Bioarchaeology and the Evolution of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from infection globally, and with the emergence of multidrug resistant strains and increasing inequality, it remains a significant public health threat. However, this situation has not arisen in isolation and nor is it recent - it has happened through thousands of years of interaction between Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) bacteria, humans, animals, and the environment. Recently, medical and clinical research has acknowledged the importance of these relationships and has argued that to prevent disease and poor health globally, interdisciplinary research is needed, or a One Health approach. Despite the emergence of this paradigm, there has been no significant engagement with archaeologists to track the long co-evolution of humans, animals and MTBC even though it is likely pivotal in dictating the diseases distribution, form and variation today.

This research takes a One Health approach to studying TB that includes past contexts that may be key in dictating its prevalence and distribution patterns today. Archaeological skeletons hold vital clues about the health and diseases of our ancestors. Genetic, proteomic (proteins), macro and microscopic, and geochemical data derived from well-contextualised archaeological skeletons have revolutionised our understanding of the past and disease processes. Furthermore, the development of a metabolomic approach (comprehensive statistical analysis of small molecules) for use on archaeological bone by the project PI in stage 1 of her FLF has significant potential to directly identify those infected with TB.

The objectives of this research are 1) to produce a One Health approach to understanding TB patterns and prevalence in the past 2) develop a novel metabolomic-based method to detect TB infection in skeletons 3) reconstruct patterns of TB infection at key time periods to interrogate how social, economic and environmental factors relate to disease risk 4) work with...