Fosforo: Science Festival 2017

Enrico Cappellini (UCPH), network coordinator, presented the TEMPERA ETN project at the Fosforo: Science Festival in Senigallia (IT).

Back in time with ancient DNA and Proteins

The rests of humans, animals and plants that lived in the past can store genetic information and help reconstructing processes and phenomena, which are otherwise uncertain or unknown to us.

How did our species evolve?

When and how did it spread all over the planet?

How did the populating process occur in Europe?

And also: when and how did the mammoths become extinct?

In all of these fields, the study of ancient DNA brought to impressing results. More recently, another category of ancient materials, proteins, showed to have an outstanding potential in very different fields, such as the study of dinosaurs and the conservation of cultural heritage objects.