Kirsten I. Bos
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig, Germany
email: kirsten_bos [at] eva.mpg.de
Citizenship: Canadian
Academic Affiliation
Group Leader, Molecular Palaeopathology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Leipzig, Germany
Research Interests: palaeopathology, infectious disease, ancient DNA, skeletal biology, microbiology, disease resistance
Education
| 2012 | Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University Thesis title: Genetic investigations into the Black Death Supervisory committee: Hendrik Poinar (advisor), D. Ann Herring, G. Brian Golding |
| 2006 | Ph.D. comprehensive examination completed, “with distinction” |
| 2004 | Master of Arts, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University Thesis title: Trinitapoli: a preliminary evaluation of the human skeletal material recovered from a Middle Bronze Age burial site in southern Italy Supervisory committee: Shelley R. Saunders (advisor), D. Ann Herring, Anne Keenleyside |
| 2002 | pre-Master’s year, University of Manitoba, Department of Anthropology Supervisor: Robert D. Hoppa |
| 2001 | Honours Bachelor of Science “with distinction”, Specialized Honours Bio-medical Science, University of Guelph |
Grants and fellowships
Currency shown in Canadian dollars
| 2011 | SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship (24 months) ($81,000) |
| 2009 | McMaster University Graduate Student Association Travel Grant ($500) |
| 2008 | McMaster University Graduate Fellowship (PhD level) ($10,000) |
| 2004 | SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (PhD level) ($105,000) |
| 2004 | Ontario Graduate Scholarship ($15,000), declined |
| 2003 | McMaster University Graduate Student Association Travel Grant ($200) |
| 2003 | SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s level) ($17,500) |
| 2003 | Ontario Graduate Scholarship ($15,000), declined |
| 2003 | Italian Government “Borsa di studio” ($1838 CAD) |
| 2002 | McMaster University Graduate Fellowship ($4000) |
| 2002 | McMaster University Dept. of Anthropology entrance scholarship ($2000) |
Employment
| 2020–present | Group Leader, Molecular Palaeopathology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| 2015–2020 | Group Leader, Molecular Palaeopathology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History |
| 2014–2015 | Postdoctoral researcher, University of Tübingen |
| 2012–2014 | SSHRC-funded postdoctoral researcher, University of Tübingen |
| 2001–2012 | Principal oboe, Guelph Symphony Orchestra |
| 2002–2010 | Teaching assistant, Dept. of Anthropology, McMaster University |
| 2004–2008 | Editorial assistant, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology |
| 2001 | Research assistant, Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba |
| 2002 | National Research Council of Canada summer student |
Refereed Journal Publications
2020
Elizabeth A. Nelson, Jane E. Buikstra, Alexander Herbig, Tiffiny A.Tung, Kirsten I. Bos. “Advances in the molecular detection of tuberculosis in pre-contact Andean South America.” International Journal of Paleopathology. 2020 January 20, doi:10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.12.006.
2019
Maria A Spyrou, Marcel Keller, Rezeda I Tukhbatova, Christiana L Scheib, Elizabeth A Nelson, Aida Andrades Valtueña, Gunnar U Neumann, Don Walker, Amelie Alterauge, Niamh Carty, Craig Cessford, Hermann Fetz, Michaël Gourvennec, Robert Hartle, Michael Henderson, Kristin von Heyking, Sarah A Inskip, Sacha Kacki, Felix M Key, Elizabeth L Knox, Christian Later, Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin, Joris Peters, John E Robb, Jürgen Schreiber, Toomas Kivisild, Dominique Castex, Sandra Lösch, Michaela Harbeck, Alexander Herbig, Kirsten I Bos, Johannes Krause. “Phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes.” Nature Communications. 10(4470), doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12154-0.
Bos KI, Kühnert D, Herbig A, Esquivel-Gomez LR, Valtueña AA, Barquera R, Giffin K, Kumar Lankapalli A, Nelson EA, Sabin S, Spyrou MA, Krause J. “Paleomicrobiology: Diagnosis and Evolution of Ancient Pathogens.” Annu Rev Microbiol. 2019 Jul 5. doi:10.1146/annurev-micro-090817-062436.
