Prof. Dr. Christina Warinner has been awarded a 5-year research grant by the European Research Council to investigate the rise of dairy pastoralism in Mongolia and the role of the microbiome in milk digestion. Her project, “Cultures of dairying: gene-culture-microbiome evolution and the ancient invention of dairy foods (DAIRYCULTURES),” will combine ethnography, archaeology, genetics, and proteomics to better understand how human manipulation of microbes contributes to dietary resilience and adaptation to novel environments.