Lakehead Lab Uses DNA to Uncover Secrets of the Past and Present

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Stephen Fratpietro and the team at Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA Laboratory never know what questions might come over their transom in Thunder Bay.

Often, they might be testing DNA to track the ancestors of curious citizens who pay the $250 (Cdn.) to have their maternal ethnic lineage traced to ancient times.

They’ve done paternity testing and, in the past, testing of DNA samples relating to current crimes à la their TV equivalents on “CSI” or “Bones,” usually to eliminate rather than implicate a criminal.

Their lab has hosted outside researchers handling questions about ancient coral, ancient horses or the inner ears of modern-day redfish.

And then there are the more unusual, and often gruesome, cases.

Their testing has been called upon in a search to solve the mystery of whether Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame) died in 1809 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or was murdered. The lab tested blood from his Mason’s apron found in his pocket at the scene – the blood, human, was not from Lewis, according to a comparison with a descendant of the explorer. The case remains a mystery and the evidence was part of the television show “America Unearthed – Motive for Murder.”

They’ve tested an unidentified mummified hand from the Williams College Museum in Massachusetts and bone fragments from the ancient Talplot Tomb in Jerusalem with ossuaries (or bone boxes) labeled “Mary,” “Joseph,” “Judas,” “Jesus” and “Mary Magdalene.” In the latter case, the test was for a familial match between bones. None was found between the bones labeled “Jesus” and “Mary Magdalene,” implying perhaps marriage since they were in the same tomb. The lab knew nothing about the specifics of these religious artifacts until Stephen heard on the car radio that a Thunder Bay laboratory was testing the bones of “Jesus.” The testing was featured in James Cameron’s “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”

“The most interesting case we had, had to do with the human lampshade,” Stephen recalls. “It had been tested previously in the early ’90s (and that lab) said it was human.”

The frightening object had a history linked to the Nazi regime. A documentarian sent a sample to the Thunder Bay laboratory for specific information, perhaps even a line to familial ties.

Mercifully, and to everyone’s surprise, two sets of testing revealed something quite unexpected, Stephen says. A first test could find no human maternal DNA - the mitochondrial DNA testing. Confused, the lab did a broader search for DNA and found one. The lampshade was cowhide. The results became part of National Geographic’s program “Human Lampshade: A Holocaust Mystery.”

This is all part of the day’s work for the now five-person laboratory started in 1996 by a Lakehead anthropology professor, Dr. El Molto, who wanted to know who was related to whom among the remains at a research site at Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt. He created a makeshift lab and hired two students to do maternal DNA testing.

The laboratory uses the kinds of DNA testing found in many such laboratories. It concentrates on tracing four basic types of DNA information (see below).

While this kind of testing can be done elsewhere, two main things make the Thunder Bay laboratory so interesting to outside requests.

First, it is well-known for its meticulous attention to – and elimination of – outside contaminants on samples. It uses a process to purify the DNA, often taking a minute sample from the center of an ancient bone, for example, to avoid the degradation on the outside caused by exposure to sunlight or, sometimes, by those handling and bringing in the sample. Such contamination probably caused that lampshade to originally be identified as human.

Second is that as of 2000, the lab decided to market its services to researchers from all over the world and even to the general public. It’s a natural fit since the Paleo-DNA Laboratory, with its $1.5 million worth of state-of-the-art equipment, is part of LUCAS – the Lakehead University Centre for Analytical Services.

“We provide the service for other universities that may not have the ability to do that,” Stephen says.

The lab has hosted researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution of Massachusetts, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Lisbon University in Portugal. Often it is not just doing testing, but also training in how to most efficiently and cost-effectively take proper samples in the field.

From 2004 to 2012, the laboratory was accredited for criminal casework, but is now concentrating more on the research-oriented and public ancestry requests.

A valuable offshoot of testing originally done through the laboratory is possible DNA testing to indicate cancer risks, a story featured in our June/July 2013 issue.

The lab handles about 20 cases per month. It has partnered with DNA My Dog to test canine breed heritage, providing the kit for $68.81 (Cdn.), though it doesn’t do the testing.

“It’s enough to keep us busy,” Stephen says of the work. And certainly enough to keep them in the news – and in the movies.

Good to Know

At ancientdna.com, find information about the Paleo-DNA Laboratory, its ancestry testing, and also links to the full episodes of “America Unearthed - "Motive for Murder" and "Human Lampshade: A Holocaust Mystery," in which the lab’s testing is cited.

The four main types of DNA the laboratory tests:

Mitochondrial DNA follows a maternal lineage of a human or animal and is the most hardy of the DNA available, thus making it the most useable for ancient samples.

Nuclear or autosomal DNA indicates results of the combination of parents, creating a more unique signature and one used in paternity or criminal cases.

Y-Chromosome DNA is only in males, distinguishing it from female DNA and making it useful in rape cases, for example.

Chloroplast DNA is found in plants.