Dr. Victoria Mullin

Assistant Professor in Biodiversity Geno, Zoology

Biography

Dr Victoria Mullin is a genomicist whose research focuses on sequencing and analysing genomes from museum, archaeological, paleontological and contemporary populations to explore and understand past population dynamics.

She began her career studying Biology, graduating from Royal Holloway University of London (2011). It was during her undergraduate studies where she was introduced to the research field of ancient DNA and furthered this during her masters at Royal Holloway (2012). Her PhD in ancient domestic genomics at Trinity College Dublin (2017) utilised cutting-edge techniques to sequence and analyse time series of cattle and sheep genomes, solidifying her interest in ancient genomics and domestication.

Her postdoctoral research began at the Natural History Museum working on a NERC funded project sequencing genomes of bumblebees to identify genomic changes over the last century (2017-2020). She returned to Trinity College Dublin with an IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (Milking the past: Tracing the genomic origins of dairy cattle) to focus on cattle selection over time in North West Europe (2020-2022) and furthered her cattle research in Postdoctoral research position on the ERC funded project Ancestral Weave (2022-2026).

Victoria joined Zoology in 2026 as an Assistant Professor furthering her research in domestication, as well as broadening her research in wild species.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Frantz L.A, Mullin V.E, Pionnier-Capitan M, Lebrasseur O, Ollivier M, Perri A, Linderholm A, Mattiangeli V, Teasdale M.D, Dimopoulos E.A, Tresset A, Duffraisse M, McCormick F, Bartosiewicz L, GÃ¡l E, Nyerges Ã A, Sablin M.V, BrÃ©hard S, Mashkour M, BÄ lÄ Å escu A, Gillet B, Hughes S, Chassaing O, Hitte C, Vigne J.-D, Dobney K, HÃ€nni C, Bradley D.G, Larson G, Genomic and archaeological evidence suggest a dual origin of domestic dogs, Science (New York, N.Y.), 352, (6290), 2016, p1228 - 1231Journal Article, 2016, DOI , URL
Daly, K.G. and Delser, P.M. and Mullin, V.E. and Scheu, A. and Mattiangeli, V. and Teasdale, M.D. and Hare, A.J. and Burger, J. and Verdugo, M.P. and Collins, M.J. and Kehati, R. and Erek, C.M. and Bar-Oz, G. and Pompanon, F. and Cumer, T. and Ã akÄ±rlar, C. and Mohaseb, A.F. and Decruyenaere, D. and Davoudi, H. and Ã evik, Ã-. and Rollefson, G. and Vigne, J.-D. and Khazaeli, R. and Fathi, H. and Doost, S.B. and Sorkhani, R.R. and Vahdati, A.A. and Sauer, E.W. and Kharanaghi, H.A. and Maziar, S. and Gasparian, B. and Pinhasi, R. and Martin, L. and Orton, D. and Arbuckle, B.S. and Benecke, N. and Manica, A. and Horwitz, L.K. and Mashkour, M. and Bradley, D.G., Ancient goat genomes reveal mosaic domestication in the Fertile Crescent, Science, 361, (6397), 2018, p85-88Journal Article, 2018, DOI , URL
Frantz, L.A.F. and Haile, J. and Lin, A.T. and Scheu, A. and GeÃ¶rg, C. and Benecke, N. and Alexander, M. and Linderholm, A. and Mullin, V.E. and Daly, K.G. and Battista, V.M. and Price, M. and Gron, K.J. and Alexandri, P. and Arbogast, R.-M. and Arbuckle, B. and BÇ lÇ Å escu, A. and Barnett, R. and Bartosiewicz, L. and Baryshnikov, G. and Bonsall, C. and BoriÄ , D. and BoroneanÅ£, A. and BulatoviÄ , J. and Ã akirlar, C. and Carretero, J.-M. and Chapman, J. and Church, M. and Crooijmans, R. and De Cupere, B. and Detry, C. and Dimitrijevic, V. and DumitraÅ cu, V. and Du Plessis, L. and Edwards, C.J. and Erek, C.M. and Erim-Ã-zdoÇ§an, A. and Ervynck, A. and Fulgione, D. and Gligor, M. and GÃ¶therstrÃ¶m, A. and Gourichon, L. and Groenen, M.A.M. and Helmer, D. and Hongo, H. and Horwitz, L.K. and Irving-Pease, E.K. and Lebrasseur, O. and Lesur, J. and Malone, C. and Manaseryan, N. and Marciniak, A. and Martlew, H. and Mashkour, M. and Matthews, R. and Matuzeviciute, G.M. and Maziar, S. and Meijaard, E. and McGovern, T. and Megens, H.