Confirmed Speakers

The following invited speakers have confirmed their participation:

Johannes Krause
Leipzig, Germany

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Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause earned his Ph.D. in Genetics at Leipzig University. He was appointed junior professor for Paleogenetics at the University of Tübingen in 2010, and subsequently full professor for Archaeo- and Paleogenetics at the same university in 2013. In 2014, he became founding director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, heading the Department of Archaeogenetics. In 2018 he became full professor at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. He is one of the founding directors of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM), established in 2017. In 2020 he was reappointed to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and his department moved to Leipzig.

Prof. 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 contributed substantially to deciphering the Neanderthal genome 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 Siberia. His recent work includes revealing the genetic heritage of ancient Egyptians, reconstructing the first Pleistocene African genomes, uncovering the source of the epidemic plague bacteria that periodically caused historic and prehistoric epidemics in Europe, and clarifying the complex history of Europe’s prehistoric mass migrations. Prof. Dr. Krause has more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Reviews Genetics, PNAS, Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications, etc. He also authored two international bestsellers translated into more than 20 languages.

Presentation Title:

“Genetic History of Europe: Adaptation and Migration in prehistory”

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Ancient DNA can reveal prehistoric events that are diﬃcult to discern through the study of archaeological remains and modern genetic variation alone. Over the past decade, the newly emerging ﬁeld of archaeogenetics analyzed more than 5,000 ancient human genomes spanning the last 10,000 years of western Eurasian prehistory. We have uncovered at least two major genetic turnover events at the beginning and at the end of the Neolithic period that dramatically changed the genetic landscape of Europe. These changes were likely caused by at least two major migration events, ﬁrst by early farmers who spread from Anatolia beginning about 8,000 years ago, bringing agriculture and domesticated animals to Europe. Following their arrival, early farmers genetically mixed with indigenous Europeans over the next 3,000 years. At the end of the Neolithic period, about 5,000 years ago, we can ﬁnd the ﬁrst genetic evidence of another major migration event of groups from the eastern European Pontic steppe, north of the Black Sea, into the European heartland. The newcomers were herders, practiced pastoralism, and were highly mobile. Besides introducing new cultural practices, they may have been responsible for the spread of Indo-European languages.
Thus, we find that all modern European populations today are a genetic mixture of these steppe herders, early Anatolian farmers, and indigenous European hunter-gatherers in varying proportions. Over the past 10,000 years, we observe major changes in human phenotypes such as eye and skin color, and the ability to digest lactose, which can be attributed to genetic mixing and local biological adaptation.

Christoph Fusch
Nürnberg, Germany