Technology brings new life to the study of diseases in old bones
New technology that can analyse diseases in ancient skeletons has yielded fascinating results in a study led by Durham University. Professor Charlotte Roberts of Durham's Department of Archaeology , working in partnership with Professor Terry Brown from the University of Manchester, used a new system that can scrutinise millions of gene sequences within seconds. They used the method to identify tuberculosis (TB) genes in a female skeleton from the 19th Century found in a Leeds crypt. Their study is part of wider research into the identification of strains of TB in skeletons spanning nearly two thousands years, from 100 AD to the late 19th century. It is hoped that understanding how the disease has evolved over time will help improve treatments and vaccines. TB rates have been increasing around the world since the early 1990s and it is estimated that one third of the world's population has latent TB. After HIV, it kills more people than any other infectious disease.
