“The
methods used in this study published in a
Volume 23
peer reviewed journal are broadly applicable to
many types of federal law enforcement attribu-
tion cases trying to link a person to a crime, in-
cluding those that involve weapons of mass de-
struction and terrorism, which is in S&T’s mission
space,” said Dr. James Burans, forensics specialist
from NBFAC.
“Additional sequencing for both FBI’s and Harvard’s sam-
May 2018
Edition
ples was done at NBFAC,” said Dr. Nicholas
Bergman,
the
head of the genomics department at NBFAC.
Researchers used the mummy’s tooth as a specimen be-
cause it could still contain viable genetic material since
teeth are some of the most durable parts of the human
body.
NBFAC also did the subsequent computational analyses
“This method will very likely continue to improve, as im- for this study and helped write the paper.
provements in the sequencing technology
are really what are driving it forward.”
This research opens the possibility of
using genomic analysis in a wider va-
riety of FBI cases, which often involve
burned bones, old hair and other types
of severely compromised evidence
material that is difficult to analyze with
the traditional methods.
In ideal conditions, like cold, dry and dark
places, human DNA can survive from about
500 years to 100,000 years.
When left out in the elements like in hot
and humid environments, DNA becomes
unusable in as little as a few weeks.
The FBI performed the first tests on the
mummy’s DNA in 2016 and then sought
Harvard University to repeat the tests and
confirm the results because of their pre-
mier ancient DNA laboratories.
To develop additional data, the FBI asked S&T
last summer to run both FBI’s and Harvard’s
samples on an NBFAC high capacity sequenc-
ing instrument called the Illumina HiSeq that
generated a lot more data than the FBI’s in-
struments and could effectively probe deeper
into a sample than before.
More than 100 years after the discovery of the 4,000 year old Djehutynakht
tomb, the sex and identity of the mummy head was finally determined by the
joint work of FBI, Harvard University and the DHS S&T. (Image courtesy of the
32
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)