DNA Detectives Trace Ancient Travels

The best universities immerse their students in the science driving today's greatest discoveries. Just ask junior Julia Ingall, whose work at the UA's Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory adds cutting-edge experiential learning to standard pre-med coursework. Ingall extracts, copies and analyzes DNA as part of the UA team providing testing for all the world's public participants in National Geographic and IBM's Genographic Project. The five-year study will examine hundreds of thousands of genetic samples to trace humanity's ancient migratory history. So even as Ingall expands her own horizons, she's helping to open a much broader vista: unraveling the secrets of human journeys beginning some 60,000 years ago.