Researchers sequenced DNA from nearly 200 modern Indigenous groups in the Americas, including the Quechua, who live in the Andes. The study, conducted by the Indigenous American Genomic Diversity Project, found that humans migrated to South America in three distinct waves over thousands of years. The researchers also found that genes related to fertility, metabolism and immune response helped people adapt to their unique environment in the "final frontier" of human migration. The research also revealed traces of an ancient Asian population that contributed genes to both Indigenous Americans and those living in the subregion of Oceania. The project nearly tripled the number of Indigenous genomes it has sequenced.