Volume 23
May 2018 Edition
Courtesy of The FBI (Genes 2018, 9(3), 135; doi:10.3390/genes9030135)
“This was the first time that anyone was able to While the damaged state of the tooth’s DNA left the
successfully extract and analyze nuclear DNA from Museum and biologists without answers, Dr. Irwin
saw this as an opportunity in her research to opti-
this type of sample,” said Dr. Bergman.
mize DNA test methods for cases of historical interest
The successful testing of the mummy’s tooth is rel- and later reached out to the Museum when she took
evant for the FBI and other federal agencies such a position with the FBI.
as the DHS Components, U.S. Customs and Border
Protection and the U.S. Secret Service.
“Even though this DNA sequencing is new, being pub-
lished in a peer review journal supports the admissibility
of the data that we generate for federal prosecution,” said
Dr. Burans.
This applicability piqued the interest of an FBI re-
searcher Dr. Jodi Irwin back in 2011 when the Muse-
um asked her to test the DNA from the mummy’s tooth
while she worked for the Armed Forces DNA Identifi-
cation Laboratory, but she couldn’t test the mummy’s
DNA because the lab did not accept the tooth.
(Learn More. A museum wasn’t sure whose head they had put
on display. That’s when the F.B.I.’s forensic scientists were called
in to crack the agency’s oldest case. Posted on Apr 2, 2018)
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