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Updated: Jul 19, 2025

Optimized Bone Sampling Protocols for the Retrieval of Ancient DNA from Archaeological Remains
Published on: November 30, 2021
Releasing secrets bound to ancient remains with modern DNA extraction techniques: an interview with Elena Essel
1Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Pl. 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Abstract:
Elena Essel (Msc) spoke to Ebony Torrington, Managing Editor of BioTechniques. Essel is a molecular biologist in Matthias Meyer's Advanced DNA Sequencing Techniques group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). Essel studied biology at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Erlangen, Germany) for her bachelor's and in Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Halle an der Saale, Germany) for her master's. Essel worked in Meyer's group on DNA extraction of very degraded material for her master's thesis. Meyer is an expert in developing new cutting-edge methods for researching ancient DNA, with a focus on skeletal remains, and more recently on sediment remains. Essel now focusses on DNA sampling and extraction aspects of the pipeline at Meyer's lab for the ancient DNA workflow.
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