World TB Day - Tuberculosis ancient and modern: Studying the past to understand the future - a podcast by UCL

Dr Helen Donoghue highlights TB history of a different kind at 'The Challenge of TB: UCL's Contribution' held on 24th March 2010. She presents her work on the detection of ancient TB from the Neolithic period, in bones from Egypt and mummified remains discovered in a Hungarian crypt. Evidence of previous TB infection can be seen directly from skeletal lesions in the bones. However, these can be confused with other illnesses and Dr Donoghue's work has focussed on the definitive detection of TB by identifying markers
of the organisms itself. Her work has shown TB bacteria present in calcified lung lesions using standard staining methods, but more importantly has developed techniques to detect TB DNA, as well as TB proteins and cell wall lipids, from ancient material. These techniques confirmed the earliest known case of human TB over 9000 years ago, and the invention of the field of 'paleo-microbiology'. By comparing this ancient DNA with TB from today, Dr Donoghue's group have been able to study the evolutionary history of TB and its co-evolution with humans, corresponding with a switch a from the hunter-gather lifestyle to larger settled communities and the introduction of agriculture and domestication.

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