A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Mobility and Infectious Disease

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Tuberculosis is second only to COVID-19 as a worldwide cause of death by a single pathogen. Its history reflects extraordinary resiliency, which involves a remarkable number of nonhuman hosts in its global spread. This project, which uses molecular and biogeochemical methods, extends knowledge of the history and spread of tuberculosis in relationship to human mobility across ancient communities from a diverse landscape. Studying humankind’s past experience with epidemic disease over time encourages attention to the factors responsible for disease spread and importance of viewing disease in the broadest possible landscape—one that includes the environment and all microbes and potential hosts. This study reaches the public through active websites, presentations, publicly available YouTube videos in both English and Spanish, as well as in-person presentations. The project fosters international research collaborations and provides research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students and professionals in molecular techniques, biogeochemical analyses, and data analysis that will help them be competitive in the job market. This study explores the spread of a form of tuberculosis that severely affected communities throughout the Americas long before European contact. In so doing, it considers intersecting identities and mobility patterns, along with human interactions with other species (pinnipeds, bacteria) in contrastive environmental settings. The database reflects a comprehensive survey of a region with extensive evidence of ancient tuberculosis. By combining molecular and skeletal evidence with biogeochemical indicators of paleomobility, this research can characterize the complex cycles of tuberculosis introduction and spread from a pinniped source along the coast to inland communities where it apparently became a human disease. The study considers the complex routes by which tuberculosis can spread across communities. Hypotheses specifically address expected outcomes of ongoing introductions from sea mammals and humans as novel primary hosts and disease spreaders. An important part of this project is to characterize the mobility and interaction patterns of individuals and communities that present evidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex diseases. Such evidence is crucial to developing nuanced models for disease spread across time and space. The data generated and results are to be published in peer-reviewed articles and formats accessible to the public.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.