Discovering our ancestors

This paved the way for her to engage in ancient DNA studies.

During her studies overseas, she published a string of research papers that shed light on our human ancestors. Along with her international team, she helped to decode the genome of the then earliest modern human unearthed in Siberia, with the sample retrieved from a 45,000-year-old femur.

In the paper published in 2014 in the scientific journal Nature, they found that strands of Neanderthal DNA in the Siberian sample genome were on average 1.8-4.2 times longer than those found in present-day populations. The early modern human's genome helped scientists estimate the date of Neanderthal admixture to 50,000-60,000 years ago.

In June 2016, the geneticist was named as one of the 10 science stars in China by Nature, for her work in redrafting the history of Europe's earliest modern humans and her potential for making groundbreaking revelations pertaining to Asia's ancient past.

Earlier that year, Fu had returned to China and served as director of the Ancient DNA Laboratory of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

Her research provided important evidence about the formation and evolution of the Chinese nation.

Fu and her team have found the Austronesian islanders that populate the Taiwan Straits, Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific have very close connections with people who lived in the southern coastal areas of China during the Neolithic period.

"Fu's findings are of great scientific value and social significance," says Bai Chunli, honorary president of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Fu and her team have also mapped the dynamic genetic history of early populations in China over the past 40,000 years, proposing that the East Asian-specific adaptive gene, EDAR, appeared at least 19,000 years ago.

At the moment, one of Fu's focuses has been on human evolution combined with ancient microorganisms, especially pathological ones.

"Much information has been lost in the long process of evolution that is important to the human," Fu says.