Spyrou MA, Bos KI, Herbig A, Krause J. “Ancient pathogen genomics as an emerging tool for infectious disease research.” Nat Rev Genet. 2019 Jun;20(6):323-340, doi:10.1038/s41576-019-0119-1.
Keller M, Spyrou MA, Scheib CL, Neumann GU, Kröpelin A, Haas-Gebhard B, Päffgen B, Haberstroh J, Ribera I Lacomba A, Raynaud C, Cessford C, Durand R, Stadler P, Nägele K, Bates JS, Trautmann B, Inskip SA, Peters J, Robb JE, Kivisild T, Castex D, McCormick M, Bos KI, Harbeck M, Herbig A, Krause J. “Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541-750).” Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2019 Jun 18;116(25):12363-12372. doi:10.1073/pnas.1820447116. Epub 2019 Jun 4.
2018
Bos KI. TB’s Chinese travels. Nat Ecol Evol. 2018 Dec;2(12):1842-1843. doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0732-y.
Knauf S, Gogarten JF, Schuenemann VJ, De Nys HM, Düx A, Strouhal M, Mikalová L, Bos KI, Armstrong R, Batamuzi EK, Chuma IS, Davoust B, Diatta G, Fyumagwa RD, Kazwala RR, Keyyu JD, Lejora IAV, Levasseur A, Liu H, Mayhew MA, Mediannikov O, Raoult D, Wittig RM, Roos C, Leendertz FH, Šmajs D, Nieselt K, Krause J, Calvignac-Spencer S. “Nonhuman primates across sub-Saharan Africa are infected with the yaws bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue.” Emerg Microbes Infect. 2018 Sep 19;7(1):157. doi:10.1038/s41426-018-0156-4.
Mann AE, Sabin S, Ziesemer K, Vågene ÅJ, Schroeder H, Ozga AT, Sankaranarayanan K, Hofman CA, Fellows Yates JA, Salazar-García DC, Frohlich B, Aldenderfer M, Hoogland M, Read C, Milner GR, Stone AC, Lewis CM Jr, Krause J, Hofman C, Bos KI, Warinner C. “Differential preservation of endogenous human and microbial DNA in dental calculus and dentin.” Sci Rep. 2018 Jun 29;8(1):9822. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-28091-9.
Schuenemann VJ, Kumar Lankapalli A, Barquera R, Nelson EA, Iraíz Hernández D, Acuña Alonzo V, Bos KI, Márquez Morfín L, Herbig A, Krause J. “Historic Treponema pallidum genomes from Colonial Mexico retrieved from archaeological remains.” PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2018 Jun 21;12(6):e0006447. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0006447. eCollection 2018 Jun.
Maria A. Spyrou, Rezeda I. Tukhbatova, Chuan-Chao Wang, Aida Andrades Valtueña, Aditya K. Lankapalli, Vitaly V. Kondrashin, Victor A. Tsybin, Aleksandr Khokhlov, Denise Kühnert, Alexander Herbig, Kirsten I. Bos and Johannes Krause. “Analysis of 3800-year-old Yersinia pestis genomes suggests Bronze Age origin for bubonic plague.” Nature Communications, 9:2234, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04550-9.
Åshild J. Vågene, Alexander Herbig, Michael G. Campana, Nelly M. Robles García, Christina Warinner, Susanna Sabin, Maria A. Spyrou, Aida Andrades Valtueña, Daniel Huson, Noreen Tuross, Kirsten I. Bos and Johannes Krause. “Salmonella enterica genomes from victims of a major sixteenth-century epidemic in Mexico.” Nature Ecology & Evolution, doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0446-6.
2017
Andrades Valtueña A, Mittnik A, Key FM, Haak W, Allmäe R, Belinskij A, Daubaras M, Feldman M, Jankauskas R, Janković I, Massy K, Novak M, Pfrengle S, Reinhold S, Šlaus M, Spyrou MA, Szécsényi-Nagy A, Tõrv M, Hansen S, Bos KI, Stockhammer PW, Herbig A, Krause J. “The Stone Age Plague and Its Persistence in Eurasia.” Current Biology, 2017 Dec 4;27(23):3683-3691.e8. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.10.025. Epub 2017 Nov 22.
