Joachim Burger

Professor Dr Joachim Burger (born 27 June 1969 in Aschaffenburg, West Germany) is a German anthropologist and molecular biologist based at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, where he runs the Palaeogenetics Group at the Institute of Anthropology.

Burger has pioneered the application of ancient DNA technology to resolve anthropological, palaeontological and archaeological questions, particularly concerning humans and domestic animals in the Holocene period. He received his MA in Anthropology at the Institute of Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, in 1996, and his PhD in Biology at the Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany, in 2000. Since 2000 he has been based at Johannes Gutenberg University, and was made Professor (Juniorprofessor) in Molecular Archaeology in 2005, and Professor in Anthropology in 2010.

The main focus of Burger's research is human population genetics of Europe in the early Holocene, and of Central Asia during Bronze and Iron Age. He applies palaepopulation-genetic methods, i.e. uses ancient DNA data from archaeological skeletons and statistical inference methods to compare these "fossil" DNA sequences amongst each other and to modern-day populations. He pioneered the field of human Palaeopopulation Genetics. Together with an international team he showed in 2009 that the first European farmers were immigrants to the continent and not descendants of local hunter-gatherers. He also works on the population genetics of animal domestication.

Burger is also Editor of the Journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

• Gerbault P, Liebert A, Itan Y, Powell A, Currat M, Burger J, Swallow DM & Thomas MG; Evolution of Lactase Persistence: an example of human niche construction. Phil Trans Royal Soc. 2011, 366, 1566: 863-877.
• Chahal HS, Stals K, Unterländer M, Balding DJ, Thomas MG, Kumar AV, Besser GM, Atkinson AB, Morrison PJ, Howlett TA, Levy MJ, Orme SM, Akker SA, Abel RL, Grossman AB, Burger J, Ellard S, Korbonits M; AIP Mutation in an 18th Century Giant and Contemporary Families with Pituitary Adenomas. N Engl J Med. 2011, 364: 43-50.
• Bramanti B, Thomas MG, Haak W, Unterländer M, Jores P, Tambets K, Antanaitis-Jacobs I, Haidle MN, Jankauskas R, Kind C-J, Lüth F, Terberger T, Hiller J, Matsumura S, Forster P, Burger J; 2009 Genetic discontinuity between local hunter-gatherers and central Europe's first farmers. Science 326: 137-140.
• Itan Y, Powell A, Beaumont MA, Burger J & Thomas MG; The Origins of Lactase Persistence in Europe. PLoS Computational Biology. 2009. 5,8: e1000491.
• Barnett, Ross; Shapiro, Beth; Barnes, Ian; Yo, Simon Y.W.; Burger, Joachim; Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki; Higham, Thomas F.G.; Wheeler, H.Todd; et al. (April 2009). "Phylogeography of lions (Panthera leo ssp.) reveals three distinct taxa and a late Pleistocene reduction in genetic diversity" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 18 (8): 1668–1677. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04134.x. PMID 19302360. Retrieved 2011-11-23. 
• Stock F, Edwards CJ, Bollongino R, Finlay EK, Burger J & Bradley DG; Cytochrome b sequences of ancient cattle and wild ox support phylogenetic complexity in the ancient and modern bovine populations. Animal Genetics. 2009. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2009.01905.x.
• Bollongino R, Elsner J, Vigne J-D, Burger J; Y-SNPs Do Not Indicate Hybridisation between European Aurochs and Domestic Cattle. PLoS ONE. 2008. 3,10: e3418.
• Scheu A, Hartz S, Schmölcke U, Tresset A, Burger J, Bollongino R; Ancient DNA provides no evidence for independent domestication of cattle in Mesolithic Rosenhof, Northern Germany. J. Arch. Sci. 2008, 35: 1257-1264.
• Edwards CJ, Bollongino R, Scheu A, Chamberlain A, Tresset A, Larson G, Czwerwinski P, Arbogast R-M, Arndt B, Baird JF, Bartosiewicz L, Benecke N, Budja M, Chaix L, Choyke AM, Coqueugniot E, Döhle H-J, Göldner H, Hartz S, Helmer D, Herzig B, Hongo H, Mashkour M, Özdogan M, Pucher E, Roth G, Schade-Lindig S, Schmölcke U, Schulting R, Stephan E, Uerpmann H-P, Vörös I, Vigne J-D, Bradley DG, Burger J; Genetic Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs. Proc. R. Soc. B 2007, 274, 1616: 1377-1385.
• Burger J, Kirchner M, Bramanti B, Haak W, Thomas MG; Absence of the Lactase-Persistence associated allele in early Neolithic Europeans. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2007, 104,10: 3736-3741.
• Burger J, Gronenborn D, Forster P, Matsumura S, Bramanti B, Haak W; Response to Comment on ‘Ancient DNA from the First European Farmers in 7500-Year-Old Neolithic Sites’ Science. 2006, 312: 1875b.
• Burger J, Hemmer H; Urgent Call for Further Breeding of the Relic Zoo Population of the Critically Endangered Barbary Lion [Panthera leo leo (Linnaeus 1758)]. European Journal of Wildlife Research. 2006, 52: 54-58.
• Bollongino R, Edwards CJ, Alt KW, Burger J, Bradley DG; Early history of European domestic cattle as revealed by ancient DNA. Biology Letters. 2006, 2: 155-159.
• Haak W, Forster P, Bramanti B, Matsumura S, Brandt G, Tänzer M, Villems R, Renfrew C, Gronenborn D, Alt KW, Burger J; Ancient DNA from the First European farmers in 7500-year-old Neolithic sites. Science. 2005, 310: 1016-1018.
• Haak W, Gruber P, Ruhli FJ, Boni T, Ulrich-Bochsler S, Frauendorf E, Burger J, Alt KW, Molecular evidence of HLA-B27 in a historical case of ankylosing spondylitis. Arthritis Rheum. 2005, 52,10: 3318-3319.
• Burger J, Rosendahl W, Loreille O, Hemmer H, Eriksson T, Götherström A, Hiller J, Collins MJ, Wess T, Alt KW; Molecular phylogeny of the extinct cave lion Panthera leo spelaea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2004, 30: 841–849.
• Pfeiffer I, Burger J, Brenig B; Diagnostic polymorphisms in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene allow discrimination between cattle, sheep, goat, roe buck and deer by PCR-RFLP. BMC Genetics. 2004, 5: 30.