North America’s Ancient Past: A Personal Journey                                                      

Dr. Sarah Anzick, molecular biologist

“How can something invisible to the naked eye have such a profound impact on humanity?  DNA, life’s instruction manual, has fascinated me since I began working in a research lab early in my career, in the mid-1980s.  I will talk about my educational background/training and how it contributed to understanding the genetic legacy of the Clovis child.  I hope my story will inspire you to discover the wonderful world of science.”

Dr. Sarah Anzick grew up in Livingston, Montana, and received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Carroll College in Helena, MT, in 1988.  Her research career began with undergraduate internships in the summers of 1986 and 1987 at the Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) in New Mexico.  She received a M.S. degree in Medical Sciences from the University of New Mexico in 1992.  In 1994, she moved to the National Center for Human Genome Research (currently the National Human Genome Research Institute) and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Oncology from George Washington University in 2000.  In 2006, she transferred to the National Cancer Institute where her work focused on the genomics of human breast and colorectal cancer.  She returned to her home state in 2010 to work at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  Here, Dr. Anzick utilizes state-of the art genomic-based applications for the study of allergic and infectious diseases.  Using her molecular biology background and in a more personal role, she participated in the ancient genome sequencing of one of America’s first indigenous people, a 12,600-year-old Clovis boy found in Western Montana.