Michelle Ziegler | Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (original) (raw)

Papers and Book Chapters: History of Medicine by Michelle Ziegler

The is the introduction to a themed issue of the journal Landscapes on 'Landscapes of Disease'. I... more The is the introduction to a themed issue of the journal Landscapes on 'Landscapes of Disease'. It discusses the concept as well as introducing the papers in the issue.

Ziegler, M. R. (2016). Plague in Bede's Prose Life of Cuthbert. In The Sacred and the Secular in ... more Ziegler, M. R. (2016). Plague in Bede's Prose Life of Cuthbert. In The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing: Sites, Objects, Texts. (pp. 65–77). Routledge. AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art Volume 10

This essay summarizes what we know about the spread of Yersinia pestis today, assesses the potent... more This essay summarizes what we know about the spread of Yersinia pestis today, assesses the potential risks of tomorrow, and suggests avenues for future collaboration among scientists and humanists. Plague is both a re-emerging infectious disease and a developed biological weapon, and it can be found in enzootic foci on every inhabited continent except Australia. Studies of the Black Death and successive epidemics can help us to prepare for and mitigate future
outbreaks (and other pandemics) because analysis of medieval plagues provides a crucial context for modern scientific discoveries and theories. These studies prevent us from stopping at easy answers, and they force us to acknowledge that there is still much that we do not understand.

Global Health - Edited Volumes by Michelle Ziegler

Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first book to synthesize the new evidence and resea... more Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first book to synthesize the new evidence and research methods that are providing fresh answers to crucial questions in the history of the Black Death. It was only in 2011, thanks to ancient DNA recovered from remains unearthed in London’s East Smithfield cemetery, that the full genome of the plague pathogen was identified. This single-celled organism probably originated about 7-8000 years ago and has caused three pandemics in recorded history: the Justinianic (or First) Plague Pandemic, around 541-750; the Black Death (Second Plague Pandemic), conventionally dated to the 1340s; and the Third Plague Pandemic, usually dated from around 1894 to the 1930s. This ground-breaking book brings together scholars from the humanities and social and physical sciences to address the question of how recent work in genetics, zoology, and epidemiology can enable a rethinking of the Black Death's global reach and its larger historical significance. Aside from the Preface ("The Black Death and Ebola: On the Value of Comparison,” which was newly composed for the hardback edition), the essays here first appeared in the inaugural double issue of The Medieval Globe (vol. 1, 2014), a new journal sponsored by the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The journal issue remains available open-access at: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/1/.

This book should be cited as follows: Monica H. Green, ed., Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death, TMG Occasional Volumes 1 (Kalamazoo, MI, and Bradford, UK: Arc Medieval Press, 2015), ISBN is 978-1-942401-00-1.

A symposium held at the University of Illinois in January 2015 to discuss the volume as a point of intersection between the sciences and the humanities was videotaped. That can now be seen online at: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/The+Black+Death+and+BeyondA+New+Research+at+the+Intersection+of+Science+and+the+Humanities/1_g1tg61l5.

A review of the volume, by Lester K. Little, can be found here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/22361/28313.

Selected Blog Posts by Michelle Ziegler

Contagions blog, Apr 7, 2013

A review of the volume, by Lester K. Little, can be found here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/22361/28313.

Contagions blog, Apr 7, 2013

To understand the impact of an epidemic, it has to be placed within the social and environmental ... more To understand the impact of an epidemic, it has to be placed within the social and environmental context of the time. Late Antiquity in Ireland was a period of rapid social evolution as Ireland moved from outside the Roman world to a place of respect in post-Roman Christendom. This transition involved nearly every aspect of Irish life including conversion to Christianity, shifts in agriculture from a primarily pastoral economy to a more balanced agriculture, and the rise of powerful kings subsuming smaller groups and increasing architectural infrastructure.

This study has been designed to place the Plague of Justinian (541-c. 750) in the context of other epidemics and natural disasters in Ireland. The plague is the primary recorded epidemic in the sixth and seventh century, then transitioning into a cycle of cattle murrains, other human illnesses and famine in the eighth century. The environmental context will be evaluated by a review of physical climate and archaeological data, written references to climate and agriculture, and a discussion of the effect of malnutrition on the human immune system. This will be followed by a discussion of human diseases and cattle murrains recorded in the Irish annals. Finally, an analysis of the interaction between epidemics, epizootics and famine on the human experience in early medieval Ireland. This study will build on a previous presentation made at Kalamazoo in 2012.

