Dr Weyrich obtained a PhD from The Pennsylvania State University in 2012 and began a post-doctoral research appointment at the University of Adelaide, in the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
Using her medical expertise, she helped establish calcified dental plaque (calculus) as the only fossil record of human microbiome in existence, and linked ancient and historic changes in human microbial communities to large shifts in health and disease.
In 2015, Dr Weyrich obtained a prestigious Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship, aimed at reconstructing the diversity of human microbiota around the world, including working with Indigenous people to reconstruct the microbiota from their ancestors. She became the first person to reconstruct a microbiome from an extinct species, Neandertals, and has reassembled the oldest microbial genome to date—at 48,000 years old.
In 2018, she was again recognised for her work on human oral microbiomes when she received an ARC Future Fellowship to investigate how industrialisation affected our microbes and health in the past and today.
As an Associate Professor at Penn State, she now directs the Penn State Ancient Biomolecules Research Environment (PSABRE)—one of the largest ancient DNA labs in North America—and leads a research team focused on understanding how and why microbial communities change over time in the human body and the environment.
She has received over $5 million in research funding, 21 awards for research excellence, and given over 50 guest lectures on the topic. Her research has been featured by the BBC, NPR, Science, Nature, New Scientist, NY Times, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, and many others, and has been highlighted on Catalyst and a SBS documentary entitled 'Life on Us'. She has even had a Buzz Feed quiz written about her research. Her commitment to understanding how beneficial, friendly microorganisms contribute to disease, and how they shape the world around us, is changing how we view the human health today.