Working with ancient remains requires special attention, care and laboratory facilities that are dedicated for such delicate material.
Here at Uppsala University we conduct our studies in facilities that are specially equipped for working with minute amounts of DNA extracted from ancient materials.
The lab is physically isolated from any other laboratory and is exposed to UV, positive pressure and contains an air-lock that allow us to dress in special clean room suites, masks and gloves, and hence reduce the contamination risk to a minimum. Moreover, the actual bench work (DNA extraction, library preparations for next generation sequencing applications, PCR set up etc.) is carried out under lamina flow hoods including UV and HEPA-filter systems and is thus isolated from the surrounding lab environment.
The laboratory set-up, our strict routines and the training of our researchers fulfill highest standards and enable us to investigate endogenous ancient DNA obtained from various specimens including humans.
We are happy that the construction of the new lab in house 18 of the EBC has finally been finished and we can start working in our new laboratories that are also now part of the National Ancient DNA facility.
Some new impressions from our lab
Here are some older pictures from the building phase of the lab:
This 180 degree picture shows our old ancient DNA facility.
