Erika Hagelberg Explained

Erika Hagelberg
Alma Mater:University of London
University of Cambridge
Workplaces:University of Oslo
University of Otago
John Radcliffe Hospital
Known For:Ancient DNA
Pacific genetics
Forensic identification

Erika Hagelberg is a British Evolutionary geneticist and Professor of Biosciences at the University of Oslo. She works on ancient DNA and pioneered a means to extract DNA from bones. Her research has applications in evolutionary biology and forensic science.

Education and early career

At the age of 13, Hagelberg's father escaped from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom on the Kindertransport in 1939.[1] Hagelberg studied biochemistry at the University of London and earned her bachelor's degree in 1977. She moved to the University of Cambridge for her doctoral studies, earning her PhD in 1983.[2] Traditionally, DNA could only be found in soft tissues, but Hagelberg developed techniques to recover small quantities of DNA from bone. Once the DNA has been extracted, it is possible to use the polymerase chain reaction to determine the sequence of nucleotides.[3]

Research

Hagelberg works in the analysis of ancient DNA from archaeological bones.[4] She joined the University of Oxford in 1987, where she worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital alongside Bryan Sykes and Robert E. M. Hedges.[5] At Oxford Hagelberg collaborated with Alec Jeffreys on the applications of bone DNA in forensic science. Jeffreys once described her as being able to “get DNA out of a stone, just about,".[6] Jeffreys and Hagelberg worked on single tandem repeat typing. Her early work included the analysis of bones from the Mary Rose.[7] Hagelberg identified pig DNA in a leg bone from the food stores in the Mary Rose.[3]

Jeffreys and Hagelberg demonstrated the DNA analysis could be used to identify the skeletal remains of a murder victim.[8] Unfortunately, the body had been in the ground for so long that it had disintegrated.[9] They could not use conventional DNA fingerprinting to analyse the DNA, and had to develop more sophisticated techniques. In the 1990s she was one of the first people to use bone DNA analysis for forensic identification.[10] Hagelberg's DNA extraction technique was used to identify bones found in Brazil that were believed to belong to Josef Mengele.[11] With Jeffreys, Hagelberg extracted DNA from a skeleton that had been buried for several years, and compared it with that of Mengele's family members. Their discovery closed a case of war crime that had stayed open for half a century.[12] She also participated in the identification of remains of the Romanov family. This involved the analysis of nine skeletons, including those of the putative Tsarina and three of her daughters, and comparing their DNA to that of living descendants.[13] She has also used mitochondrial DNA to study the migration of human populations.[10] She has also extracted DNA from mammoth bones.[14]

In 1998 Hagelberg left Cambridge and joined the University of Otago in New Zealand. There she continued her research on human migrations in the Pacific Islands, by examining mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Polynesian and Melanesian bones to resolve conflicting opinions on the migratory patterns.[15] [16] She also investigated the genetic origins of the people of the Andaman Islands. She found that the Andamanese are genetically more similar to Asian as opposed to African populations, predicting they are descendants of the paleolithic colonies in Southeast Asia.[17] Hagelberg has also written on the evolution of language, and how social complexity is related to brain size.[18] She is interested in how reliable mitochondrial DNA is in studies of human evolution and phylogenetics.[19] [20]

In 2002 Hagelberg joined the University of Oslo.[21] [22] Hagelberg investigates how definitions of biological race are used by evolutionary biologists.[23] Her work has been covered in The Guardian, The New York Times.[24] [25]

She has contributed to several books, including the Oxford Companion to Archaeology and Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times: Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology.[26] [27] She edited a themed issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on Ancient DNA.

