The Study of Ancient Disease and the Genomics Revolution

Professor Jane Buikstra

Lecture Abstract

Advancements in genomics over the past quarter century have stimulated remarkable new interpretations of ancient human diseases, especially their emergence and spread.  This presentation will first review the scope of these discoveries and then focus upon the manner in which the genomics revolution has altered our perspectives on the history of mycobacterial diseases, especially tuberculosis and leprosy.

Biography

Jane Buikstra (PhD U of Chicago, 1972) is Regents’ Professor of Bioarchaeology and Founding Director, Center for Bioarchaeological Research, in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.  Professor Buikstra is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1987) and past president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the American Anthropological Association and the Paleopathology Association.  She is also president of the Center for American Archeology. Among other honors, Dr. Buikstra was awarded the Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology by the Archaeological Institute of America (2005), the T. Dale Stewart Award by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (2008), the Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (2008). In 2011, she received the Eve Cockburn Award for Service from the Paleopathology Association, in 2014 an honorary Doctor of Science Degree from Durham University (UK), and in 2016 The Lloyd Cotsen Prize for Lifetime Achievement in World Archaeology.

Dr. Buikstra defined the discipline of bioarchaeology, an international field that enriches archaeological knowledge of past peoples with forensics, pathology, medicine, population studies, bio-geochemistry and genetics. Her research encompasses bioarchaeology, paleopathology, forensic anthropology and paleodemography, and spans North America, the Iberian Peninsula, Colonial Argentina, the west-central Andes and Mayan Mesoamerica.  She has published more than 20 books and 150 articles and has mentored more than 50 doctoral students. Professor Buikstra is the inaugural editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Paleopathology. Among her current research projects she is investigating the evolutionary history of ancient tuberculosis in the Americas based on archaeologically-recovered pathogen DNA.