Category Archives: Transhuman News

Toh Kuyabeh, a new holistic boutique hotel concept in tulum

Spanish architecture practice DNA introduces Toh Kuyabeh, a new concept for a holistic boutique hotel nested amid Tulums lush nature, with a focus on body-mind-soul harmony. Developed for the KUYABEH Sustainable Ecological Community in Mexico, the project draws inspiration from the Toh bird, guided by its shapes, feathers, and radial flight to design a unique structure that embrace the tropical terrain, providing unparalleled panoramic views of the lagoon and a central distribution.

all renders DNA Barcelona

The HotelToh Kuyabeh design by DNA Barcelona (see more here) departs from three volumes containing the architectural program. Thirty-five rooms interconnect in a circular arrangement under a undulating roof recalling bird flight patterns, providing a visual spectacle of the Tohs colors and enhancing movement with reflections in the water. At the center, two levels house different amenities; the first includes a spa and meeting rooms, while the second features a restaurant and terraces. This distribution of standout volumes not only ensures privacy but also offers scenic views from any point in the resort.

Hotel Toh Kuyabeh is an ode to the Toh birds feathers, shape, and flight

In addition to its unique design, the hotel incorporates sustainable practices, namely solar-paneled roofs for renewable energy generation, collecting rainwater, achieving natural ventilation through efficient skin and roof systems. Furthermore, the architects propose a native construction system, adapted to regional traditional techniques, and a dry construction method, to maximize efficiency and green building. The choice of natural and native materials reflects the projects commitment to bio-compatibility and sustainability, comments DNA Barcelona.

a new concept for a holistic boutique resort nested amid Tulums lush nature

using native construction systems as sustainable practices

a pedestrian bridge connecting the different volumes

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DNA's hotel toh kuyabeh mirrors bird flight undulations in tulum - Designboom

Research led by scientists at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Bristol and California (Berkeley) reveals the evolutionary origins of multiple sclerosis (MS). This new insight into the genetic architecture of this disease changes scientists view of its causes and has implications for its treatment, as well as paving the way for further investigations into other diseases.

Affecting 1 in 1,000 people, multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own brain and spinal cord. Northern Europe has the highest prevalence of MS in the world.

The new research published in Nature draws on analysis of the DNA of ancient human bones and teeth held in museum collections across Europe and Western Asia. It reveals that a major migration of pastoralist herders known as the Yamnaya people from from the Pontic Steppe (a region spanning parts of what are now Ukraine, South-West Russia and the West Kazakhstan) into Western Europe 5,000 years ago introduced genetic variants into the population.

These new variants provided an advantage to the people carrying them at the time, probably by providing protection against infectious diseases in their domesticated animals. In today's modern environment, however, these same genetic variants increase the risk of developing MS.

To show this, the research team compared data held in a unique gene bank of ancient DNA to the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing genetic, lifestyle and health information and biological samples from half a million UK participants. The research was funded by a 8M grant from the Lundbeck Foundation.

The new insights into the genetic factors behind MS are helping to demystify the disease, which is crucial, stresses co-author Professor Lars Fugger of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford.

'This is very important from the perspective of both patients and doctors. Because it means that we can do away with the conventional perception of MS, which defines the disease in terms of the impairments it causes, and instead understand and seek to treat MS for what it actually is: the result of a genetic adaptation to certain environmental conditions that occurred back in our prehistory and which has endured in our DNA, even though the environmental conditions have changed hugely in the time between then and now,' Professor Fugger explains.

For more than three decades, as a professor and consultant physician at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Professor Fugger has been conducting research into MS and treating patients with immune-mediated disorders. So far, 233 MS-genetic risk variants have been mapped. The findings presented in the new paper show that many of these genetic variants provided protection against infectious diseases. There is no immediate indication that they held any disadvantage at that time, Fugger explains:

'The situation today is different because the diseases these variants originally provided protection against are no longer as big a problem as they likely were then. Because in the intervening millennia, we have antibiotics, vaccinations and far, far higher standards of hygiene than people had thousands of years ago. Thus, the risk genes are now "miscast" in terms of their original biological role.'