-J. and Miller, R. and Mohaseb, A.F. and Orschiedt, J. and Orton, D. and Papathanasiou, A. and Pearson, M.P. and Pinhasi, R. and RadmanoviÄ , D. and Ricaut, F.-X. and Richards, M. and Sabin, R. and Sarti, L. and Schier, W. and Sheikhi, S. and Stephan, E. and Stewart, J.R. and Stoddart, S. and Tagliacozzo, A. and TasiÄ , N. and Trantalidou, K. and Tresset, A. and Valdiosera, C. and Van Den Hurk, Y. and Van Poucke, S. and Vigne, J.-D. and Yanevich, A. and Zeeb-Lanz, A. and Triantafyllidis, A. and Gilbert, M.T.P. and Schibler, J. and Rowley-Conwy, P. and Zeder, M. and Peters, J. and Cucchi, T. and Bradley, D.G. and Dobney, K. and Burger, J. and Evin, A. and Girdland-Flink, L. and Larson, G., Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116, (35), 2019, p17231-17238Journal Article, 2019, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
Verdugo MP, Mullin VE, Scheu A, Mattiangeli V, Daly KG, Maisano Delser P, Hare AJ, Burger J, Collins MJ, Kehati R, Hesse P, Fulton D, Sauer EW, Mohaseb FA, Davoudi H, Khazaeli R, Lhuillier J, Rapin C, Ebrahimi S, Khasanov M, Vahidi SMF, MacHugh DE, Ertu?rul O, Koukouli-Chrysanthaki C, Sampson A, Kazantzis G, Kontopoulos I, Bulatovic J, Stojanovi? I, Mikdad A, Benecke N, Linstädter J, Sablin M, Bendrey R, Gourichon L, Arbuckle BS, Mashkour M, Orton D, Horwitz LK, Teasdale MD, Bradley DG., Ancient cattle genomics, origins, and rapid turnover in the Fertile Crescent, Science, 2019Journal Article, 2019
Kevin G. Daly, Victoria E. Mullin, Andrew J. Hare, Áine Halpin, Valeria Mattiangeli, Matthew D. Teasdale, Conor Rossi, Sheila Geiger, Stefan Krebs, Ivica Medugorac, Edson Sandoval-Castellanos, Mihriban Özbasaran, Günes Duru, Sevil Gülcür, Nadja Pöllath, Matthew Collins, Laurent Frantz, Emmanuelle Vila, Peter Zidarov, Simon Stoddart, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Ludovic Orlando, Mike Parker Pearson, Jacqui Mullville, Igor V. Askeyev, Arthur O. Askeyev, Oleg V. Askeyev, Dilyara N. Shaymuratova, Youri Van den Hurk, Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Rose-Marie Arbogast, Helmut Hemmer, Hossein Davoudi, Sarieh Amiri, Sanaz Beizaee Doost, Delphine Decruyenaere, Homa Fathi, Roya Khazaeli, Yousef Hassanzadeh, Alireza Sardari, Johanna Lhuillier, Mostafa Abdolahi, Geoffrey D. Summers, Catherine Marro, Veli Bahshaliyev, Rémi Berthon, Canan Çakirlar, Norbert Benecke, Amelie Scheu, Joachim Burger, Eberhard Sauer, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Benjamin Arbuckle, Hijlke Buitenhuis, Lionel Gourichon, Jelena Bulatovic, Terry O'Connor, David Orton, Mindia Jalabadze, Stephen Rhodes, Michael Chazan, Vecihi Özkaya, Melinda Zeder, Levent Atici, Marjan Mashkour, Joris Peters, Daniel G. Bradley, Ancient genomics and the origin, dispersal, and development of domestic sheep, Science, 2025Journal Article, 2025, URL , TARA - Full Text
Rossi C, Sinding MS, Mullin VE, Scheu A, Erven JAM, Verdugo MP, Daly KG, Ciucani MM, Mattiangeli V, Teasdale MD, Diquelou D, Manin A, Bangsgaard P, Collins M, Lord TC, Zeibert V, Zorzin R, Vinter M, Timmons Z, Kitchener AC, Street M, Haruda AF, Tabbada K, Larson G, Frantz LAF, Gehlen B, Alhaique F, Tagliacozzo A, Fornasiero M, Pandolfi L, Karastoyanova N, Sørensen L, Kiryushin K, Ekström J, Mostadius M, Grandal-d'Anglade A, Vidal-Gorosquieta A, Benecke N, Kropp C, Grushin SP, Gilbert MTP, Merts I, Merts V, Outram AK, Rosengren E, Kosintsev P, Sablin M, Tishkin AA, Makarewicz CA, Burger J, Bradley DG., The genomic natural history of the aurochs., Nature, 635, (8037), 2024, p136-141Journal Article, 2024, DOI , TARA - Full Text
