My lab uses molecular tools–genomics, metagenomics, and proteomics–to answer anthropological questions. 

Molecular primatology

• Primate adaptation to changing and hostile environments
• Population genomics of free-ranging primates
• Primate gut microbial ecology

Anthropology of fermented and preserved foods

• Microbial ecology of food fermentation
• Biocultural interaction of humans and the foods we produce

Development of new methods for non-invasive molecular ecology

• fecalFACS
• Scat detection dogs

Orkin JD, Montague MJ, Tejada-Martinez D, de Manuel M, [18 others], Melin AD. 2021. The genomics of ecological flexibility, large brains, and long lives in capuchin monkeys revealed with fecalFACS. PNAS. 118(7): e2010632118.

Orkin JD¹, Kuderna LFK¹, Marques-Bonet T. 2021. The diversity of primates: from biomedicine to conservation genomics. Annual Reviews of Animal Biosciences. 9: 103-124.

Flachs A and Orkin JD. 2021. On pickles: Biological and sociocultural links between fermented foods and the human gut microbiome. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 17 (39).

Orkin JD, Campos FA, Myers MS, Cheves Hernandez SE, Guadumez A, Melin AD. 2019. Seasonality of the gut microbiota of free ranging white-faced capuchins in a tropical dry forest. The ISME Journal. 13: 183-196.

Orkin JD¹, Webb SE¹, Melin AD. 2019. Modest to small impact of social group on the gut microbiome of wild Costa Rican capuchins in a seasonal forest. American Journal of Primatology. e22985.

Orkin JD, Yang YM, Yang CY, Yu DW, Jiang XL. 2016. Cost-effective scat-detection dogs: unleashing a powerful new tool for international mammalian conservation biology. Scientific Reports. 6(34758): 1-10.

Orkin JD and Pontzer H. 2011. The narrow niche hypothesis: gray squirrels shed new light on primate origins. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 144: 617-624.