

A Meta-analysis of Archaeological Mycobacterium tuberculosis Cases

This project will address two questions: 1) what is the relationship between osteological lesions of the skeleton and the presence of tuberculosis DNA, and 2) what are the strongest osteological indicators that would suggest a person had been infected with tuberculosis. Due to the small sample size inherent in bioarchaeological research, performing a meta-analysis would help provide a more complete picture of the relationship between osteological lesions and pathogenic DNA. We will employ Bayesian statistics, using the program R, to determine the prior proportion of individuals who had tuberculosis DNA present in their skeletal tissue from archaeological sources and will then use current data to update the prior.

Focus Areas


Project Duration

8 weeks (June 7-July 30)

Prerequisite Courses

BIOL 247: Biometrics

Preferred Courses

BIOL 289: Genetics; BIOL 208: Microbiology

Number of Positions



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