Maria A. Spyrou

spyrou
Postdoctoral researcher
University of Tübingen & Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Archaeogenetics

Research: I am interested in the evolution and history of infectious diseases as well as on how past epidemics/pandemics have shaped human societies. I approach these topics using genetics methodologies for the extraction and analysis of DNA from archaeological contexts, and for the identification of pathogen DNA traces in ancient human remains. Among other topics, my work has focused on reconstructing the history of the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis, from the First and Second Plague Pandemics.

See https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=sE0ZfLUAAAAJ&hl=en

Relevant publications include: 

Spyrou, M. A., Bos, K. I., Herbig, A. and Krause, J. (2019) 'Ancient pathogen genomics as an emerging tool for infectious disease research', Nature Rev Genet, pp. 1.

 

Spyrou, M. A.*, Keller, M.*, Tukhbatova, R. I., Scheib, C. L., Nelson, E. A., Valtueña, A. A., Neumann, G. U., Walker, D., Alterauge, A., Carty, N., Cessford, C., Fetz, H., Gourvennec, M., Hartle, R., Henderson, M., von Heyking, K., Inskip, S., Kacki, S., Key, F. M., Knox, E. L., Later, C., Maheshwari-Aplin, P., Robb, J. E., Schreiber, J., Kivisild, T., Castex, D., Lösch, S., Harbeck, M., Herbig, A., Bos, K. I. and Krause, J. (2019) 'Phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes', Nature communications, 10(1), pp. 1-13.

 

Keller, M.*, Spyrou, M. A.*, Scheib, C. I., Neumann, G. U., Kröpelin, A., Haas-Gebhard, B., Päffgeng, B., Haberstroh, J., Ribera i Lacomba, A., Raynaud, C., Cessford, C., Durand, R., Stadler, P., Nägele, K., Bates, J. S., Trautmann, B., Inskip, S., Peters, J., Robb, J. E., Kivisild, T., Castex, D., McCormick, M., Bos, K. I., Harbeck, M., Herbig, A. and Krause, J. (2019) 'Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541-750 CE)', Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.

 

Spyrou, M. A., Tukhbatova, R. I., Feldman, M., Drath, J., Kacki, S., de Heredia, J. B., Arnold, S., Sitdikov, A. G., Castex, D., Wahl, J., Gazimzyanov, I. R., Nurgaliev, D. K., Herbig, A., Bos, K. and Krause, J. (2016) 'Historical Y. pestis genomes reveal the European Black Death as the source of ancient and modern plague pandemics', Cell Host Microbe, 19(6), pp. 874-881.