Felix M. Key, Cosimo Posth, Johannes Krause, Alexander Herbig, and Kirsten I. Bos. “Mining metagenomic datasets for ancient DNA: recommended protocols for authentication.” Trends in Genetics, doi:10.1016/j.tig.2017.05.005.
2016
Alexander Immel, Adeline Le Cabec, Marion Bonazzi, Alexander Herbig, Heiko Temming, Verena J. Schuenemann, Kirsten I. Bos, et. al. “Effect of X-ray imaging on ancient DNA in sub-fossil bones – recommendations for safe imaging.” Scientific Reports, 6:32969, doi: 10.1038/srep32969.
Natasha Arora, Verena J. Schuenemann, Günter Jäger, Alexander Peltzer, Alexander Seitz, Alexander Herbig, Michal Strouhal, Linda Grillová, Leonor Sánchez-Busó, Denise Kühnert, Kirsten I Bos, et al. “Origin of modern syphilis and emergence of a contemporary pandemic cluster.” Nature Microbiology, 2:16245, doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.245.
Maria A. Spyrou, Rezeda I. Tukhbatova, Michal Feldman, Joanna Drath, Sacha Kacki, Julia Beltrán de Heredia, Susanne Arnold, Airat G. Sitdikov, Dominique Castex, Joachim Wahl, Ilgizar R. Gazimzyanov, Danis K. Nurgaliev, Alexander Herbig, Kirsten I. Bos, and Johannes Krause. Historical Y. pestis Genomes Reveal the European Black Death as the Source of Ancient and Modern Plague Pandemics. Cell Host and Microbe, 19:874-881, doi:10.1016/j.chom.2016.05.012.
Kirsten I. Bos, Alexander Herbig, Jason Sahl, Nicholas Waglechner, Mathieu Fourment, Stephen A Forrest, Jennifer Klunk, Verena J Schuenemann, Debi Poinar, Melanie Kuch, G Brian Golding, Olivier Dutour, Paul Keim, David M Wagner, Edward C Holmes, Johannes Krause. “Eighteenth century Yersinia pestis genomes reveal the long-term persistence of an historical plague focus” eLife (21 January 2016), doi:10.7554/eLife.12994.
2015
Kirsten I. Bos*, Günter Jäger*, Verena J. Schuenemann, Åshild J. Vågene, Maria A. Spyrou, Alexander Herbig, Kay Nieselt, and Johannes Krause. “Parallel detection of ancient pathogens via array-based DNA capture” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 370(1660) (19 January 2015), doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0375.
Kelly M. Harkins, Jane E. Buikstra, Tessa Campbell, Kirsten I. Bos, Eric D. Johnson, Johannes Krause, and Anne C. Stone. “Screening ancient tuberculosis with qPCR: challenges and opportunities” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 370(1660) (19 January 2015), doi: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0622.
2014
Kirsten I. Bos*ⱡ, Kelly M. Harkins*, Alexander Herbig*, Mireia Coscolla*, Nico Weber, Iñaki Comas, Stephen A. Forrest, Josephine M. Bryant, Simon R. Harris, Verena J. Schuenemann, Tessa J. Campbell, Kerttu Majander, Alicia K. Wilbur, Ricardo A. Guichon, Dawnie L. Wolfe Steadman, Della Collins Cook, Stefan Niemann, Marcel A. Behr, Martin Zumarraga, Ricardo Bastida, Daniel Huson, Kay Nieselt, Douglas Young, Julian Parkhill, Jane E. Buikstra, Sebastien Gagneux, Anne C. Stoneⱡ, and Johannes Krauseⱡ. “Pre-Columbian Mycobacterial Genomes Reveal Seals as a Source of New World Human Tuberculosis.” Nature, doi:10.1038/nature13591.
