Baking Out DNA

Reported February 2008

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Mummies have always held secrets, but now one of them has led to a new DNA technique.

Our fascination with mummies has sold millions at the box office. Now these preserved people -- mummies more than 800 years old -- are helping scientists reveal the mysteries of the past.

University of New Haven forensic scientist Dr. Heather Coyle is experimenting with a new technique by going back in time.

These are skeletal remains recently gathered from a Gobi desert cave. Surprisingly, Dr. Coyle was able to extract DNA from these mummies, but when she tried the same method on a body found in the USA, she was not as successful.

"We realized that the bone we were trying to process was not yielding DNA from the case we were working on," Dr. Coyle said.

Standard DNA procedure for bones is to freeze them. When Coyle and her team re-examined the mummy remains they realized the Gobi desert created a natural bone baking process.

"It makes the bone more brittle so it makes it easier to grind and break open more cells, so we think we are accessing more DNA to begin with," Dr. Coyle said.

Dr. Coyle decided to mimic nature by baking the cold case bones for 72 hours. Liquid nitrogen was then poured into a pulverizer. The bone was placed inside, ready to be crushed. After a short cycle the bone was turned to powder and ready for DNA extraction.

Coyle hopes her new technique will someday help close the book on several cold case files.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Julie Winkel, Director of Media Relations
University of New Haven
(203) 932-7246
jwinkel@newhaven.edu

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