Molecular Archaeology Laboratory

We use modern molecular biology technology, mass spectrometry and other techniques to extract biomacromolecules and analyze DNA from ancient people, plants and animals, and microorganisms, to study the origin and migration of human beings, the domestication process of plants and animals, and the evolution of ancient microorganisms. We have integrated the advantages of West China Medicine to establish the first molecular archaeology laboratory in the western region to provide support for large-scale genetic information extraction and sequencing of ancient archaeological samples.

Molecular archaeology is an important means of tracing the origin of human beings, restoring the process of migration and integration of people, and it is also one of the current research hot spots in the field of archaeology. The main research objects of the Molecular Archaeology Laboratory include: ancient DNA, ancient microorganisms, ancient proteomes and so on. The research content is the use of modern molecular biology technology, mass spectrometry technology, etc. on ancient people, plants and animals, microorganisms and other materials for the extraction of biomolecules and genetics analysis, and then study the origin of mankind, crowd migration and mixing, plant and animal domestication, as well as ancient microbial evolutionary mechanism and other major international cutting-edge academic issues. The Molecular Archaeology Laboratory of Sichuan University is currently under active construction, and now has gene amplifiers, vacuum centrifugal concentrators, constant-temperature mixers, fluorescence photometers and other professional equipment for ancient DNA extraction, library construction and capture enrichment, etc. The laboratory is also equipped with high-performance server clusters for the calculation of large human genome data. Based on the rich archaeological resources in the southwest region of China, the Laboratory of Molecular Archaeology has carried out a number of research projects on ancient human genomics, providing a new molecular perspective for the development of ancient civilization in the southwest region, the origin of agriculture, the history of human evolution and other major archaeological issues. Currently, the laboratory is responsible for the Molecular Archaeology course for postgraduate students, and the head of the laboratory is Associate Researcher Zhang Fan.