Using AI to detect how humans have adapted to recent diseases

In the natural selection process, beneficial gene mutations are preserved from generation to generation until they become dominant in our genomes. The protection against pathogens drives the process. However, gene mutations that are protective against one pathogen could make people susceptible to new diseases whenever there is a change in the environment. Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is one example of such disease. It is an autoimmune disease that has emerged over the past 20,000 years in southern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa.