Abigail Ramsøe

Oct 21, 2024 | onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Lei Zhao |Rasmus Henriksen |Abigail Ramsøe |Rasmus Nielsen

1 Introduction Ancient DNA (aDNA) refers to the preserved genetic material of ancient organisms. Analysing aDNA has proven to be an essential mean for researchers to study the past. It has, for example, aided a deeper understanding of ancestral population history (Allentoft, Sikora, Fischer, et al. 2024; Allentoft, Sikora, Refoyo-Martínez, et al. 2024) and the dynamics of ancient ecosystems (Kjær et al. 2022; Fernandez-Guerra et al. 2023).

Jun 4, 2024 | nature.com | Meaghan Mackie |Abigail Ramsøe |Simon Armitage |Enrico Cappellini |Anne Apalnes Ørnhøi |Tone Marie Olstad | +2 more

Two distemper paint samples taken from decorative boards in Uvdal stave church, Norway, were analysed using palaeoproteomics, with an aim of identifying their binder and possible contaminants. The results point at the use of calfskin to produce hide glue as the original paint binder, and are consistent with the instructions of binder production and resource allocation in the historical records of Norway. Although we did not observe any evidence of prior restoration treatments using protein-based materials, we found abundant traces of human saliva proteins, as well as a few oats and barley peptides, likely deposited together on the boards during their discovery in the 1970s. This work illustrates the need to fully consider contamination sources in palaeoproteomics and to inform those working with such objects about the potential for their contamination.

Nov 6, 2023 | biorxiv.org | Lei Zhao |Rasmus Henriksen |Abigail Ramsøe |Rasmus Nielsen

AbstractMotivation: One essential initial step in the analysis of ancient DNA is to authenticate its ancientness to ensure reliable conclusions. That is, meticulously assessing whether next-generation sequencing reads exhibit ancient characteristics, with a particular focus on the postmortem damage (PMD) signal induced by cytosine deamination in the fragments termini.