Iosif Lazaridis, Nick Patterson, Alissa Mittnik, Gabriel Renaud, Swapan Mallick, Karola Kirsanow, Peter H. Sudmant, Joshua G. Schraiber, Sergi Castellano, Mark Lipson, Bonnie Berger, Christos Economou, Ruth Bollongino, Qiaomei Fu, Kirsten I. Bos, Susanne Nordenfelt, Heng Li, Cesare de Filippo, Kay Prüfer, Susanna Sawyer, Cosimo Posth, Wolfgang Haak, Fredrik Hallgren, Elin Fornander, Nadin Rohland, Dominique Delsate, Michael Francken, Jean-Michel Guinet, Joachim Wahl, George Ayodo, Hamza A. Babiker, Graciela Bailliet, Elena Balanovska, Oleg Balanovsky, Ramiro Barrantes, Gabriel Bedoya, Haim Ben-Ami, Judit Bene, Fouad Berrada, Claudio M. Bravi, Francesca Brisighelli, George B. J. Busby, Francesco Cali, Mikhail Churnosov, David E. C. Cole, Daniel Corach, Larissa Damba, George van Driem, Stanislav Dryomov, Jean-Michel Dugoujon, Sardana A. Fedorova, Irene Gallego Romero, Marina Gubina, Michael Hammer, Brenna M. Henn, Tor Hervig, Ugur Hodoglugil, Aashish R. Jha, Sena Karachanak-Yankova, Rita Khusainova, Elza Khusnutdinova, Rick Kittles, Toomas Kivisild, William Klitz, Vaidutis Kucinskas, Alena Kushniarevich, Leila Laredj, Sergey Litvinov, Theologos Loukidis, Robert W. Mahley, Béla Melegh, Ene Metspalu, Julio Molina, Joanna Mountain, Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi, Desislava Nesheva, Thomas Nyambo, Ludmila Osipova, Jüri Parik, Fedor Platonov, Olga Posukh, Valentino Romano, Francisco Rothhammer, Igor Rudan, Ruslan Ruizbakiev, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Antti Sajantila, Antonio Salas, Elena B. Starikovskaya, Ayele Tarekegn, Draga Toncheva, Shahlo Turdikulova, Ingrida Uktveryte, Olga Utevska, René Vasquez, Mercedes Villena, Mikhail Voevoda, Cheryl A. Winkler, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Pierre Zalloua, Tatijana Zemunik, Alan Cooper, Cristian Capelli, Mark G. Thomas, Andres Ruiz-Linares, Sarah A. Tishkoff, Lalji Singh, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Richard Villems, David Comas, Rem Sukernik, Mait Metspalu, Matthias Meyer, Evan E. Eichler, Joachim Burger, Montgomery Slatkin, Svante Pääbo, Janet Kelso, David Reich, and Johannes Krause. Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature13673.
Alison M. Devault, G. Brian Golding, Nicholas Waglechner, Jacob M. Enk, Melanie Kuch, Joseph H. Tien, Mang Shi, David N. Fisman, Anna N. Dhody, Stephen Forrest, Kirsten I. Bos, David J.D. Earn, Edward C. Holmes, Hendrik N. Poinar. “Second-Pandemic Strain of Vibrio cholerae from the Philadelphia Cholera Outbreak of 1849.” New England Journal of Medicine 370:334-340, doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1308663.
2013
Verena J Schuenemann*, Pushpendra Singh*, Thomas A Mendum, Ben Krause-Kyora, Günter Jäger, Kirsten I Bos, Alexander Herbig, Christos Economou, Andrej Benjak, Philippe Busso, Almut Nebel, Jesper L Boldsen, Anna Kjellström,Huihai Wu, Graham R Stewart, G Michael Taylor, Peter Bauer, Oona Y-C Lee, Houdini H T Wu, David E Minnikin,Gurdyal S Besra, Katie Tucker, Simon Roffey, Samba O Sow, Stewart T Cole, Kay Nieselt, Johannes Krause. “Genome-wide comparison of medieval and modern Mycobacterium leprae“. Science 341(6142):179-83, doi:10.1126/science.1238286.
Qiaomei Fu*, Alissa Mittnik*, Philip L F Johnson, Kirsten Bos, Martina Lari, Ruth Bollongino, Chengkai Sun, Liane Giemsch, Ralf Schmitz, Joachim Burger, Anna Maria Ronchitelli, Fabio Martini, Renata G Cremonesi, Jiří Svoboda, Peter Bauer, David Caramelli, Sergi Castellano, David Reich, Svante Pääbo, Johannes Krause. “A revised timescale for human evolution based on ancient mitochondrial genomes.” Current Biology 23(7):553-9, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.044.
