Dr. Krause focuses on the analysis of ancient DNA to investigate such topics as pathogens from historic and prehistoric epidemics, human genetic history, and human evolution. He has contributed to deciphering Neanderthal genetics and the shared genetic heritage of Neanderthals and modern humans. In 2010, while working at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, he discovered the first genetic evidence of the Denisovans, an extinct hominin found in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. His recent work includes revealing the genetic heritage of ancient Egyptians, reconstructing the oldest modern human genome, studying late Pleistocene genomes from Africa, Central Asia and Europe, uncovering the source of the epidemic plague bacteria that periodically caused historic and prehistoric epidemics in Eurasia, studying the evolution and genetic history of pathogens such as Mycobacterium leprae, M. tuberculosis, Treponema pallidum, Hepatitis B virus, Salmonella enterica, Helicobacter pylori and the Herpes virus, as well as clarifying the complex history of Western Eurasia’s prehistoric mass migrations.
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