New paper in Science: The 5,300-year-old Helicobacter pylori genome of the Iceman

Publication

Five thousand years ago in the European Alps, a man was shot by an arrow, then clubbed to death. His body was subsequently mummified by ice until glacier retreat exhumed him in 1991. Subsequently, this ancient corpse has provided a trove of intriguing information about copper-age Europeans. Now, an international team including Dmitrij Turaev and Thomas Rattei from CUBE have identified the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori within the mummy's stomach contents. The strain the “Iceman” hosted appears to most closely resemble pathogenic Asian strains found today in Central and Southern Asia.