2012
Kirsten I Bos, Philip Stevens, Kay Nieselt, Hendrik N Poinar, Sharon N Dewitte, Johannes Krause. “Yersinia pestis: New evidence for an old infection.” PLoS One 7(11):e49803. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049803.
2011
Kirsten I. Bos*, Verena J. Schuenemann*, G. Brian Golding, Hernán A. Burbano, Nicholas Waglechner, Brian K. Coombes, Joseph B. McPhee, Sharon N. DeWitte, Matthias Meyer, Sarah Schmedes, James Wood, David J. D. Earn, D. Ann Herring, Peter Bauer, Hendrik N. Poinar, Johannes Krause. “A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death”. Nature 478: 506–510. doi:10.1038/nature10549.
V. Schuenemann*, K. Bos*, S. DeWitte, S. Schmedes, J. Jamieson, A. Mittnik, S. Forrest, B. Coombes, J. Wood, D. Earn, W. White, J. Krause, H. Poinar. “Targeted enrichment of ancient pathogens yielding the pPCP1 plasmid of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, doi:10.1073/pnas.1105107108.
2010
J. Okello, L. Rodriguez, D. Poinar, K. Bos, A. Okwi, G. Bimenya, N. Sewankambo, K. Henry, M. Kuch, H. Poinar. “Quantitative Assessment of the Sensitivity of Various Commercial Reverse Transcriptases Based on Armored HIV RNA“. PLoS One, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013931
Linda Y. Rutledge, Kirsten I. Bos, Robert J. Pearce, Bradley N. White. Genetic and morphometric analysis of sixteenth century Canis skull fragments: implications for historic eastern and gray wolf distribution in North America. Conservation Genetics, 11(4): 1273-1281.
2009
Hendrik Poinar, Stuart Fiedel, Christine E. King, Alison M. Devault, Kirsti Bos, Melanie Kuch, Regis Debruyne. Comment on “DNA from Pre-Clovis Human Coprolites in Oregon, North America”. Science: Volume 325 Issue 5937, p.148.
2008
Regis Debruyne, Genevieve Chu, Christine E. King, Alison Devault, Kirsti Bos, Melanie Kuch, Regis Debruyne. Bos, Melanie Kuch, Carsten Schwarz, Paul Szpak, Darren R. Gröcke, Paul Matheus, Grant Zazula, Dale Guthrie, Duane Froese, Bernard Buigues, Christian de Marliave, Clare Flemming, Debi Poinar, Daniel Fisher, John Southon, Alexei N. Tikhonov, Ross D.E. MacPhee and Hendrik N. Poinar. Out of America: Ancient DNA Evidence for a New World Origin of Late Quaternary Woolly Mammoths. Current Biology, 18(17), pp. 1320-1326.
Published Abstracts/Professional Meeting Presentations
2015
Johannes Krause, Kirsten Bos, Alexander Herbig, Sebastien Gagneux, Jane Buikstra, and Anne C. Stone. “Ancient Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes suggest re-adaptation to pre-Columbian human populations.” Invited talk presented at the 2015 meeting for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vienna, Austria.
Maria Spyrou, Åshild Vågene, Luca Bondioli, Alessandra Sperduti, Kirsten I. Bos, and Johannes Krause. “Investigation of mitochondrial DNA diversity in early medieval Southern Italy.” Poster presented at the 2015 meeting for the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vienna, Austria.
Alexander Herbig, Frank Maixner, Kirsten Bos, Benjamin Buchfink, Chao Xie, Albert Zink, Johannes Krause, and Daniel Huson. “Ultra-fast alignment and analysis of metagenomic DNA sequence data from the Tyrolean Iceman.” Poster presented at the 2015 meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vienna, Austria.
