TOM WAKE quoted in Smithsonian news article on DNA extraction from shells

A February 23 Smithsonian news article describes the work of scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama who successfully extracted DNA from marine shells using a method modified from the approach typically used to extract DNA from human skeletons. They were able to refine their technique using 1000-year-old shells from a trash midden at Sitio Drago, an archeological site in Bocas del Toro, which is investigated by Tom Wake. Wake is assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology (UCLA), a core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute, and the director of the Zooarchaeology Laboratory (the Bone Lab).