I recently had the exciting opportunity to visit the UCL Ancient DNA Laboratory, a highly controlled research space where scientists reconstruct genetic stories from centuries, and sometimes millennia, past. Before any ancient samples can be handled, the journey begins with a meticulous ritual: eliminating every possible trace of modern DNA.
To enter the lab, researchers pass through a series of rooms designed to minimise contamination. In the first, staff carefully suit up, donning shoe covers, boiler suits, hair nets, face masks and two layers of gloves. This layered process protects fragile genetic traces, often thousands of years old, from even the faintest interference.
Among the projects underway in the lab, is the study of early-20th-century microscope slides containing blood stains with malaria infections from Europe. Using advanced sequencing methods, Dr Lucy van Dorp is able to recover genomic data from the parasite samples allowing them to explore the full spectrum of diversity in the malaria parasite. Crucially, she can reconstruct the evolutionary trajectories that led to the emergence of anti-malarial drug resistance.
Another project explores a very different strand of human history; the story of ancient bread. Humans have been eating cereals for more than 20,000 years. But fermentation, the process behind bread and beer, emerged far more recently. Dr Pia Aanstad, a researcher in the Thomas Lab, is investigating the microbes found in ancient cereal-based foods. By analysing ancient bread samples and fermentation residues, the team hopes to uncover how, and when, humans began harnessing microbial processes for flavour, nutrition and preservation.
At its core, the UCL Ancient DNA Lab is a place where science meets history — where molecules recovered from slides, soils, bones or food remains reveal how humans, pathogens and environments co-evolved. By sequencing historic pathogens, researchers can watch evolution unfold backward, gaining insights which can inform both present-day health responses and our understanding of human development.
More information:
The van Dorp Lab focuses on applying advanced computational and genomic methods to understand the diversity, evolution and history of human-associated pathogens. Find out more about the lab.
The Thomas Lab aims to understanding the evolutionary processes that shape patterns of genetic and cultural variation in human populations by integrating genetics with archaeology, anthropology and statistical modelling. Find out more about the lab.
First ancient human herpesvirus genomes document their deep history with humans. Read a recent news item featuring the van Dorp lab.