Kirsten I. Bos, Kelly M. Harkins, Alexander Herbig, Sebatien Gagneux, Jane E. Buikstra, Anne C. Stone, and Johannes Krause. “Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes from the pre-Columbian New World suggest a marine route of disease transmission.” Presented at the 42nd annual meeting of the Paleopathology Association, St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
2014
Kirsten I. Bos, Kelly M. Harkins, Alexander Herbig, Jane E. Buikstra, Sebastien, Gagneux, Anne C. Stone, Johannes Krause. “Analyses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes from the pre-contact New World using high throughput sequencing.” Presented at the 20th European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association[link], Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Kirsten I. Bos, Kelly M. Harkins, Alexander Herbig, Sebastian Gagneux, Jane Buikstra, Anne C. Stone, Johannes Krause. A preliminary evaluation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes from the pre-contact New World using high throughput DNA sequencing. Presented at the 83rd annual meeting of the American Association for Physical Anthropology, Calgary, Alberta.
2013
Kirsten I. Bos, Johannes Krause. Palaeopathology in the era of high-throughput sequencing. Presented at the 15th annual conference for the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, York, United Kingdom.
Kirsten I. Bos, Johannes Krause. Genetic investigations of Y. pestis from archaeological populations. Presented at Cold Spring Harbor Asia, Yersinia 11, Suzhou, China.
Kirsten I. Bos, Johannes Krause. Ancient pathogen DNA: protocols, progress, and possibilities. Presented at the 78th annual meeting for the Society of American Archeology, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Kirsten I. Bos, Johannes Krause. The evolutionary history of Yersinia pestis. Presented at the 82nd annual meeting of the American Association for Physical Anthropologists, Knoxville, Tennessee.
2012
Kirsten I. Bos, Verena J. Schuenemann, Sharon N. DeWitte, Hendrik N. Poinar, and Johannes Krause. A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Presented at the European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Lille, France.
Kirsten I. Bos, Verena J. Schuenemann, G. Brian Golding, Hernàn A. Burbano, Nicholas Waglechner, Brian K. Coombes, Joseph B. McPhee, Sharon N. DeWitte, Hendrik N. Poinar, and Johannes Krause. A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Presented at the 81st annual meeting of the American Association for Physical Anthropologists, Portland, Oregon.
2011
Bos KI, Schuenemann VJ, Krause J, and Poinar HN. Fishing for ancient pathogens: reconstruction of the virulence-associated pPCP1 plasmid of Y. pestis from victims of the Black Death. Talk presented at the 39th annual meeting for the Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology, Montreal, Quebec.
Kirsten I. Bos, “Fishing for ancient pathogens: Yersinia pestis DNA from victims of the medieval plague in London, England”. Talk presented at the “Archéologie des épidémies” Workshop in Bordeaux, France.
2009
Bos KI, Forrest SA, and Poinar HN “Metagenomics and Ancient Human Disease: efficient targeted retrieval of ancient pathogen DNA for high-throughput sequencing applications”. Talk presented at the 37th annual meeting for the Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology, Vancouver B.C.
2008
Bos KI, DeWitte SN, and Poinar HN. “Metagenomics and disease in past human populations”. Talk presented at the 36th annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology, Hamilton, Ontario.
2007
Hendrik Poinar, Kirsten Bos, Melanie Kuch, Kristin Sobolik, Vaughn Bryant. “Metagenomics in Archaeology: The Paleofecal Record“, Presented at the 72nd annual meeting of the Society of American Archeology, Austin, Texas.
2002
Hoppa RD, Pletcher S and Bos K. “Mutation Accumulation and Reduced Mortality in Human Populations”. Poster presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Buffalo, New York.
Theses
| 2011 | Genetic Investigations into the Black Death. Ph.D. thesis. McMaster University, Department of Anthropology. |
| 2004 | Trinitapoli: a preliminary evaluation of the human skeletal material recovered from a Middle Bronze Age burial site in southern Italy. M.A. thesis. McMaster University, Department of Anthropology. |
Guest lectures and invited talks
2015
“Genomic analyses of ancient pathogens”. Invited talk delivered at the Ancient DNA: A Window to the Past and Future symposium in Thessaloniki, Greece.
“Genomic analyses of historical pathogens”. Invited talk delivered at the 2015 meeting for the European Society for Human Genetics in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
“Genomics analyses of historical pathogens”. Invited talk delivered at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
“Ancient pathogen genomics”. Lecture delivered as part of the European course on Comparative Genomics, École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Lyon, France.
2014
“The great plagues of Europe and their biological legacies”. Delivered at the University of Leuven, Belgium.
