Ye olde pathogen: Learning about evolution from ancient DNA

As long as humans have been around, there have been pathogens to make us sick. Some have achieved infamy in human history—the bubonic plague, for example, or smallpox—and with modern technologies, scientists can time-travel ...

Researchers identify leprosy in wild chimpanzees

An international team that includes researchers John Spencer, Ph.D., and Charlotte Avanzi, Ph.D., of the Colorado State University Mycobacteria Research Laboratories has identified leprosy in wild chimpanzees in the West ...

Comparing the genomes of the leprosy bacteria

Leprosy is a chronic infection of the skin, peripheral nerves, eyes and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, affecting over a quarter million people worldwide. Its symptoms can be gruesome and devastating, as the bacteria ...

The entwined destinies of mankind and leprosy bacteria

Leprosy still affects hundreds of thousands of people today throughout the entire world. An international team headed by EPFL professor Stewart Cole has traced the history of the disease from ancient Egypt to today and in ...

Oldest evidence of leprosy found in 4000-year-old skeleton

A biological anthropologist from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate student from Appalachian, an evolutionary biologist from UNC Greensboro, and a team of archaeologists from Deccan College (Pune, ...