Bibliography

Books

Journal articles and book chapters

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Is there such a thing as a Jewish genome? A lecture by Professor Erika Hagelberg H-Announce H-Net. networks.h-net.org. 2019-04-11.
  2. Web site: Ancient DNA: the first three decades Royal Society. royalsociety.org. en-gb. 2019-04-12.
  3. News: Scientists Study Ancient DNA for Glimpses of Past Worlds. Browne. Malcolm W.. 1991-06-25. The New York Times. 2019-04-11. en-US. 0362-4331.
  4. 1991-04-22. Isolation and characterization of DNA from archaeological bone. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 244. 1309. 45–50. 10.1098/rspb.1991.0049. 1677195. 1471-2954. Hagelberg. E.. Clegg. J. B.. 1991RSPSB.244...45H. 23859039.
  5. Hagelberg. Erika. Sykes. Bryan. Hedges. Robert. 1989. Ancient bone DNA amplified. Nature. en. 342. 6249. 485. 10.1038/342485a0. 2586623. 1476-4687. 1989Natur.342..485H. 13434992. free.
  6. Zagorski. Nick. 2006-06-13. Profile of Alec J. Jeffreys. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. en. 103. 24. 8918–8920. 10.1073/pnas.0603953103. 0027-8424. 16754883. 1482540. 2006PNAS..103.8918Z . free .
  7. Web site: Erika Hagelberg - Analysis of ancient bone DNA from the wreck of Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII - EMBL PhD Student Symposium. phdsymposium.embl.org. 2019-04-11.
  8. Jeffreys. Alec J.. Gray. Ian C.. Hagelberg. Erika. August 1991. Identification of the skeletal remains of a murder victim by DNA analysis. Nature. en. 352. 6334. 427–429. 10.1038/352427a0. 1861721. 1476-4687. 1991Natur.352..427H. 4263579.
  9. Web site: Jeffreys, Alec John Encyclopedia.com. www.encyclopedia.com. 2019-04-11.
  10. Web site: Researchers. From racial typology to DNA sequencing. en. 2019-04-11.
  11. Jeffreys. A. J.. Allen. M. J.. Hagelberg. E.. Sonnberg. A.. 1992. Identification of the skeletal remains of Josef Mengele by DNA analysis. Forensic Science International. 56. 1. 65–76. 0379-0738. 1398379. 10.1016/0379-0738(92)90148-P.
  12. Jobling. Mark A.. 2013-11-18. Curiosity in the genes: the DNA fingerprinting story. Investigative Genetics. 4. 1. 20. 10.1186/2041-2223-4-20. 24245602. 3831598. 2041-2223 . free .
  13. Sullivan. Kevin. Hagelberg. Erika. Evett. Ian. Tully. Gillian. Benson. Nicola. Piercy. Romelle. Kimpton. Colin. Ivanov. Pavel L.. Gill. Peter. February 1994 . Identification of the remains of the Romanov family by DNA analysis. Nature Genetics. en. 6. 2. 130–135. 10.1038/ng0294-130. 8162066. 33557869. 1546-1718.
  14. Lister. Adrian M.. Baryshnikov. Gennady F.. Andrei V. Sher. Cook. Charles E.. Thomas. Mark G.. Hagelberg. Erika. August 1994 . DNA from ancient mammoth bones. Nature. en. 370. 6488. 333–334. 10.1038/370333b0. 8047136. 1476-4687. 1994Natur.370R.333H. 8694387.
  15. Ben-Ari. Elia T.. 1999-02-01. Molecular biographies: Anthropological geneticists are using the genome to decode human history. BioScience. en. 49. 2. 98–103. 10.2307/1313533. 0006-3568. 1313533. free.
  16. Genes Reveal Andamanese Origins. Philipkoski. Kristen. 2002-12-09. Wired. 2019-04-11. 1059-1028.
  17. Thangaraj. Kumarasamy. Singh. Lalji. Reddy. Alla G.. Rao. V.Raghavendra. Sehgal. Subhash C.. Underhill. Peter A.. Pierson. Melanie. Frame. Ian G.. Hagelberg. Erika. 2003. Genetic Affinities of the Andaman Islanders, a Vanishing Human Population. Current Biology. 13. 2. 86–93. 10.1016/s0960-9822(02)01336-2. 0960-9822. 12546781. 12155496. free.
  18. Web site: The evolution of language. Hagelberg. Erika. la.202.21hag. English. 2019-04-11.
  19. Hagelberg. E.. Goldman. N.. Lió. P.. Whelan. S.. Schiefenhövel. W.. Clegg. J. B.. Bowden. D. K.. 1999-03-07. Evidence for mitochondrial DNA recombination in a human population of island Melanesia. Proceedings. Biological Sciences. 266. 1418. 485–492. 10.1098/rspb.1999.0663. 0962-8452. 1689791. 10189712.
  20. Lalueza‐Fox. Carles. Bertranpetit. Jaume. Alcover. Josep Antoni. Shailer. Neil. Hagelberg. Erika. 2000. Mitochondrial DNA from Myotragus balearicus, an extinct bovid from the Balearic Islands>. Journal of Experimental Zoology. en. 288. 1. 56–62. 10.1002/(SICI)1097-010X(20000415)288:1<56::AID-JEZ6>3.0.CO;2-X. 10750053. 1097-010X.
  21. Web site: Erika Hagelberg - Institutt for biovitenskap. Phone. Besøksadresse Kristine Bonnevies husBlindernvn 31 0371 OSLO Norge Postadresse Postboks 1066 Blindern 0316 OSLO Norge. fax. www.mn.uio.no. no. 2019-04-11.
  22. Book: Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times: Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology. Brandt. J. Rasmus. Hagelberg. Erika. Bjørnstad. Gro. Ahrens. Sven. 2016-12-31. Oxbow Books. 9781785703607. en.
  23. Web site: Project Overview. From racial typology to DNA sequencing. en. 2019-04-11.
  24. News: An Ancient Link to Africa Lives On in Bay of Bengal. Wade. Nicholas. 2002-12-10. The New York Times. 2019-04-11. en-US. 0362-4331.
  25. News: DNA secret of Stone Age travels. Harding. Luke. 2001-05-12. The Guardian. 2019-04-11. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  26. Book: The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Silberman. Neil Asher. Bauer. Alexander A.. Holtorf. Cornelius. García. Margarita Díaz-Andreu. Waterton. Emma. 2012. Oxford University Press. 9780195076189. en.
  27. Web site: Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times by J. Rasmus Brandt, Erika Hagelberg Waterstones. www.waterstones.com. en. 2019-04-11.

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