“Plagues of our ancestors as revealed through ancient DNA”. Delivered at the 2014 Genetic Genealogy Conference (Ireland), Dublin, Ireland.
“Genomic Investigations of Tuberculosis in the Precontact New World”. Delivered at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tuebingen, Germany.
“Reconstructing Ancient Pathogen Genomes from Historical Bone”. Delivered at the 2014 Forensica conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
“Genetic Investigations into the Black Death”. Public talk delivered at the Who Do You Think You Are convention, London, England.
2013
“Ancient pathogen genomics: what we learn from historical diseases”. Talk delivered at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.
“A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death”. Public talk delivered at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany.
“A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death”. Public talk delivered at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Bern, Switzerland.
2012
“Human health in the past as revealed through the genomes of ancient pathogens”. Plenary lecture delivered at the McMaster Life Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Symposium.
2011
“Fishing for ancient pathogens and the genome of the Black Death”. Talk delivered at the Hamilton Science Cafe.
“Genetic Investigations into the Black Death” McMaster University undergraduate level course lecture, ANTH 2U03.
2010
“Plagues in Ancient Populations”, talk delivered for the McMaster University Medical School
2009
“Secrets of ‘Secrets of the Dead’”, McMaster University undergraduate lecture level course lecture, ANTH 2E03.
“The Black Death from a Molecular Perspective”, McMaster University undergraduate level course lecture, ANTH 2U03.
“Medieval Mysteries meet Modern Technologies”, McMaster University undergraduate level course lecture, ANTH 2U03.
“Medieval Mysteries meet Modern Technologies: the case of the Black Death”, McMaster University Alumni Association.
2008
“Ancient DNA and disease”, McMaster University undergraduate level course lecture, ANTH 4J03.
2006
“The anthropology of health and the contributions of ancient DNA data”, McMaster University graduate level course lecture.
Internal Symposia presentations
| 2007 | McMaster Ancient DNA Centre laboratory seminar: “Molecular approaches to ancient pathogens: the case of the Black Death” |
| 2006 | McMaster University Anthropology departmental seminar: “Unlocking the bowels of history: the secrets that coprolites hold with special reference to the peopling of the Americas” |
Courses Taught
| 2015 | Special topics in Palaeogenetics, University of Tuebingen |
Mentoring Experience
Committee member for the following doctoral candidates:
Åshild Vågene (University of Tuebingen)
Maria Spyrou (University of Tuebingen)
Michal Feldman (University of Tuebingen)
Elizabeth Nelson (MPI, Science of Human History)
Cody Parker (MPI, Science of Human History)
Karen Giffin (MPI, Science of Human History)
Public Outreach
| 2014 | “Tales from a plague pit: what caused the Black Death?”. Article written for the Science in School journal issued by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. |
| 2013 | “The Mystery of Rome’s X Tomb”, filming for BBC documentary on a Roman catacomb, television programme aired July 2013. |
| 2013 | “Secrets in the Bones: the Hunt for the Black Death Killer”, filming for CBC programme special edition of The Nature of Things, aired January 16, 2014 |
Peer Reviewer for
- PLOS ONE
- Nature Communications
- American Journal of Physical Anthropology
- European Research Council Consolidator Grants
- Leaky Grants
- Scientific Reports
- Journal of Microbiology
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- Trends in Evolution and Ecology
- Molecular Ecology Resources
- International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
- Nexus (McMaster University)
Service
| 2009–2011 | Hiring committee, Guelph Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director |
| 2008–2011 | Guelph Symphony Orchestra Board Member (player representative) |
| 2007–2010 | Joint Health and Safety Committee member for Science, McMaster University |
| 2009 | Hiring committee for tier 1 Canada Research Chair in skeletal biology, McMaster University |
| 2008 | Department of Anthropology Graduate Student Representative |
| 2007 | Reviewer, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology |
| 2006 | Reviewer, Nexus (Canadian student Anthropology journal) |
| 2003 | Forensic consultant, City of Hamilton Police Dept. |
Professional organisations
| 2008–present | Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology |
| 2011–present | American Association of Physical Anthropologists |
| 2011–present | Paleopathology Association |
| 2012 | Society for American Archeology |