Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: The origins and dispersal of ancient leishmaniasis in the New World: A bioarchaeological and molecular approach

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Leishmaniaisis affects millions of people worldwide today, resulting in disfiguring lesions and fatal complications. The World Health Organization regards leishmaniasis as a "Neglected Tropical Disease," endemic to poverty-stricken countries and rising in incidence by nearly two million cases annually, but lacking effective treatment or prevention. Its worldwide geographic distribution and its impact on human health and well-being make leishmaniasis one of the most significant of the neglected diseases. Leishmaniasis is not, however, solely a contemporary affliction. The fields of bioarchaeology, ethnohistory and genetics provide evidence to support that leishmaniasis has been a burden to humanity long before recorded history. Nevertheless, the origins and movement of the parasite as it evolved and dispersed throughout the globe remains poorly understood.This project by doctoral student Kelly Harkins (Arizona State University), under the supervision of Drs. Anne Stone and Jane Buikstra, will use molecular and bioarchaeological techniques to obtain DNA from a sample of poorly understood contemporary Leishmania strains and archaeologically recovered human remains. These data will be used to test hypotheses that address the evolutionary history of the parasite Leishmania and the emergence of human leishmaniasis in the New World, both of which are the source of ongoing debate. Specifically, this project proposes to characterize strains from the earliest known skeletal cases of New World leishmaniasis in the Andes, to explore the relationship of these early strains to modern strains found throughout the globe today, and with additional data from archaeological and ethnohistoric contexts, to address the nature of the disease's movement in prehistoric South American populations. This project will publicly disseminate new genomic sequence data, essential for understanding pathogen biology and also a powerful tool for those fields and researchers working to improve global public health.