Advances in biotechnology make it possible to extract and analyse ancient DNA from archaeological finds. This provides valuable insights into our own genetic past, but also into that of our pathogens. In his lecture as part of the biology colloquium, Johannes Krause will focus on the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the pathogen that causes bubonic plague.
Title of the talk: „The genetic history of the plague - from the stone age to the middle ages”
Language: English
Date and time: 15.01.2026 - 16:15
Location: Lecture hall 35/E01
Topic of the talk: Studies of ancient DNA have enabled the reconstruction of complete Yersinia pestis genomes. This has provided valuable insights into the evolutionary history of the pathogen and the emergence of major virulence factors critical for flea-borne transmission. Genomes spanning over 7,000 years, from the Stone Age to modern times, suggest that fully virulent bubonic plague strains existed over 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, providing potential evidence for prehistoric epidemics.
Johannes Krause will present current genomic, archaeological, and historical data that shed new light on the evolutionary history of Y. pestis. His presentation will cover early epidemic outbreaks as well as the geographical origins of one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.
About the speaker: Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. He contributed substantially to deciphering the Neanderthal genome and the shared genetic heritage of Neanderthals and modern humans. In 2010, he discovered the first genetic evidence of the Denisovans, an extinct hominin lineage. His recent work includes clarifying the complex history of Europe’s prehistoric and historic mass migrations, revealing the genetic heritage of ancient North Africans, reconstructing the oldest modern human genomes from Pleistocene Europe or uncovering the source of the epidemic plague bacteria that periodically caused historic and prehistoric epidemics in Eurasia. He is a member of the Leopoldina - National Academy of Sciences, the Berlin Brandenburg Academy and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences in Germany. He also authored two international bestsellers translated in more than 25 languages. In December 2025, it was announced that Johannes Krause will be awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize – Germany's most important research prize – in March 2026.
