Aleksandra Žegarac

Aleksandra Žegarac is research associate at the BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad. Her field of interest is paleogenetics – analysis of ancient DNA from skeletal remains to gain information about past human migrations, population and social structure. Her interest also includes studying interactions and coevolution between humans and microorganisms.

Aleksandra Žegarac graduated in Molecular biology and physiology in 2012 at University of Belgrade. Her main interest in paleogenetics resulted in gaining an additional master diploma in Archeological Material Science (ARCHMAT – Erasmus Mundus joint degree of University of Evora, Aristotle University in Thessaloniki and Sapienza University in Rome). She received her PhD in 2023 at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, with dissertation on ancient DNA analysis of skeletal remains from Bronze Age Mokrin necropils.

As a research assistant at the Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, she was a part of several projects: “Bioarheology of ancient Europe – people, animals, and plants in Serbian prehistory”, BIRTH (“Births, mothers and babies: Prehistoric fertility in the Balkans between 10000-5000 cal BC”), FEMFERT (“The first increase of female fertility: genomics of Neolithic demographic transition”) and EvolEdge project (“Evolving on the edge: assessing the genomic impact of ancient human expansions”). Aleksandra received two grants for PhD students, financed by Wenner-Gren Foundation and DAAD foundation which enabled research on project “Kinship, Status and Social inequality in the Early Bronze Age of Southeastern Europe: The Case of Mokrin Necropolis” at the Paleogenetics lab of “Johannes Gutenberg” University of Mainz in Germany.