Technological advances in the last two decades have revolutionized our study of microbial evoluti... more Technological advances in the last two decades have revolutionized our study of microbial evolution. Not only is it practical to sequence the entire genome of multiple strains of a microbe to reconstruct its family (phylogenetic) tree, but ancient DNA (aDNA) technology has advanced to the point that we can now sequence genomes from archaeological remains. Nowhere can this work inform our understanding of history more than for Yersinia pestis, better known as ‘the plague’.

A large multinational group recently published a consensus phylogenetic tree for Yersinia pestis using clones from Asia, Africa, North and South America that allows us characterize the plague’s biogeography, genetic diversity, approximately when and where it originated, and to begin to track transmission routes. It is an evolutionary map to Yersinia pestis’ history. Ancient DNA has not only confirmed Yersinia pestis as the cause of the medieval plague, but also allows us to begin to tack parts of this evolutionary map in space and time including the initial wave of the Black Death. This session will also discuss the state of the molecular evidence for the medieval plagues.

Richard C. Hoffmann. An Environmental History of Medieval Europe. Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. C... more Richard C. Hoffmann. An Environmental History of Medieval Europe. Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. Cambridge University Press, April 2014. 25paperback,25 paperback, 25paperback,12.50 e-book.

Keith Wrightson, Ralph Tailor’s Summer: A Scrivener, his City, and the Plague. New Haven and Lond... more Keith Wrightson, Ralph Tailor’s Summer: A Scrivener, his City, and the Plague. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011.

William Summers, The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910-1911: Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease, Ya... more William Summers, The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910-1911: Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease, Yale U Press, 2012

A.P. Cook & N.D. Cook. The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville. Louisi... more A.P. Cook & N.D. Cook. The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville. Louisiana State University Press, 2009. 296 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8071-4360-5.

Sheldon Harris. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cov... more Sheldon Harris. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-up. (Rev. ed, 2002)

Holly Tucker, Blood Work: A Tale of Murder and Medicine in the ‘Scientific Revolution’. Norton, 2... more Holly Tucker, Blood Work: A Tale of Murder and Medicine in the ‘Scientific Revolution’. Norton, 2011.

. A multi-omic systems approach to elucidating Yersinia virulence mechanisms. Molecular BioSystems.

This essay explores the content, context, and attitude toward St. Oswald, King of Northumbria in ... more This essay explores the content, context, and attitude toward St. Oswald, King of Northumbria in the ninth century Historia Brittonum from Merfyn's Gwynedd, with particular attention to its Anglophilic viewpoint.

The Heroic Age, Jan 1, 2001

To understand King Oswald of Bernicia (r. 634/5-642), it is vital to understand his relationship ... more To understand King Oswald of Bernicia (r. 634/5-642), it is vital to understand his relationship with the Irish kingdom of Dalriada, which in his lifetime straddled the Irish Sea with territory in Ireland and Scotland. Ramifications of Oswald's exile in Dalriada extended into the secular and ecclesiastical world of Bernicia and beyond.

heroicage.org

This essay challenges the view that Wilfrid of York inspired, sent or supported Willibrord's miss... more This essay challenges the view that Wilfrid of York inspired, sent or supported Willibrord's mission to Frisia. The evidence of Wilfrid's evangelization of Frisia and Willibrord's life from his youth at Ripon through his consecration as Archbishop of Frisia is reviewed. Navigation: 8/26/2016 The Heroic Age: The Ripon Connection? Willibrord, Wilfrid, and the Mission to Frisia

The Heroic Age, Jan 1, 1999

Among the men proposed as the historical King Arthur is a young Dalriadan prince named Artúr or A... more Among the men proposed as the historical King Arthur is a young Dalriadan prince named Artúr or Artuir. 1 Before discussing his merits as a potential King Arthur, 2 the known facts of his life will be reviewed. I hope to show, based on these facts, that there is no reason to ...

Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern …, Jan 1, 1999

The name Brigantia represents three separate concepts: a goddess, a people, and a tribal federati... more The name Brigantia represents three separate concepts: a goddess, a people, and a tribal federation. By the Roman period, the name represented a tribal federation compromising all of what would become the Roman province of Britannia Secunda, except for the Parisi ...

