Scientist uses old bones for modern cures

JERUSALEM, July 14 (UPI) -- Six-thousand-year-old bones excavated in Jericho may help an Israeli-Palestinian-German research group combat tuberculosis, researchers said.

The bones, excavated between 50 years and 70 years ago, will be tested for tuberculosis, leprosy, leishmania and malaria, Israeli team lead Mark Spigelman, of the Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said in a news release Monday.

Spigelman is known for his studies of ancient diseases found on mummified bodies and human remains and relating them to diseases in today's world, the university said.

Tuberculosis was well known in antiquity as it is today, Spigelman said. A third of the world's population has been infected by TB, resulting in approximately 3 million deaths per year in recent years.

While the origins of TB and its evolution remain unclear, scientists think it came from the Fertile Crescent, the location of Jericho, one of the earliest towns on Earth, Spigelman said.

By examining human and animal bones from this 9,000 B.C. site, the researchers should be able to study how people living in a crowded situation developed TB, and how the disease through changes in DNA of microbes and people, Spigelman said.