After three years of working to secure funds, the department of anthropology has started to renovate its outdated DNA and osteology labs.
“We’re anxious to have the remodeling done because that will make it easier in the future to do some things we weren’t able to do in the past,” said anthropology professor Dennis O’Rourke.
The William Stewart Building, which houses the labs, was originally an elementary school and was not designed to contain labs, O’Rourke said.
Elizabeth Marchani, a graduate student in bioanthropology, said renovations are greatly needed because of the lab’s current conditions. “We’re in the most makeshift old-fashioned card table with a light bulb kind of lab, so it’s setting us up for difficulty,” she said.
O’Rourke said he is unsure when construction will begin and how much
the project will cost. One of the biggest concerns with the lab’s current condition is contamination.
“When someone picks up a bone in an archeological site, we worry about fingerprints or any small piece of DNA,” Marchani said.
A large plastic tarp currently keeps most contaminants from coming into the extraction room of the ancient DNA lab, but it hasn’t been enough to block all contaminants from the inside. Marchani said one student was working with a Native American sample and found some DNA that appeared to be Russian. The DNA could have come from a person who found the sample or from someone else in the building, she said.
The building remodeling will include a new entrance, new cabinets and ultraviolet light bulbs to destroy contaminants. The new bulbs will also give the lab better lighting.
“The stuff is minor, but the main problem with this room is visibility,” said Elizabeth Cashdan, chair of the anthropology department.
Marchani says that other concerns with the building’s current conditions and the DNA research taking place inside the building involve old air conditioners. The curious onlookers who poke their heads inside a tarp that covers the entrance to the lab stir the air inside.
“The remodel is really going to control the air in the room, the people in the room, and by flooding the entire room with UV light, even if a scrap of DNA comes in from the hallway it will get wiped out,” Marchani said.
The remodeling, which is funded by U Campus Facilities and Remodeling, will have significant affects on two rooms in particular: the extraction room, which is used to do amplifications of DNA, and the clean room, where more sensitive work is done.
While remodeling is underway, the large metal cabinets housing human bones will be moved out of the osteology lab into the building’s hallway to make room for renovations. Osteology classes will move to other classrooms in the building. Once the lab is finished, the osteology lab, which is used for forensic anthropology, will provide a space for students to have a hands-on experience.
“With forensics and osteology you really want to be hands-on, and that’s one of the reasons people want to take those classes,” Marchani said. “We were hoping that the osteology lab would be done by fall break, but I doubt that’s the case now,” O’Rourke said. “We don’t have start or completion dates yet.”
The renovations will allow the anthropology department to ” continue to be competitive for research funding because we will have adequate facilities,” he said.
Maegan BurrDoctoral student Justin Tackney works in the PCR Prep lab in Stuart Hall on Friday. The Anthropology Ancient DNA labs will be renovated into two labs where DNA extraction and PCR Prep will both have space.