Lab Work

Hello! So, although photos of pretty castles and things are more exciting, I should probably explain what I'm doing here in Copenhagen! I summed it up in my intro post, but I'm working at the Centre for Geogenetics, a large genetics group at the University of Copenhagen, with a special focus on ancient DNA. I'm specifically collaborating with Tom Gilbert, who focuses on human evolutionary history and domestication - he heads the Evogenetics group. His students/postdocs work on everything from grape domestication to human disease resistance to the introduction of sheep to Denmark. It's all really cool research, and I love hearing about what other people study here!

Ancient DNA doesn't actually have to be that old to qualify as "ancient" - DNA from something that has only been dead a few weeks is considered ancient, too! When DNA is no longer protected by cells (ie through decay, for example), it's very vulnerable to damage. This can cause breaks in the strand, or even changes in the base pairs (for example, it's common for Cs to end up as As thanks to chemical reactions!) Sunlight, water, and heat can be bad for DNA strands. Over time, the strands break down into smaller and smaller fragments, to the point where they're too short to tell you anything useful. So, when you're working with remains of some kind, remains from dark, dry and cold environments (or from permafrost) are much more likely to have DNA that is still long enough to be sequenced.

This is why, when you're working with ancient DNA, it helps to have a protective environment for it. Mostly, we're protecting our samples from ourselves. DNA from a skin cell or a strand of hair is in much better shape than DNA from ancient remains, and it's easy to "contaminate" our samples with our own DNA. This is a much bigger problem in human research, but can be problematic when you work with other animals, too. When working with ancient DNA, people often wear full body-suits, multiple layers of gloves, face masks, hair nets, and more. Here's how we generally look in our ancient lab at Illinois - it's a little hard to identify people sometimes!

Our lab setup at Illinois is pretty nice - we have an anteroom where we store our suits and get changed, and another room devoted to working with ancient DNA. It has special air filters to keep the air clean, and there are separate spaces for the three main tasks - drilling bone (to powder it up), extracting DNA (to get rid of all the other junk in the bone powder), and amplifying (to make more copies of the DNA). Here you can see all three of the stations (Thanks to Amanda, my labmate and skilled photographer!).

The labs here in Copenhagen are on another level completely. First, they have separate labs for human and animal/plant DNA. Second, the labs are not just one room but several - the door into the lab opens onto this hallway, with a long row of freezers. From there, depending on what stage of the process you're in, you go to different rooms. There's a room for drilling, as well as two separate rooms each for extractions and amplifications. Each room is outfitted with all the equipment you need, so you can work in your own space without worrying about getting in someone else's way. The room at the end of the hallway above is an amplification prep room, and the next picture is of the drilling room.

The white walls and obsessive focus on cleanliness (we bleach everything we use and there are UV lights that are turned on at night to help reduce contamination risks) makes it a little hard to work long hours in the lab. I think I'd go a little crazy without the radio - there's one in each room. I've found Europop to be a great motivator! But also, there are some nice places to hang out in right by the lab. When I have to wait for something to finish, it's nice to walk around in the Botanical Garden right by the lab or in the King's Garden across the street. Between the beautiful weather and the pretty greenery, it's a nice break from the ancient lab.

And my favorite foodie market, Torvehallerne, is only 5 minutes away! I think it's going to be hard to *not* get lunch from that pizza place every day, especially when it's so close. Luckily, there are lots of other foodie goodies to distract me. :) Next time, I hope to have some more sightseeing photos for you!