BIOSINQ 2021 funds helped pay for supplies to sequence fungi that are found on desiccated cadavers in the late stages of decomposition. The cadavers are held at the CMU Forensic Investigation Research Station (FIRS). The goal is to determine what role fungi may play in the late stages of decomposition in an arid environment. Two students have worked on this project over the past two years, Selina Tucker and Morgan Badgley. In 2020 Selina successfully sequenced fungal DNA from pure cultures to help us identify the fungal species present on the skin and bones of cadavers. This year Morgan has been working to determine whether we can detect the fungi directly from skin samples rather than having to culture the fungi first.
Thank you to all of our donors for their support!
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| Fungi on skin (left), mixed fungal culture (right), PCR of fungal DNA (bottom) |
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