Dr Justyna Miszkiewicz
Areas of expertise
- Biological (Physical) Anthropology 160102
- Biological Adaptation 060303
Research interests
Conceptually, I want to understand human biology in a social framework. Humans today have extremely fragile bone. Outside of genetics, this poor bone quality is determined by a series of environmental and social factors. I study these in past populations to better understand skeletal plasticity in different contexts so that we can predict and improve human bone health in the future. Technically, I study the micro-anatomy and cell structures of bones and teeth both in humans and animal models to reconstruct the underlying skeletal metabolism and growth dynamics. My chief interest is the relationship between skeletal physiology and behaviour.
Biography
2020-ongoing: Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, ANU
2019-2022: DECRA Fellow, ANU
2019-ongoing: Treasurer, Australasian Society for Human Biology
2016-ongoing: Hard Tissue Histology Group leader, ANU
2016-2019: Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, ANU
2016-ongoing: Honorary Research Associate, University of Kent, UK
2015-2016: Research Assistant, Williams and Bassett Molecular Endocrinology Group, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, UK
2014: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK
2014: Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Kent, UK
2014: Fixed-term Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, University of Kent, UK
2014: PhD Biological Anthropology, Mahoney Group, University of Kent, UK
2012-2014: Osteologist, Kent Osteological Research and Analysis, UK
2010-2013: Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Kent, UK
2010: Bachelor of Science 1st Class Hons, University of Kent, UK
2009-2012: Assistant Osteologist, Kent Osteological Research and Analysis, UK
2008-2013: Laboratory Demonstrator, University of Kent, UK
Researcher's projects
Grants > $100k Principal Investigator:
- Ancient bone metabolism change with lifestyle in Asia-Pacific ARC DECRA 2019-2022, $381,210 AUD (DE190100068)
- Microscopy of the primate skeleton ANU Major Equipment Grant 2018 $135,000 AUD (18MEC26)
Associate investigator:
- The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: A Biocultural investigation of 19th century Frontier mining cemeteries in Australia, New Zealand and California NZ Marsden Fund 2019-2022 $827,000 NZD (18-UOO-028), PI: Prof HR Buckley, University of Otago
Available student projects
I am happy to mentor research students who are interested in learning how microscopic analyses of bones and teeth inform about human and non-human animal behaviour in the past and present.
Current student projects
Masters/ Honours
2021 Lauren Richards (Masters) Bone health and social inequality
PhD Chair
2018 Madeleine Green Hominin fossil histology and behaviour
2018 Karen Cooke Histopathology of treponemal disease in ancient humans
2018 Tahlia Stewart Effect of different dietary regimes on human bone physiology
2017 Chelsea Morgan Sex and gender in bioarchaeology
Supervisory panel member:
2019 Pau Basilia (PhD) Insular dwarfism in SEA Stegodon sp. fossils (Griffith University)
2019 Madeleine Fleming (MPhil) Trabecular parameters and T2 Diabetic fractures? (JCSMR)
2017 Lauren Meckel (PhD) Health of Irish Famine victims (University of Otago)
2016 Nicole Macfarlane (PhD) The effects of differing water types on the decomposition of bone in aquatic contexts (ANU)
See all here
Past student projects
2019 Nathalia Dias Guimaraes (Masters) Human palaeohistology at Santana Do Riacho
2019 Hannah Miles (Masters) Osteocyte lacunae morphology in medieval human bone
2019 Meg Walker (Masters) Ancient human behaviour and ancestry in Holocene Vietnam
2019 Kate Phillips (Masters) Sex, age, physical activity and bone maintenance and loss
2019 Sarah Robertson (PhD) Cribra orbitalia at Christ Church Spitalfields via micro-CT
2018 Tara Mann (Honours) Tibia vara and obesity
2018 Diana Tieppo (Masters) Sex-specific variation in bone microstructure of femur
2018 Danielle Rosenquist (Masters) Remodelling in hand and foot phalanges
2017 Coco James (Masters) Femoral muscle markings and endosteal cortex remodelling
2017 Stephanie Robinson (Masters) Chalcolithic Wedge Tombs and an Iron Age Burial
2017 Bronwyn Wyatt (Masters) Health and disease in prehistoric Indonesia
2017 Claire Rider (Masters) Hip joint pathology and lower limb skeletal adaptation
2016 Natasha Langley (Masters) The effects of experimental burning on Sus scrofa enamel
2016 Ashley Bridge (Masters) Stature in forensics using Australian anthropometric data
2014 Rosie Pitfield (Masters) Histomorphometry in the human humerus during ontogeny (co-supervisor, University of Kent)
See all here
Publications
- Mahoney P, McFarlane G, Pitfield R, O'Hara M, Miszkiewicz JJ, Deter C, Seal H, Guatelli-Steinberg D. 2020. A structural biorhythm related to human sexual dimorphism. Journal of Structural Biology 211, 1-9.
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Louys J, Beck R, Mahoney P, Aplin K, O'Connor S. 2020. Island rule and bone metabolism in fossil murines from Timor. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 129 (3), 570-586.
- Bridge A, Oxenham M, Miszkiewicz JJ. 2020. Estimating stature using human forearm and leg anthropometric data in an Australian female sample. Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences 52 (1): 83-95.
- Walker MM, Louys J, Herries AIR, Price GJ, Miszkiewicz JJ. 2020 in press. Humerus midshaft histology in a modern and fossil wombat. Australian Mammalogy
- Behie A, Miszkiewicz JJ. 2019. Enamel neonatal line thickness in deciduous teeth of Australian children from known maternal health and pregnancy conditions. Early Human Development, 137: 104821.
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Cooke K. 2019. Socio-economic Determinants of Bone Health from Past to Present. Clinical Reviews in Bone and Mineral Metabolism 17: 109–122.
- Wyatt B, Miszkiewicz J. 2019. Skeletal markers of health and disease in the Northern Moluccas, in Peter Bellwood (ed.), The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia, ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 201-209.
- Miszkiewicz J. 2019. How adapting to research setbacks can pave the way to greater outcomes. Nature doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-01916-x
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Louys J, O'Connor S. 2019. Micro-anatomical record of cortical bone remodeling and high vascularity in a fossil giant rat midshaft femur. The Anatomical Record 302(11): 1934-1940.
- Brennan-Olsen SL, Riancho JA, Miszkiewicz JJ. 2019. The Social Context of Bone Health: Conclusions and Future Directions, in: JJ Miszkiewicz, SL Brennan-Olsen, JA Riancho (eds.), Bone Health: A Reflection of the Social Mosaic, Springer Singapore, Singapore, pp. 171-175.
- Kinaston R, Willis A, Miszkiewicz JJ, Tromp M, Oxenham MF. 2019. The Dentition: Development, Disturbances, Disease, Diet, and Chemistry. In: Buikstra JE (ed) Ortner's Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remain, Academic Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 749-797.
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Brennan-Olsen SL, Riancho JA. eds. 2019 Bone Health: A Reflection of the Social Mosaic , Springer Nature Medicine: Singapore.
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Stewart TJ, Deter C, Fahy GE, Mahoney P. 2019. Skeletal Health in Medieval Societies: Insights from Ancient Bone Collagen Stable Isotopes and Dental Histology, in: JJ Miszkiewicz, SL Brennan-Olsen, JA Riancho (eds.) Bone Health: A Reflection of the Social Mosaic, Springer Singapore, Singapore, pp. 15-32.
- Miszkiewicz JJ. 2019. Medieval English Social Inequality and Bone Health: What Lessons are There to be Learnt for the Living?, in: JJ Miszkiewicz, SL Brennan-Olsen, JA Riancho (eds.), Bone Health: A Reflection of the Social Mosaic, Springer Singapore, Singapore, pp. 1-13.
- Walker MM, Street E, Pitfield R, Miszkiewicz JJ, Brennan-Olsen SL, Mahoney P. 2019. Ancient Human Bone Microstructure Case Studies from Medieval England, in: JJ Miszkiewicz, SL Brennan-Olsen, JA Riancho (eds.) Bone Health: A Reflection of the Social Mosaic, Springer Singapore, Singapore, pp. 33-50.
- Pitfield R, Miszkiewicz JJ, Mahoney P. 2019. Microscopic markers of an infradian biorhythm in human juvenile ribs. Bone 120: 403-410.
- Dempsey N, Gilbert F, Miszkiewicz JJ, Oxenham M. 2019. Biomechanical analysis of controlled tibial blunt force trauma. Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences 51(5): 538-548.
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Mahoney P. 2019. Histomorphometry and cortical robusticity of the adult human femur. Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism 37(1): 90-104.
- Mahoney P, Miszkiewicz JJ, Chapple S, Le Luyer M, Schlecht SH, Stewart TJ, Griffiths RA, Deter C, Guatelli-Steinberg D. 2018. The biorhythm of human skeletal growth. Journal of Anatomy 232(1):26-38.
- Fahy G, Deter C, Pitfield R, Miszkiewicz JJ, Mahoney P. 2017. Bone deep: Variation in stable isotope ratios and histomorphometric measurements of bone remodelling within adult humans. Journal of Archaeological Science 87: 10-16.
- Pitfield R, Miszkiewicz JJ, Mahoney P. 2017. Cortical histomorphometry of the human humerus during ontogeny. Calcified Tissue International 101(2), 148-158
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Mahoney P. 2017. Human bone and dental histology in an archaeological context. In: Thompson T, Errickson D (eds) Human Remains: Another Dimension, Academic Press - Elsevier, US, pp. 29-43.
- Mahoney P, Miszkiewicz JJ, Pitfield R, Deter CA, Guatelli-Steinberg D. 2017. Enamel biorhythms of humans and great apes: the Havers-Halberg Oscillation hypothesis reconsidered. Journal of Anatomy 230: 272-281.
- Mahoney P, Miszkiewicz JJ, Pitfield R,Schlecht SH, Deter C, Guatelli-Steinberg D. 2016. Biorhythms, deciduous enamel thickness, and primary bone growth: A test of the Havers-Halberg Oscillation hypothesis. Journal of Anatomy 228(6): 919-928.
- Mahoney P, Schmidt C, Deter C, Slavin P, Johns SE, Miszkiewicz JJ, Nystrom P. 2016. Deciduous enamel 3D microwear texture analysis as an indicator of childhood diet in medieval Canterbury, England. Journal of Archaeological Science 66: 128-136.
- Miszkiewicz JJ, Mahoney P. 2016. Ancient human bone microstructure in Medieval England: Comparisons between two socio-economic groups. The Anatomical Record 299(1): 42-59.
- Miszkiewicz JJ. 2016. Investigating histomorphometric relationships at the human femoral midshaft in a biomechanical context. Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism 34: 179-92.
- Mahoney P, Miszkiewicz J. 2015. Formation times in thermally altered enamel. In: Schmidt CW, Symes SA (eds) The Analysis of Burned Human Remains, Academic Press, Amsterdam, pp. 355-363.
- Miszkiewicz JJ. 2015b. Histology of a Harris line in a human distal tibia. Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism 33(4): 462-466.
- Miszkiewicz JJ. 2015a. Linear enamel hypoplasia and age-at-death at Medieval (11th-16th Centuries) St. Gregory's Priory and Cemetery, Canterbury, UK. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 25(1): 79-87.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Bone metabolism change with lifestyle in ancient Asia-Pacific populations (Primary Investigator)