Science so far has 'only an incomplete understanding of why individuals develop MS', co-author Professor Astrid Iversen explains. A professor of virology and immunology at the MRC WIMM and Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, her research concerns the evolutionary processes in the development of the human immune response to challenges from pathogens, meaning the bacteria and viruses that cause disease.

Based on archaeological DNA, Professor Iversen is also investigating how pathogens interacting with environmental and lifestyle factors ever since the the Last Ice Age have impacted the immune system of present-day individuals and their genetic susceptibility to certain diseases, including autoimmune diseases like MS, which have been on the rise over the last 50 years.

'The selection process involving the human immune system is ongoing, meaning it is also happening right now,' explains Professor Iversen, adding: 'The individuals who have immune system genes that allow them to fight off the combination of infectious diseases they are exposed to in life will have children who pass on those same immune system genes. This is why the immune system in all present-day individuals is also, genetically speaking, the product of selection processes our ancestors underwent. But because we now lead very different lives to those of our ancestors in terms of hygiene, diet, medical treatment options for, for example, some parasitic diseases, as a result of our evolutionary history, we may, in some respects be more susceptible to certain diseases than our ancestors were, including autoimmune diseases such as MS.'

Professor Fugger explains how the research findings hold some promise for future treatment: 'MS is an autoimmune disease, and a lot of the drugs we currently use to treat it target the immune system. The downside is that we risk suppressing the immune system so effectively that patients are less well equipped to fight infections.

'What we need is an approach whereby we can learn from more studies on the genetic background of MS how to 'recalibrate' the immune system in patients. This would allow their immune system to play an active role in suppressing the disease. While that's not just around the corner, it's still what we should be aiming for in terms of research.'

This MS study demonstrates that the large ancient human genome data sets, combined with analyses of present-day DNA and input from a number of other research fields, serve as a scientific precision tool capable of providing new insights into diseases.

The international research team now plans to investigate other neurological conditions including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and psychiatric disorders including ADHD and schizophrenia.

The paper, 'Elevated genetic risk for multiple sclerosis emerged in steppe pastoralist populations', is published in Nature.

Original post:
Research into ancient DNA sheds new light on cause of Multiple Sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases - University of Oxford

Past human gene pools of western Eurasia

In Nature paper (3) the researchers including Morten Allentoft, Professor at Curtin University, Australia and Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at UCPH, Martin Sikora, Associate Professor at the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at UCPH, andKristian Kristiansen, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, show that genetic differences between ancient populations in western Eurasia were substantially higher than previously estimated, and also much higher than observed in present-day populations.

In Nature paper (4) the team reports findings that overturn the commonly-held view that the ancestors of present-day Danes were Stone Age hunter-gatherers.

The team, including Professor Kristian Kristiansen and Dr Anders Fischer, both affiliated with the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at UCPH, analysed DNA from 100 skeletons of the prehistoric inhabitants of the region now known as Denmark, who lived between 10,000 years ago and 2,700 years ago.

They found that since the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago, Denmark has experienced two near-total population turnover events, the second of which is still evident in the gene pool of present-day Scandinavia.

Around 5,900 years ago at the dawn of the Neolithic Age, a group of farmers with genetic roots in Anatolia - the Asian part of present-day Turkey brought a new farming culture to Denmark. The resulting changes in diet were clear in analysis of the ancient bones, and show that these farmers completely replaced the hunter-gatherers living in the region.

Then, around 5,000 years ago, the Yamnaya arrived and eliminated the Anatolian farmers. The Yamnaya people are the closest ancestors of present-day ethnic Danes.

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Ancient DNA reveals reason for high MS and Alzheimer's rates in Europe - University of Cambridge news

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TIME-seq reduces time and cost of DNA methylation measurement for epigenetic clock construction - Nature.com

A jolt of java enjoyed by accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann's daughter gave authorities a boost in building their case against him, according to court papers filed Tuesday.

New evidence disclosed by prosecutors following Heuermann's indictment in a fourth slaying included DNA testing on a beverage can that investigators allegedly saw his daughter drink from last year.

Heuermann, who was arrested in July, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and his lawyer has suggested authorities charged the wrong person.

Victoria Heuermann, who worked at her father's architectural firm in New York City, was trailed by undercover investigators as she boarded a commuter train to the family's suburban hometown of Massapequa Park on Long Island, on May 25, 2023, according to court papers.

During the trip, Victoria Heuermann, then 26, was seen sipping from a gold-colored can of "Monster Java" energy drink. A legal filing includes a photo of her with her face blacked out, holding the can with one hand and a cellphone with the other.

When the train arrived in Massapequa Park, she got off, tossed the can into a trash barrel and walked away from the station.

Investigators retrieved the can and took it to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory in Hauppauge, where scientists later concluded that a female DNA profile obtained from the can matched one from a cheek swab of Victoria Heuermann, prosecutors wrote.

An unidentified forensic lab also generated DNA sequencing data from a hair on Amber Costello one of Rex Heuermann's four alleged victims and "conducted a one-to-one autosomal nuclear DNA comparison" between that profile and Victoria Heuermann's which linked them, according to court papers.

Victoria Heuermann's profile allegedly includes her single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, which are the most common type of genetic variation among people, according to the National Library of Medicine.

A report from the lab said the hair found on Costello was 4.654 times 10 to the power of 63 "more likely to have come from a person genetically identical to Victoria Heuermanns SNP Genotype File than from an unrelated individual," prosecutors wrote.

Court papers said Victoria Heuermann was "almost one-month shy of her 14th birthday" when Costello disappeared and was killed, and prosecutors have previously said she was out of town at the time, suggesting that Rex Heuermann allegedly transferred her hair to Costello by accident.

In addition to Costello, Heuermann previously faced murder charges in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman, and he was charged Tuesday in the slaying of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

The women, known as the "Gilgo Four," were sex workers who disappeared between 2007 and September 2010 and were found in December 2010 along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Babylon, on Long Island's South Shore.

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Gilgo Serial Killer Suspect Rex Heuermann Tied to Slaying by DNA From Daughter's Can of Coffee: Prosecutors - The Messenger

Following a multi-year sexual assault investigation, a man has been arrested and indicted in two Denton Police Department cases where DNA evidence connected him to the offenses, according to a Denton PD news release.

On March 8, 2020, a woman reported a man entered her home in the 2400 block of Charlotte Street and tried to force her on the bed. The suspect fled after the victim resisted. Items of evidence were collected and analyzed at a lab, and an unknown DNA profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) law enforcement database, according to police.

On Nov. 7, 2020, a man knocked on a womans door in the 2500 block of Charlotte Street. The suspect engaged the victim in casual conversation before forcing his way into her apartment and sexually assaulting her, according to the news release. A forensic examination kit was completed, and an unknown male DNA profile was obtained.

In December 2022, Denton PD was notified that the DNA profiles generated in these two cases were linked. Denton PD requested Dallas FBIs assistance with further DNA testing. In November 2023, these efforts resulted in the identification of a relative of the unknown suspect. Subsequent investigation into the family lineage led to the identification of 38-year-old Jason Warren, a current Marshall resident who previously lived in Denton.

With the assistance of the FBI and the Joint Harrison County Violent Crime and Narcotics Task Force, an additional DNA sample was obtained from Warren in December 2023. The DNA was taken to a lab for analysis, where it was concluded that Warrens DNA profile could not be excluded as a contributor to the DNA samples collected, according to the news release.

On Tuesday, Warren was indicted on two counts of sexually motivated Burglary of a Habitation Intend Other Felony, a first-degree felony. He was arrested two days later on the two Denton PD warrants, as well as a Criminal Trespass of a Habitation warrant from the Waco Police Department, according to police. He was booked into the Harrison County Jail on a total $210,000 bond before being transported to the Denton County Jail.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information relating to these cases, or any unreported incidents, is encouraged to contact Detective Marqui Curtis at (940) 349-7727.

See more here:
DNA evidence leads to arrest of Denton sexual assault suspect - The Cross Timbers Gazette

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The new study has found the genes that significantly increase a persons risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) were introduced into north-western Europe around 5,000 years ago by sheep and cattle herders migrating from the east.

Credit: SayoStudio

Researchers have created the worlds largest ancient human gene bank by analysing the bones and teeth of almost 5,000 humans who lived across western Europe and Asia up to 34,000 years ago.

By sequencing ancient human DNA and comparing it to modern-day samples, the international team of experts mapped the historical spread of genes and diseases over time as populations migrated.

The astounding results have been revealed in four trailblazing research papers published today (10 January 2024) in the same issue of Nature and provide new biological understanding of debilitating disorders.

The extraordinary study involved a large international team led by Professor Eske Willerslev at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen, Professor Thomas Werge at the University of Copenhagen, and Professor Rasmus Nielsen at University of California, Berkeley and involved contributions from 175 researchers from around the globe.

The scientists found:

Northern Europe has the highest prevalence of multiple sclerosis in the world. A new study has found the genes that significantly increase a persons risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) were introduced into north-western Europe around 5,000 years ago by sheep and cattle herders migrating from the east.

By analysing the DNA of ancient human bones and teeth, found at documented locations across Eurasia, researchers traced the geographical spread of MS from its origins on the Pontic Steppe (a region spanning parts of what are now Ukraine, South-West Russia and the West Kazakhstan Region).

They found that the genetic variants associated with a risk of developing MS travelled with the Yamnaya people - livestock herders who migrated over the Pontic Steppe into North-Western Europe.

These genetic variants provided a survival advantage to the Yamnaya people, most likely by protecting them from catching infections from their sheep and cattle. But they also increased the risk of developing MS.

It must have been a distinct advantage for the Yamnaya people to carry the MS risk genes, even after arriving in Europe, despite the fact that these genes undeniably increased their risk of developing MS, said Professor Eske Willerslev, jointly at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen and a Fellow of St Johns College, an expert in analysis of ancient DNA and Director of the project.

He added: These results change our view of the causes of multiple sclerosis and have implications for the way it is treated.

The age of specimens ranges from the Mesolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking period into the Middle Ages. The oldest genome in the data set is from an individual who lived approximately 34,000 years ago.

The findings provide an explanation for the North-South Gradient, in which there are around twice as many modern-day cases of MS in northern Europe than southern Europe, which has long been a mystery to researchers.

From a genetic perspective, the Yamnaya people are thought to be the ancestors of the present-day inhabitants of much of North-Western Europe. Their genetic influence on todays population of southern Europe is much weaker.

Previous studies have identified 233 genetic variants that increase the risk of developing MS. These variants, also affected by environmental and lifestyle factors, increase disease risk by around 30 percent. The new research found that this modern-day genetic risk profile for MS is also present in bones and teeth that are thousands of years old.

These results astounded us all. They provide a huge leap forward in our understanding of the evolution of MS and other autoimmune diseases. Showing how the lifestyles of our ancestors impacted modern disease risk just highlights how much we are the recipients of ancient immune systems in a modern world, said Dr William Barrie, a postdoc in the University of Cambridges Department of Zoology and co-author of the paper.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease in which the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks the insulation surrounding the nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord. This causes symptom flares known as relapses as well as longer-term degeneration, known as progression.

Professor Lars Fugger, a co-author of the MS study professor and consultant physician at John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, said: This means we can now understand and seek to treat MS for what it actually is: the result of a genetic adaptation to certain environmental conditions that occurred back in our prehistory.

Professor Astrid Iversen, another co-author based at the University of Oxford, said: We now lead very different lives to those of our ancestors in terms of hygiene, diet, and medical treatment options and this combined with our evolutionary history means we may be more susceptible to certain diseases than our ancestors were, including autoimmune diseases such as MS.

The Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre the resource underpinning the discoveries

The new findings were made possible by the analysis of data held in a unique gene bank of ancient DNA, created by the researchers over the past five years with funding from the Lundbeck Foundation.

This is the first gene bank of its kind in the world and already it has enabled fascinating new insights in areas from ancient human migrations, to genetically-determined risk profiles for the development of brain disorders.

By analysing the bones and teeth of almost 5,000 ancient humans, held in museum collections across Europe and Western Asia, the researchers generated DNA profiles ranging across the Mesolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking period into the Middle Ages. They compared the ancient DNA data to modern DNA from 400,000 people living in Britain, held in the UK Biobank.

Creating a gene bank of ancient DNA from Eurasias past human inhabitants was a colossal project, involving collaboration with museums across the region, said Willerslev.

He added: Weve demonstrated that our gene bank works as a precision tool that can give us new insights into human diseases, when combined with analyses of present-day human DNA data and inputs from several other research fields. That in itself is amazing, and theres no doubt it has many applications beyond MS research.

The team now plans to investigate other neurological conditions including Parkinsons and Alzheimers diseases, and psychiatric disorders including ADHD and schizophrenia.

They have received requests from disease researchers across the world for access to the ancient DNA profiles, and eventually aim to make the gene bank open access.

The research was funded by a 8M grant from the Lundbeck Foundation, and conducted at the Lundbeck Foundation Geogenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen.

Jan Egebjerg, Director of Research at theLundbeck Foundation, said: "The rationale for awarding such a large research grant to this project, as the Lundbeck Foundation did back in 2018, was that if it all worked out, it would represent a trail-blazing means of gaining a deeper understanding of how the genetic architecture underlying brain disorders evolved over time. And brain disorders are our specific focus area."

Experimental study

People

Elevated Genetic Risk for Multiple Sclerosis Originated in Steppe Pastoralist Populations

10-Jan-2024

Excerpt from:
Ancient DNA reveals reason for high multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's rates in Europe - EurekAlert

University of Oxford researchers have contributed to a study which used ancient DNA to identify the earliest known people to have suffered from various genetic disorders affecting the number of sex chromosomes. The findings have been published today in Communications Biology.

Aneuploidy occurs when a persons cells have an extra or missing chromosome. If this occurs in the sex chromosomes, this can cause differences such as delayed development or changes in height around puberty.

Led by the Francis Crick Institute, the research team developed a new technique to measure the number of chromosomes in ancient genomes more precisely. In this way, they identified:

To overcome this, the team developed a computational method which counts the number of copies of X and Y chromosomes and compares the outcome to a predicted baseline (what one would expect to see).

The team used the new method to analyse ancient DNA from a large dataset of individuals collected as part of the Thousand Ancient British Genomes project across British history, identifying six individuals with aneuploidies across five sites in Somerset, Yorkshire, Oxford, and Lincoln. The individuals lived across a range of time periods, from the Iron Age (2500 years ago) up to the Post-Medieval Period (about 250 years ago).

They identified five people who had sex chromosomes which fell outside of the XX or XY categories. All were buried according to their societys customs although no possessions were found with them to shed more light on their lives.

By investigating details on the bones, the research team could see that it was unlikely that the individual with Turner syndrome had gone through puberty and started menstruation, despite their estimated age of 18-22. Their syndrome was shown to be mosaic: some cells had one copy of chromosome X and some had two.

Co-author of the study Rick Schulting, Professor of Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: The results of this study open up exciting new possibilities for the study of sex in the past, moving beyond binary categories in a way that would be impossible without the advances being made in ancient DNA analysis.

The study Detection of chromosomal aneuploidy in ancient genomes has been published inCommunications Biology.

The study was led by the Francis Crick Institute and involved archaeologists from the University of Oxford, the Wells and Mendip Museum, University of York, University of Bradford, Oxford Archaeology, York Osteoarchaeology, and Network Archaeology. It was supported by Lincolnshire County Council, Magdalen College, and Balfour Beatty for National Highways.

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New technique identifies earliest cases of genetic disorders from ancient DNA - University of Oxford

Researchers trying to find better drugs for MS now have a better idea of what theyre up against when it comes to certain autoimmune diseases. As explained by Lars Fugger, a neurologist at the University of Oxford who was involved in the study, scientists are trying to undo 5,000 years of evolutionary honing.

Unfortunately, the research doesnt offer a roadmap for how to design new and better drugs. But Lugger suggests that the work might at least point to a better way. Current MS therapies generally work by damping down the immune system, but given that these mutations arose to protect us, perhaps the better approach would be to recalibrate immune cells activity rather than shutting them down altogether.

Ideally, with these data in hand and eventually made available to other researchers an exploration other health conditions will unfold. The signal of risk wont always be as clear and meaningful as with MS, but there are plenty of diseases where this type of data can be used to solidify hypotheses and illuminate biology.

As that work evolves, the field must do better a job of expanding the study of ancient (and modern) DNA beyond Europe and North America. Although all humans are genetically very similar, our evolutionary pasts might differ and, as this MS paper nicely highlights, those histories can affect our understanding of current health issues.

Some of the focus on European ancestors is practical. Ancient DNA is better preserved in colder, drier climates, making it harder to extract useful genetic information from samples in, for example, the tropics. But researchers say funding for projects in less-represented populations has lagged significantly.

The problem is not limited to ancient DNA. Much of the work in modern genetics has been devoted to studying people outside of North America and Europe. Asgari points out that 80 per cent of large genetic studies focus on populations of European ancestry, yet that group makes up just 18 per cent of the global population.

While the field has become far better at acknowledging these knowledge and resource gaps, more needs to be done to close them. Each region has diseases that might be better understood by comparing ancient and modern DNA. Asgari points to sickle cell disease, which is believed to have arisen as a protection against malaria, or the high prevalence of diabetes in the Middle East, as areas that deserve the same kind of study.

Theres still so much to learn about the human genome. Well learn more, faster, if we cast a wider net.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

Originally posted here:
Ancient DNA could be hiding all kinds of health secrets - Deccan Herald

Researchers have created the worlds largest ancient human gene bank by analysing the bones and teeth of almost 5,000 humans who lived across western Europe and Asia up to 34,000 years ago.

By sequencing ancient human DNA and comparing it to modern-day samples, the international team of experts mapped the historical spread of genes and diseases over time as populations migrated.

The astounding results have been revealed in four trailblazing papers published in the journal Nature and provide new biological understanding of debilitating disorders.

The study involved a large international team led byProfessor Eske Willerslevat the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen,Professor Thomas Wergeat the University of Copenhagen, andProfessor Rasmus Nielsenat University of California, Berkeley, with contributions from 175 researchers from around the globe. They found:

Future analysis is hoped to reveal more about the genetic markers of autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.

Northern Europe has the highest prevalence of multiple sclerosis in the world.

The new study foundthe genes that significantly increase a persons risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) were introduced into north-western Europe around 5,000 years ago by sheep and cattle herders migrating from the east.

By analysing the DNA of ancient human bones and teeth, found at documented locations across Eurasia, researchers traced the geographical spread of MS from its origins on the Pontic Steppe (a region spanning parts of what are now Ukraine, South-West Russia and the West Kazakhstan Region).

They found that the genetic variants associated with a risk of developing MS travelled with the Yamnaya people livestock herders who migrated over the Pontic Steppe into North-Western Europe.

These genetic variants provided a survival advantage to the Yamnaya people, most likely by protecting them from catching infections from their sheep and cattle. But they also increased the risk of developing MS.

It must have been a distinct advantage for the Yamnaya people to carry the MS risk genes, even after arriving in Europe, despite the fact that these genes undeniably increased their risk of developing MS. These results change our view of the causes of multiple sclerosis and have implications for the way it is treated.

Professor Eske Willerslev, jointly at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen, Fellow of St Johns College, expert in analysis of ancient DNA and Director of the project.

The age of specimens ranges from the Mesolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking period into the Middle Ages. The oldest genome in the data set is from an individual who lived approximately 34,000years ago.

The findings provide an explanation for the North-South Gradient, in which there are around twice as many modern-day cases of MS in northern Europe than southern Europe, which has long been a mystery to researchers.

From a genetic perspective, the Yamnaya people are thought to be the ancestors of the present-day inhabitants of much of North-Western Europe. Their genetic influence on todays population of southern Europe is much weaker.

Previous studies have identified 233 genetic variants that increase the risk of developing MS. These variants, also affected by environmental and lifestyle factors, increase disease risk by around 30 percent. The new research found that this modern-day genetic risk profile for MS is also present in bones and teeth that are thousands of years old.

These results astounded us all. They provide a huge leap forward in our understanding of the evolution of MS and other autoimmune diseases. Showing how the lifestyles of our ancestors impacted modern disease risk just highlights how much we are the recipients of ancient immune systems in a modern world.

Dr William Barrie, postdoc in the University of Cambridges Department of Zoology and first author of the MS study.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease in which the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks the insulation surrounding the nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord. This causes symptom flares known as relapses as well as longer-term degeneration, known as progression.

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Ancient DNA reveals reason for high MS and Alzheimer's rates in Europe - ScienceBlog.com