The Tyrolean Iceman cometh, and shows us heart disease has ancient origins

Photo courtesy of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Wednesday, March 7 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

A few ground-up grams of spongy bone, drilled from a 5,300-year-old mummy’s right hip and painstakingly bathed, sequenced and analyzed, have yielded a near-complete genome of Italy’s Iceman. The discovery not only offers a glimpse into an early human ancestor, but also gives a fresh perspective on one of the leading causes of death in the 21st century: The Iceman had a genetic predisposition to heart disease

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