and quantify hybridization between Southern Ontario minnow species and to compare how levels of hybridization may change across anthropogenically disturbed environments, including agriculturalized and urbanized areas. She found extensive and previously undescribed hybridization among 9 species of leuciscid minnow.
Her work in the lab as an undergraduate, done for her undergrad thesis and a summer research project, focused on identifying a genetic basis for sex determination in Creek Chub. This research was published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.