Edson Sandoval"Castellanos, Andrew J. Hare, Audrey T. Lin, Evangelos A. Dimopoulos, Kevin G. Daly, S. Geiger, Victoria E. Mullin, Ingrid Wiechmann, Valeria Mattiangeli, Gesine Lühken, N. A. Zinovieva, Pet"r Zidarov, Canan Çak"rlar, Simon Stoddart, David Orton, Jelena Bulatovi", Marjan Mashkour, Eberhard Sauer, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Barbara Horejs, Levent At"c", Vecihi Özkaya, Jacqui Mullville, Mike Parker Pearson, Ingrid Mainland, Nick Card, Lisa Brown, Niall Sharples, David Griffiths, David Y. Allen, Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Jordan T. Abell, Güne" Duru, Susan M. Mentzer, Natalie D. Munro, Melis Üzdürüm, Sevil Gülçur, Hijlke Buitenhuis, ". ". """"""", Mary C. Stiner, Nadja Pöllath, Mihriban Özba"aran, Stefan Krebs, Joachim Bürger, Laurent Frantz, Ivica Me"ugorac, Daniel G. Bradley, Joris Peters, Ancient mitogenomes from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Central Anatolia and the effects of a Late Neolithic bottleneck in sheep ( Ovis aries ), Science Advances, 10, (15), 2024, peadj0954 - eadj0954, peadj0954-eadj0954Journal Article, 2024, DOI
Anna Spyrou, Andreas C. Dimitriou, Valeria Mattiangeli, Deborah Diquelou, Daniel G. Bradley, Victoria E. Mullin, Georgia Hadjipavlou, A multidisciplinary framework for adding value to the indigenous cattle breed of Cyprus, Genetic Resources, 7, (13), 2026, p118 - 128, p118-128Journal Article, 2026, DOI
Charllotte Blacka, Clare Rainsford, Ciarán G. O'Connor, Victoria E. Mullin, Daniel G. Bradley, Peter Halkon, Jackie A. Mosely, Kirsty Penkman, Jessica Hendy, Integration of age-at-death and novel peptide sex estimation reveals cattle culling practices at Yorkshire Iron Age shrine site, Journal of Archaeological Science, 190, 2026, p106575 - 106575, p106575-106575Journal Article, 2026, DOI
Kuldeep D. More, Petra Raji" Šikanji", Marcel Buri", Tajana Trbojevi" Vuki"evi", Nadir Álvarez, Jean"Christophe Castel, Myriam Boudadi"Maligne, Bastiaan Star, Julian Post-Melbye, Christian Løchsen Rødsrud, David W. G. Stanton, Sophy Charlton, Victoria E. Mullin, Kevin G. Daly, Nohemi Sala Burgos, Adrián Pablos, Love Dalén, Daniel G. Bradley, Laurent Frantz, Greger Larson, Ludovic Orlando, Ophélie Lebrasseur, Jaime Lira Garrido, Andaine Seguin"Orlando, Emmanuel Discamps, Oscar Estrada, Laure Tonasso"Calvière, Loreleï Chauvey, Gaétan Tressières, Stéphanie Schiavinato, Morgane Gibert, Horacio Padula, Horacio Chiavazza, Pablo Marcelo Fernández, Nicolás Guardia, Caroline Borges, Stéphane Bertani, Juan Contreras"Mancilla, Diana Allccarima"Crisóstomo, Miguel Fhon, Éric Barrey, Léa Charliquart, Émilie Robbe, Thibault de Noblet, Rinat Zhumatayev, Samat Shakenov, Emmanuelle Vila, Rémi Berthon, Marjan Mashkour, Roya Khazaeli, A. Nikgoftar, Ali A. Vahdati, ". ". """""""", Jean"Luc Houle, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Jaros"aw Wilczy"ski, Magdalena Moskal"del Hoyo, Marek Nowak, William Taylor, Adrian B"l""escu, Roxana Dobrescu, Norbert Benecke, Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Sharon R. Steadman, Gregory McMahon, Validating a Target"Enrichment Design for Capturing Uniparental Haplotypes in Ancient Domesticated Animals, Molecular Ecology Resources, 25, (7), 2025, pe14112 - e14112, pe14112-e14112Journal Article, 2025, DOI