Cancer letters, Jan 1, 1996

Chromosome 17~13.3 is frequently deleted in human ovarian carcinoma, and the 15 kb critical regio... more Chromosome 17~13.3 is frequently deleted in human ovarian carcinoma, and the 15 kb critical region of deletion may contain a tumor suppressor gene. A 2.3 kb cDNA has been identified which spans 17 kb of genomic DNA, including 8.1 kb within the critical region, and thus is a candidate tumor suppressor gene. This highly conserved gene has significant sequence similarity to a yeast gene of unknown function and to one of the yeast enzymes in the diphthamide synthetic pathway, DPH2, that has it role in global protein synthesis regulation. This gene, named DPH2L (diphthamide biosynthesis protein 2 -like), is expressed in multiple tissues and stages of development.

Cancer research, Jan 1, 1996

Multiple chromosome 17 loci may be involved in ovarian carcinogen esis. Fifty-seven sporadic ovar... more Multiple chromosome 17 loci may be involved in ovarian carcinogen esis. Fifty-seven sporadic ovarian epithelial tumors were examined for loss of heterozygosity at 15 loci on chromosome i7p. Eighty % (39 of 49) of informative tumors had allelic loss in i'1p13.3 at D17S30, D17S28, or both loci within this region, including 3 of 7 tumors of low malignant potential and 4 of 5 nonmetastatic carcinomas. The smallest region of overlapping deletion extends from D17S28 to D17S30, a distance of 15 kb. Further more, several tumors have breakpoints within the region detected by the D17S30 probe. Chromosome i'lpl3.3 genes with potential tumor suppres sor function Include HIC-1, DPH2L (N. J. Phillips et aL Isolation of a human diphthamide biosynthesis gene on chromosome 17pi33, submitted for publication@OVCA1, PEDF, and CRK.The HIC-1 coding sequence lies 1 kb centromeric to the D17S28â€"S17S30 region of deletion (M. Makos Wales et aL, Nat. Med., 1: 570â€"577, 1995) but remains a candidate because 5'.regulatory elements may lie within the critical region. Portions of the

International journal of …, Jan 1, 1993

In order to identify a common region of deletion on chromosome 17 potentially containing a tumor-... more In order to identify a common region of deletion on chromosome 17 potentially containing a tumor-suppressor gene, 27 ovarian carcinomas and 3 ovarian tumors of low malignant potential (LMP) were examined for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at 6 p arm and 10 q arm loci. Ninety percent of all tumors had deletions at one or more loci. On the p arm, there was a single near-common region of deletion on 17p13.3 (D17S30/pYNZ22.1; 86% LOH), an intervening locus with a low LOH rate, and a more proximal locus on 17p11.2 (D17S58/pEW301; 82% LOH) with a high LOH rate. In less aggressive tumors, LOH at D17S30 was not accompanied by LOH at p53. The q arm had a common region of deletion for high-stage carcinoma at D17S579 (Mfd188; 74% LOH) on q21, a locus tightly linked to the familial breast-ovarian-cancer syndrome (BRCAI) locus. D17S579 was lost in all informative high-stage carcinomas and retained in all low-stage carcinomas and tumors of LMP. There may be at least 2 tumor-suppressor genes, an early-acting gene on the p arm and a gene on the q arm involved in tumor progression and metastasis.

Pigment cell research, Jan 1, 1992

Sodium iodate damages retinal pigment epithelium specifically, but the reason for this specificit... more Sodium iodate damages retinal pigment epithelium specifically, but the reason for this specificity is not well understood. The work reported here describes an effect of sodium iodate on melanin, a major component of the retinal pigment epithelium. Sodium iodate increases the ability of melanin to convert glycine to glyoxylate. Almost ten times as much glyoxylate is formed when sodium iodate is present compared to the amount formed with melanin alone, although iodate alone does not convert glycine to glyoxylate. A chemical reaction between sodium iodate and melanin is suggested as a partial explanation of the specificity of iodate toxicity towards retinal pigment epithelium.

