Interaction between organic matter and mineral surfaces is critical to the preservation of biomolecules associated with artefacts yet this process is poorly understood. This is particularly relevant to more polar compounds such as organic acids and proteins that are notoriously difficult to extract and characterise. For example, proteins are known to persist when adsorbed to archaeological mineral artefacts, but their low concentration and difficulty of removal has meant that they have been largely overlooked. As part of a team, you will work on optimising methods for the combined extraction of a diverse range of biomolecules (DNA, proteins, lipids) from ceramics and evaluate the potential of other mineral artefacts for binding organic molecules. As part of the project, you will carry out a series of experiments testing the capacity of different biomolecules to bind to mineral surfaces and to explore the effects of different adhesives and sealants (e.g. resin and birch tar) on molecular preservation. As well as evaluating conventional approaches, you will explore novel extraction methods for combined DNA-protein-lipid extraction. You will receive training in ancient genomics and protein analysis at UCPH and GC-MS for lipid characterisation in York.
Plus d’informations :
[Website University of Copenhagen]