Pablo Librado, Gaétan Tressières, Loreleï Chauvey, Antoine Fages, Naveed Ahmed Khan, Stéphanie Schiavinato, Laure Tonasso"Calvière, Mariya A. Kusliy, Charleen Gaunitz, Xuexue Liu, Stefanie Wagner, Clio Der Sarkissian, Andaine Seguin"Orlando, Aude Perdereau, Jean"Marc Aury, John Southon, Beth Shapiro, Olivier Bouchez, Cécile Donnadieu, Yvette Running Horse Collin, Kristian Murphy Gregersen, Mads Dengsø Jessen, Kirsten M. Christensen, Lone Claudi-Hansen, Mélanie Pruvost, Erich Pucher, Hrvoje Vuli", Mario Novak, Andrea Rimpf, Peter Turk, Simone Frizell Reiter, ". """", Christoph Schwall, Éric Barrey, Céline Robert, Christophe Degueurce, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Lutz Klassen, Uffe Lind Rasmussen, Jacob Kveiborg, Niels Nørkjær Johannsen, Daniel Makowiecki, Przemys"aw Makarowicz, Marcin Szeliga, Vasyl Ilchyshyn, Vitalii Rud, Jan Romaniszyn, Victoria E. Mullin, Marta Pereira Verdugo, Daniel G. Bradley, João Luís Cardoso, Maria João Valente, Miguel Telles Antunes, Carly Ameen, Richard M. Thomas, Arne Ludwig, Matilde Marzullo, Ornella Prato, Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni, U. Tecchiati, José Granado, Angela Schlumbaum, Sabine Deschler-Erb, Monika Schernig Mráz, Nicolas Boulbes, Armelle Gardeisen, Christian Mayer, Hans-Jürgen Döhle, Magdolna Vicze, ". ". """""""", René Kyselý, Lubomír Peške, Terry O"Connor, Elina Ananyevskaya, Irin" Shevnina, Andrey Logvin, Alexey Kovalev, Tumur-Ochir Iderkhangai, Mikhail Sablin, P. K. Dashkovskiy, Alexander S. Graphodatsky, I. Merts, """""" """", Aleksei Kasparov, Vladimir V. Pitulko, Vedat Onar, Aliye Öztan, Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Hugh McColl, Gabriel Renaud, Ruslan Khaskhanov, Sergey Demidenko, Anna Kadieva, Biyaslan Atabiev, Marie Sundqvist, Gabriella Lindgren, F. Javier López-Cachero, Silvia Albizuri, Tajana Trbojevi" Vuki"evi", Anita Rapan Papeša, Widespread horse-based mobility arose around 2200 bce in Eurasia, Nature, 631, (8022), 2024, p819 - 825, p819-825Journal Article, 2024, DOI
Ioannis Kontopoulos, Kirsty Penkman, Victoria E. Mullin, Laura Winkelbach, Martina Unterländer, Amelie Scheu, Susanne Kreutzer, Henrik B. Hansen, Ashot Margaryan, Matthew D. Teasdale, Birgit Gehlen, Martin Street, Niels Lynnerup, Ioannis Liritzis, """""""""" """""", Christina Papageorgopoulou, Morten E. Allentoft, Joachim Bürger, Daniel G. Bradley, Matthew J. Collins, Screening archaeological bone for palaeogenetic and palaeoproteomic studies, PLoS ONE, 15, (6), 2020, pe0235146 - e0235146, pe0235146-e0235146Journal Article, 2020, DOI
Jolijn A. M. Erven, Amelie Scheu, Marta Pereira Verdugo, Lara M. Cassidy, Ningbo Chen, Birgit Gehlen, Martin Street, Ole Madsen, Victoria E. Mullin, A High-Coverage Mesolithic Aurochs Genome and Effective Leveraging of Ancient Cattle Genomes Using Whole Genome Imputation, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 41, (5), 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI
Mullin, Victoria E. and Stephen, William and Arce, Andres N. and Nash, Will and Raine, Calum and Notton, David G. and Whiffin, Ashleigh and Blagderov, Vladimir and Gharbi, Karim and Hogan, James and Hunter, Tony and Irish, Naomi and Jackson, Simon and Judd, Steve and Watkins, Chris and Haerty, Wilfried and Ollerton, Jeff and Brace, Selina and Gill, Richard J. and Barnes, Ian, First largeâ scale quantification study of DNA preservation in insects from natural history collections using genomeâ wide sequencing, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 14, (2), 2022, p360â"371Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
