Archaeological human remains were obtained from many countries from the Americas (including Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru) and Europe (including Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Spain). The remains were processed by researchers employed by the grant. Through scientific diligence and ingenuity, the PI and her team determined that syphilis and the related diseases bejel and yaws had their roots in the Americas, and were introduced to Europe following trans-Atlantic sea voyages in the late 15th century (doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08515-5). We also demonstrated that yaws was circulating in northern Europe shortly after the first Columbian voyage, through its discovery in a genetic female from Lithuania in what may be the earliest European epidemic attributed to this type of disease (doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66012-x). These findings constitute the most substantial step to date toward resolving an intense and longstanding debate on the origin of these diseases, and establishing a timeframe for their global dispersal. Similar results were obtained for Hansen’s Disease, or leprosy. Prior to this research, many infectious disease experts agreed that Hansen’s Disease was introduced to the Americas in the colonial period. While this is true for the globally dominant form, research made possible through CoDisEASe identified what is currently a rare type that circulated in South America for thousands of years before any contacts with European populations (doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02771-y). Through further exploration of infectious disease in Medieval and post-Medieval Europe, this research also revealed important details about local transmission of plague (doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1011404) and the movement of malaria within a unique context of military deployment in Europe (doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07546-2).
