FELIX Project

ers in the Levant. This unique relationship with humans and their adaptability led cats to disperse globally from the Near East and Egypt, following routes of human trades and connectivity. The FELIX project aims to investigate the biological characteristics that could explain the evolutionary success of cats and the development of human-cat interactions through a multidisciplinary study that ranges from paleogenetics to organic chemistry and microscopy. FELIX will delve deeply into the past of the cat-human relationship by addressing three variables strongly influenced by the domestication process: genetic variation across time (genomes), nutritional behavior (food) and pathogenic infections (microorganisms).