Arce, Andres N. and Cantwellâ Jones, Aoife and Tansley, Michael and Barnes, Ian and Brace, Selina and Mullin, Victoria E. and Notton, David and Ollerton, Jeff and Eatough, Emma and Rhodes, Marcus W. and Bian, Xueni and Hogan, James and Hunter, Tony and Jackson, Simon and Whiffin, Ashleigh and Blagoderov, Vladimir and Broad, Gavin and Judd, Steve and Kokkini, Phaedra and Livermore, Laurence and Dixit, Mahika K. and Pearse, William D. and Gill, Richard J., Signatures of increasing environmental stress in bumblebee wings over the past century: Insights from museum specimens, Journal of Animal Ecology, 92, (2), 2022, p297â"309Journal Article, 2022, DOI , URL
Chen, Ningbo and Ren, Lele and Du, Linyao and Hou, Jiawen and Mullin, Victoria E. and Wu, Duo and Zhao, Xueye and Li, Chunmei and Huang, Jiahui and Qi, Xuebin and Capodiferro, Marco Rosario and Achilli, Alessandro and Lei, Chuzhao and Chen, Fahu and Su, Bing and Dong, Guanghui and Zhang, Xiaoming, Ancient genomes reveal tropical bovid species in the Tibetan Plateau contributed to the prevalence of hunting game until the late Neolithic, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, (45), 2020, p28150â"28159Journal Article, 2020, DOI , URL
Scott, Michael F. and BotiguÃ©, Laura R. and Brace, Selina and Stevens, Chris J. and Mullin, Victoria E. and Stevenson, Alice and Thomas, Mark G. and Fuller, Dorian Q. and Mott, Richard, A 3,000-year-old Egyptian emmer wheat genome reveals dispersal and domestication history, Nature Plants, 5, (11), 2019, p1120â"1128Journal Article, 2019, DOI , URL
Turvey, Samuel T. and Hansford, James and Brace, Selina and Mullin, Victoria and Gu, Shengxiao and Sun, Guoping, Holocene range collapse of giant muntjacs and pseudoâ endemism in the Annamite large mammal fauna, Journal of Biogeography, 43, (11), 2016, p2250â"2260Journal Article, 2016, DOI , URL
Welker, Frido and Collins, Matthew J. and Thomas, Jessica A. and Wadsley, Marc and Brace, Selina and Cappellini, Enrico and Turvey, Samuel T. and Reguero, Marcelo and Gelfo, Javier N. and Kramarz, Alejandro and Burger, Joachim and Thomas-Oates, Jane and Ashford, David A. and Ashton, Peter D. and Rowsell, Keri and Porter, Duncan M. and Kessler, Benedikt and Fischer, Roman and Baessmann, Carsten and Kaspar, Stephanie and Olsen, Jesper V. and Kiley, Patrick and Elliott, James A. and Kelstrup, Christian D. and Mullin, Victoria and Hofreiter, Michael and Willerslev, Eske and Hublin, Jean-Jacques and Orlando, Ludovic and Barnes, Ian and MacPhee, Ross D. E., Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwinâ s South American ungulates, Nature, 522, (7554), 2015, p81â"84Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
Erven Jolijn AM, Mattiangeli Valeria, Dreshaj Merita, Mullin Victoria E, Rossi Conor, Daly Kevin G, Jackson Iseult, Parker Pearson Mike, Bradley Daniel G, Frantz Laurent AF and others, Archaeogenomic insights into commensalism and regional variation in pig management in Neolithic northwest Europe, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122, (12), 2025, pe2410235122Journal Article, 2025

Research Expertise

Description

Victoria is at the forefront of ancient animal genomics, where her core research leverages spatiotemporal genomic datasets to resolve fundamental questions surrounding domestication, environmental change, population demography and selective breeding. Her track record in palaeogenomics includes co-leading the sequencing of the first ancient cattle and sheep datasets and the first domestic animal genome (a Neolithic dog from Newgrange, Ireland. Additionally, her work on historical insect genomics highlights the utility of museum collections in understanding ongoing species decline. Victoria has interests in innovative ancient DNA (aDNA) methodologies across both wet-lab molecular protocols and bioinformatic pipelines.