Zarintaj Rustamova, a researcher at the Population Genomics Laboratory of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies MSE AR was on a scientific mission to the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, from June 23 to July 21, 2024. The institute is headed by Professor Paabo Svante, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. It should be noted that a Memorandum of Cooperation was recently signed between the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
The training course was conducted by the head of the bioinformatics group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Dr. Harald Ringbauer. In addition to DNA extraction and sequencing of 25 samples belonging to the Kura-Araz, Khojaly-Gedabey, Talysh-Mugan, and Leylatape cultures, a bioinformatics analysis of the sequenced samples was also carried out.
The anthropological material is part of the samples to be studied within the framework of the MHAAM project (Max Planck Institute – Harvard Research Center for the Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean), which is jointly developed by Harvard University and the Max Planck Institute. The project is managed by the director of the Archaeogenetics Department, Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause and Prof. Michael McCormick.
Initially, anthropological materials were identified and placed in the Pandora Institute database. Then, using the automated program Eager, the quality of the sequence analysis results was assessed, adapters were removed, and sex was determined. Then, higher-quality samples were selected and resequenced. Statistical analysis was mainly performed using Bash Shell programs written in Python.
During the visit, Z. Rustamova became acquainted with principal component analysis (PCA). In addition, she was provided two years of free access to the Pandora database. She also attended the meeting to discuss the MHAAM project, held on June 16, 2024, as a guest and gave a 20-minute presentation. Three times during her visit (10.07.2024, 11.07.2024, 15.07.2024), she practiced in the laboratory of the pharmaceutical company EVER Pharma, located in Jena, Germany, where ancient and modern DNA research is conducted under the guidance of the laboratory technician of the Department of Archeology Bianco Rafaela. Here, with the help of Agilent Technologies robots, DNA extraction and sequencing are performed simultaneously. Unlike classical methods, this robotic technology helps to obtain a more effective result in a shorter time. At the next stage, the samples will be sequenced again, and after receiving the results, PCA and other statistical analyses will be conducted.