From Black Death to Coronavirus
with Hendrik Poinar, Professor, Department of Anthropology at McMaster University

In this short talk Dr. Poinar will discuss what past pandemics can teach us about the current one.

Dr. Poinar is a molecular evolutionary geneticist and biological anthropologist by training, and relies heavily on interdisciplinary research. He uses both chemical and molecular techniques to elucidate the state of preservation within forensic, archeological and paleontological remains. This information is subsequently used to devise novel techniques to extract the molecular information (DNA, RNA and/or protein sequences) and use it to address anthropological questions, such as the identification of pathogens responsible for past pandemics (i.e. The Black Death, The Plague of Justinian) as well as the evolutionary dynamics of infectious disease (i.e. Vibrio cholera).

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