I hope that other researchers will now go back through their ancient genomes and find more carriers of integrated HHV6 viruses, as this is the first peek at an exciting global story.

It's tough to do molecular clock estimates on how fast these viruses mutate, because they can switch back and forth between evolving at the human mutation rate (relatively slow) and their own viral mutation rate (faster). Ancient DNA can currently only give us minimum ages for these viruses.

These viruses infect ~70% of adults, but between 0.5-3.5% of people worldwide actually have a 6A or B virus *in their genome*, hiding in a telomere, inherited from an ancient ancestor. We can see these ancient integration events were already present in Europe hundreds of years ago - minimum.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... It's finally out! Meriam Guellil expertly led this project from the first HHV6 detection to the final paper. We found both human herpesviruses 6A and 6B in ancient remains going back 2500 years.

This work is likely just the start of better understanding the deep history and spatio-temporal dynamics of these importance viruses.

Great to play a role in this work, led from initial screening to final paper by Meriam Guellil @univie.ac.at.

There are likely many more HHV-6A/HHV-6B to be found in ancient human genomes to further support direct calibration of the age of integrated viral clades and acquired HHV infections.

Ancient genomes show that these viruses have been co-evolving with human populations across Europe, dating from early Italy to medieval England, Belgium, and Russia; underscoring a deep, ongoing host-virus history.

Through screening of ~4,000 archaeological human samples, this work reconstructed 11 ancient genomes of HHV-6A and HHV-6B. These viruses still infect many of us today.

New paper out in Science Advances:
Tracing 2500 years of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B diversity through ancient DNA
👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our paper on the first ancient Human betaherpesvirus 6 A/B (HHV-6) genomes is published in Science Advances! 🥳

In collaboration with @virologyhouldcroft.bsky.social @lucyvandorp.bsky.social @lehtisaag.bsky.social @ktambets.bsky.social & other amazing researchers!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New Publication!

New Article by #HEASVienna member @meriamguellil.bsky.social et al on 'Urbanization and genetic homogenization in the medieval Low Countries revealed through a ten-century paleogenomic study of the city of Sint-Truiden'

#HEASPublications

www.heas.at/research/pub...

Discover our results of the largest ancient DNA study ever conducted on a single burial site: 400 skeletons from the Belgian city Sint-Truiden (8th–18th century). A unique glimpse into 1000 years of genetic history. (1/9) @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social

Forschende wollen mehr über die Evolution von Viren, die von Tieren auf Menschen überspringen, herausfinden. Sie konzentrierten sich auf Museumsobjekte von #Menschenaffen, denn bei ihnen ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit von #Zoonosen hoch. @univie.ac.at 🐒

scilog.fwf.ac.at/magazin/die-...

You asked and we listened! The ISBA11 abstract submission deadline is extended to January 31st! Submit your abstract before time runs out!
www.isba11.com/abstract-sub...

#archaeology #biomoleculararchaeology #ISBA #ISBA11 #archaeologists
@isbarchaeology.bsky.social @archaeobiomics.bsky.social

Are you trying to recover Plasmodium from ancient teeth? Negative results? Here we show that a denser samplig could yield positive results. Great work of Aejandro and Michelle!! @heasvienna.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We have put together a Starter Pack to connect you with #HEASVienna members and partner institutions who are now on Bluesky.

Please feel free to share!

go.bsky.app/5WNwafC

2 fully funded 4-years PhD positions at my group at the fantastic Department of Evolutionary Anthropology in Vienna!! @univie.ac.at to start in February 2025 (or as soon as possible). The students will work on ERC SHADOWS project 🦊🐶🐺😀. PhD 1 on sedaDNA, PhD 2 on Megafauna genomics 🦁🐅🪨⚒️