Center of Paleogenomics and Molecular Taphonomy
Localisation: 6th floor, laboratories 654B-656B and 5th floor, laboratories 583B-585B
Scientific and technical director: Eva-Maria Geigl
The Center of Paleogenomics and Molecular Taphonomy consists of a high containment laboratory allowing for the analysis of highly degraded and ancient DNA. It is integrated into the Institut Jacques Monod.
The center comprises a specific infrastructure dedicated to paleogenomics and located on the 6th floor of the institute lacking laboratories of molecular biology. This laboratory is confined with an airlock chamber and positive air pressure integrated into the air circulation of the institute preventing environmental DNA from penetrating into the laboratory.
The laboratories of molecular biology of the “Epigenomics and Paleogenomics” team on the 5th floor of the Institute are attached to the center. A genomic facility on the 5th floor is also accessible.
The center is mainly used by the “Epigenomics and Paleogenomics” team but is also open to other national and international research groups in the framework of interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with the host team.
Research themes
- Methodological development in paleogenomics
- Human evolution
- Phylogeny, phylogeography of animal populations
- Domestication of animals
- Analysis of the degradation and preservation of DNA over time
Keywords: paleogenomics, evolution, ancient DNA, phylogeny, peopling, domestication
Expertise
The “Epigenomics and Paleogenomics” team is expert in paleogenomics, i.e., in the extraction and purification of DNA from ancient material, the construction of DNA libraries, their sequencing, and the bioinformatics and statistical analysis of the DNA sequences. Since ancient DNA is highly degraded, all these analysis steps require a specific expertise, which is rare.
Equipment:
- Experimental workstations
- Flow hood
- Filtration hood
- Freezer mill (6775 Freezer/Mill®Spex SamplePrep)
- Dremel saws
- 2 Balances
- 2 bench top centrifuges
- 1 refrigerating centrifuge
- 1 UV-Crosslinker
- UV Lamps
- Biozone devices (ozone producing decontamination devices)
- Electronic multipipettes Integra
The different working stations, flow and filtration hoods are all equipped with germicide UV lamps and a Biozone device. The laboratory is set up to allow for maximum physical separation between different experimental steps in order to minimize the transfer of DNA molecules.