Contact Details
University Links
- Position
- PhD Student
- Department
- Department of Anatomy
- Qualifications
- BSc (Forensic Science) DipGrad (Anthropology)
- Research summary
- Using ancient DNA techniques to study pathogens from the past
- Memberships
- New Zealand Archaeological Association
Research
Infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and treponemal diseases, have been plaguing human populations for millennia. New advanced DNA technologies and improved ancient DNA protocols make it now possible to detect and analyse pathogens from ancient human remains, providing information about the pathogen’s origin, transmission routes and evolutionary history.
However, because previous studies have mainly focused on Europe, Africa and the Americas, there is a gap in our knowledge about disease histories in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, we are developing and applying ancient DNA technologies to study disease in past Asian-Pacific populations.
Publications
van Os, M., Tucker, B., Anderson, A., Knapp, M., Collins, C., & Greig, K. (2023). What’s in that poo? Metagenomic screening of kurī palaeofaeces from Whenua Hou. Proceedings of the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium & Workshops. Retrieved from https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/go Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Borry, M., Forsythe, A., Andrades Valtueña, A., Hübner, A., Ibrahim, A., Quagliariello, A., … van Os, M., … Fellows Yates, J. A. (2023). Facilitating accessible, rapid, and appropriate processing of ancient metagenomic data with AMDirT. F1000Research, 12, 926. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.134798.1 Journal - Research Article
van Os, M., Cross, H., Kardailsky, O., Jeunen, G.-J., Collins, C., McDonald, K., Kinaston, R., Vlok, M., Walter, R., Cook, G., Aung, H. L., Matisoo-Smith, L., Buckley, H., & Knapp, M. (2023). The conundrum of related taxa: Detection and authentication of pathogen DNA in bioarchaeological samples from the Pacific. Proceedings of the 1st Australian & New Zealand Environmental DNA (eDNA) Conference: Innovation & Application. Retrieved from https://ednaconference.com.au Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
van Os, M., Cross, H., Kardailsky, O., Collins, C., Walter, R., Cook, G., Aung, H. L., Matisoo-Smith, L., Buckley, H., & Knapp, M. (2022). Pathogen hunters: Using ancient DNA to authenticate the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other microbes in early Polynesian settlers of Aotearoa New Zealand. Proceedings of the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium. Retrieved from https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/go Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
van Os, M., Cross, H., Kardailsky, O., Collins, C., Walter, R., Cook, G., Aung, H. L., Matisoo-Smith, L., Buckley, H., & Knapp, M. (2022). Pathogen hunters: Using ancient DNA to authenticate the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other microbes in early Polynesian settlers of Aotearoa New Zealand. Proceedings of the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA) Annual Conference. (pp. 39). Retrieved from https://nzarchaeology.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract