Epidemics, plagues, pandemics, none of them are inventions of modern times, but have existed throughout human history. The plague, the Spanish flu and leprosy wiped out entire sections of the population and changed the course and development of history. The corona pandemic shows us that, despite different hygiene standards, medical advances and all kinds of research into the causes, we are not immune to the occurrence of such diseases. The speaker has been researching the plagues of our ancestors for several years by analyzing ancient DNA. The aim is to use the results to draw conclusions about the diseases of today: to better understand the course, their characteristics and genetic adaptations. Among other things, pathogens of plague and leprosy are topics of his research,

About the speaker:

Prof. Dr. Ben Krause-Kyora studied biochemistry and prehistory and early history at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. In 2011 he received his doctorate with the topic "Molecular genetic and archaeological studies on domestication and breeding of the pig (Sus scrofa)"; von Carnap-Bornheim and Prof. Dr. Dittmar. Since 2014 he has held a junior professorship and since 2021 a professorship at the Institute for Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) at the University of Kiel.