About the Authors

Oona Y-C. Lee

Affiliation School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Houdini H. T. Wu

Affiliation School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Helen D. Donoghue

Affiliations Centre for Clinical Microbiology (M9), Royal Free Campus, University College London, London, United Kingdom, Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Mark Spigelman

Affiliations Centre for Clinical Microbiology (M9), Royal Free Campus, University College London, London, United Kingdom, Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and Ancient DNA, Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Charles L. Greenblatt

Affiliation Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and Ancient DNA, Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Ian D. Bull

Affiliation Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

Bruce M. Rothschild

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio, United States of America, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America

Larry D. Martin

Affiliation Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America

David E. Minnikin

Affiliation School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Gurdyal S. Besra

g.besra@bham.ac.uk

Affiliation School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: OY-CL HDD MS CLG BMR LDM DEM GSB. Performed the experiments: OY-CL HHTW IDB. Analyzed the data: OY-CL HHTW IDB DEM GSB. Wrote the paper: OY-CL HHTW HDD BMR DEM GSB.