BIOARC-HS: Biomolecular tools for Archaeological, Conservation and Heritage Science

The study of ancient biomolecules (DNA, proteins, lipids) has revolutionised our understanding of the past and is one of the fastest growing areas of heritage science (HS). The UK is world-leading in this area and the University of York's BioArCh research centre has spearheaded the innovation and application of molecular methods to archaeological remains and museum specimens for two decades.

Working with partners has been key to our success. We have a long history of offering services to archaeological units, museums and academic institutions, however, the major challenge is that as biomolecular methods become more routinely applied, demand for access has never been higher, vastly surpassing what we can offer.

Our vision is to dramatically increase the UK's biomolecular archaeology capacity by expanding our facilities and automating workflows to meet current and future demands of the HS community.

We require infrastructure investment to (i) expand our clean rooms, a key requirement for avoiding modern contamination; (ii) automate laboratory procedures, and (iii) enhance our sample tracking, data management and reporting systems; enabling us to scale up to meet future demand. Working with RICHeS headquarters, we intend to offer a catalogue of services to encompass the analysis of proteins, DNA, isotopes and lipids from archaeological remains.

To reach new audiences and enable access, we will publicise our services by creating short videos highlighting potential applications, offer online presentations direct to end-users and train English Heritage (EH) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) science advisors. Additionally, we wish to invest in new and emerging transformative techniques so they can be offered to the heritage science community, drawing upon our internationally recognised research and the University's Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry (CoEMS).

These include sex determination through faster analysis of tooth enamel proteins, a rapid method for the taxonomic identification of lipids associated with artefacts, and detailed identification of proteins in mineralised deposits from artefacts and dental calculus.

Nationally, capacity for biomolecular analysis is dispersed across academic institutions and some museums with IRO status, e.g. the British Museum (BM) and Natural History Museum (NHM). Demand for access is high across the sector, but facilities in these organisations are predominantly consigned to externally-funded research projects or research on their own collections, with little further capacity.

Following Brexit, this lack of capacity has been exacerbated by uncertainty and administrative obstacles for collaborations with leading laboratories across Europe, further strengthening the need for a national facility. It is also notable that the north of the UK is less well provisioned for these advanced scientific approaches than London and the south.

At BioArCh, we have the unique advantage of the expertise to offer a range of services, encompassing lipids, isotopes, DNA and proteins, in a single facility with academic leads in all these research areas. The facility is hosted by Archaeology but has members of staff in Chemistry as well as strong cooperation with Biology and access to CoEMS. Enabling enhanced participation with public and commercial organisations will advance the discipline by rolling out applications to a diverse range of samples and contexts, with results archived as open access so they can be re-used by the community.

Capitalising on our already world-leading research base, we want to deliver the step change that will make biomolecular archaeology a routine analysis for the HS community.