She is Group Leader of Molecular Palaeopathology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.
Bos and Verena Schuenemann of the University of Tübingen, led a research project, co-sponsored by the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre and the University of Tübingen, to sequence the DNA of the Black Death pathogen, Yersinia pestis, recovered from plague victims at a medieval London burial site.
[2][3] After examining bacterial samples from 46 teeth and 53 bones, the research team was able to establish that Yersinia pestis was the cause of Black Death, which killed over 30 million people in 14th century Europe.
[4] The team also determined that the ancient pathogen is the predecessor of all modern variants of plague and the medieval bacteria hasn't changed much since the Middle Ages.
[4][5] Bos led a recent study, which discovered that an ancient strain of tuberculosis (TB) migrated to the New World by infected sea lions and seals.