"To understand the impact of an epidemic, it has to be placed within the social and envi... more "To understand the impact of an epidemic, it has to be placed within the social and environmental context of the time. Late Antiquity in Ireland was a period of rapid social evolution as Ireland moved from outside the Roman world to a place of respect in post-Roman Christendom. This transition involved nearly every aspect of Irish life including conversion to Christianity, shifts in agriculture from a primarily pastoral economy to a more balanced agriculture, and the rise of powerful kings subsuming smaller groups and increasing architectural infrastructure. This study has been designed to place the Plague of Justinian (541-c. 750) in the context of other epidemics and natural disasters in Ireland. The plague is the primary recorded epidemic in the sixth and seventh century, then transitioning into a cycle of cattle murrains, other human illnesses and famine in the eighth century. The environmental context will be evaluated by a review of physical climate and archaeological data, written references to climate and agriculture, and a discussion of the effect of malnutrition on the human immune system. This will be followed by a discussion of human diseases and cattle murrains recorded in the Irish annals. Finally, an analysis of the interaction between epidemics, epizootics and famine on the human experience in early medieval Ireland. This study will build on a previous presentation made at Kalamazoo in 2012. "

International journal of …, 1993

Landscapes, 2016

In their book An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections, anthropologists Ronald Barrett and Geo... more In their book An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections, anthropologists Ronald Barrett and George Armelagos argue that settlement, sustenance and social order are the driving forces of disease emergence. They grounded their work in physical, cultural and political landscapes throughout human history. Epidemics are a product of landscapes sculpted by humans to fit our intentions, if not always optimally our needs, are therefore are not entirely 'natural' (Barrett and Armelagos 2013, 110). Considering an epidemic, even one as great as the Black Death, as an unmitigated natural disaster ignores all of the very human pathways it travelled and the landscapes that made it welcome. Labelling an epidemic as a natural disaster also absolves human society of responsibility for its mitigation or its future prevention. Studying 'Landscapes of Disease' epitomises the type of research on reactions to adversity and resilience called for by the European Science Foundation in Landscape in a Changing World: Bridging Divides, Integrating Disciplines, Serving Society in 2010. To understand the challenges that climate and landscape change pose to human health in our modern world, we must study the landscapes of disease over the longue durée. Landscape epidemiology Most of the epidemic-causing infectious disease organisms known in history were either transmitted from animals to humans (zoonoses), transmitted by insect vectors, or were transmitted by consumption of contaminated food or water. Diseases spread by these mechanisms are best understood by considering the entire living and non-living environment in order to understand the persistence of the microbe in the environment among animal hosts, its transmission and the progress of a human epidemic. Such an approach, using landscape as a frame for understanding, has been described as landscape epidemiology (Lambin et al. 2010), whose principles enable a broad view of a historic landscape of disease. Examples of human diseases best understood by landscape epidemiology include plague, malaria, cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, a variety of parasites and even influenza (Lambin et al. 2010; Reisen 2010). These methods have also been applied to multiple veterinary and plant diseases (Paull et al. 2012; Reisen 2010). A landscape epidemiological approach can also tackle global, multi-host epizootics, such as avian influenza (Cumming et al. 2015). Although the principles of landscape epidemiology were developed to understand contemporary problems, most of the data needed to apply these principles to diseases of the past can be gathered from complementary historicist fields such as climatology, geology

ABSTRACT Technological advances in the last two decades have revolutionized our study of microbia... more ABSTRACT Technological advances in the last two decades have revolutionized our study of microbial evolution. Not only is it practical to sequence the entire genome of multiple strains of a microbe to reconstruct its family (phylogenetic) tree, but ancient DNA (aDNA) technology has advanced to the point that we can now sequence genomes from archaeological remains. Nowhere can this work inform our understanding of history more than for Yersinia pestis, better known as ‘the plague’. A large multinational group recently published a consensus phylogenetic tree for Yersinia pestis using clones from Asia, Africa, North and South America that allows us characterize the plague’s biogeography, genetic diversity, approximately when and where it originated, and to begin to track transmission routes. It is an evolutionary map to Yersinia pestis’ history. Ancient DNA has not only confirmed Yersinia pestis as the cause of the medieval plague, but also allows us to begin to tack parts of this evolutionary map in space and time including the initial wave of the Black Death. This session will also discuss the state of the molecular evidence for the medieval plagues.