Dr Ruairidh Macleod

Dr Ruairidh Macleod

PhD
Archaeology
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow since 2025

I study the genomes of past organisms by directly analysing the DNA (“ancient DNA”) from their preserved remains, often from archaeological or geological contexts. Remains like subfossilised bones and teeth, or environmental substrates like buried sediments, can act as a genetic palimpsest: a mixture of ancient DNA from many different microbes, plants and animals. I use these data and approaches from population genetics and metagenomics to understand how ecosystems change through time, with a particular interest in past zoonotic diseases (transmitted from animals to humans), like plague.

Links
Email: ruairidh.macleod@all-souls.ox.ac.uk
ORCID
Google Scholar Profile
GitHub Profile
Research Areas
Palaeogenomics
Genetics
Archaeological Science
Molecular Ecology

Selected Publications

Google Scholar Profile
Teaching

I currently lecture on topics related to ancient DNA and biomolecular archaeology at the School of Archaeology and in Human Sciences (Michaelmas 2025, Hilary 2026).

Past teaching experience at Cambridge and University College London can be found detailed in a CV .

Featured Research

B. Brentjes: Das Leopardenfell im Alten Orient. In: Das Pelzgewerbe Jg. XVI/Neue Folge 1965 Nr. 6, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin u. a., S. 249.

Oldest strains of plague caused deadly outbreaks 5,500 years ago

A new study, by an international team of scientists including Dr Ruairidh Macleod, Professor Christopher Ramsey and Professor Rick Schulting, published today in Nature reconstructs the earliest known plague genomes and for the first time shows that early forms of plague caused deadly outbreaks – long before the Black Death killed up to half the population of Europe.