Arati Iyengar

Specialties: Research/Graduate Faculty, Forensic Genetics and Population Genetics

Dr. Iyengar joined the faculty of the Department of Forensic & Investigative Science in West Virginia University in Fall 2021. She earned her PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Southampton (UK) and then conducted extensive post-doctoral research in cancer genetics and conservation genetics in the UK and Germany. Her expertise in analyzing low quality, non-invasive, and ancient DNA samples for conservation genetics projects helped launch her career in forensic genetics in 2005 when she secured her first faculty position within a large forensic science department at a British university. She taught forensic and conservation genetics to undergraduate and graduate students at this university until 2017 after which she moved 'across the pond' to the USA. Before joining WVU in 'wild and wonderful' West Virginia, she taught forensic biology to graduate students at the University at Albany, SUNY for a couple of years. Dr. Iyengar's current research projects include optimizing collection and extraction methods for low-template DNA samples and developing extraction methods for multiple analytes (DNA, RNA, proteins) from trace biological samples. In addition to Research & Scholarship Advancement awards from WVU, Dr. Iyengar has received major funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) for her research.