Researcher examines ancient First Nation stomach bacteria

When the discovery of a preserved man was found frozen in a glacier by some hunters in 1999 on the traditional lands of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, the science world was excited to get the chance to study his remains.

Many proposals for time-limited studies on different parts of his remains were made, and among the successful proposals chosen was that of Treena Swanston, a PhD student in archaeology at the University of Saskatchewan.

Swanston, who earned her first degree in microbiology at the University of Regina, came to the University of Saskatchewan to do her post-graduate work.

“I was very fascinated by learning more about ancient disease and so with my microbiology background I got into archaeology and learning more about the past. I think there’s so much that can be learned from just understanding anything about the past. That’s how it all started,” Swanston said of her career.

As for the body’s approximate age, the radio carbon dating for that site could only be pinpointed down to approximately between the years of AD 1670 and 1850, said Swanston.

“So that’s sort of a bit of a stretch there, they couldn’t pinpoint it any more than that, but still, it’s 200-300 years old,” she said.

When the proposal was first made, the process of beginning the work took a little while. “We sent in a proposal, many years ago, and said that we would like to look for evidence of microbial DNA, and so we are looking for evidence of that,” she said. “We’re hoping to see if we can figure out if there’s any signs of infection or just normal bacteria associated with tissues. Our proposal was accepted, and initially, the project didn’t move ahead, there’s a lot of issues involved with working with degraded DNA, and so it stopped for a bit.”

Swanston’s project moved forward again when she learned more about Helicobacter pylori, and some of the fascinating features related to that particular bacteria.
In layman’s terms, Swanston explained that she is trying to find evidence of how infections, infectious diseases existed in the past and to compare that with what exists now.

“That’s sort of more in general terms what I’m interested in,” she said.

And how would her research link with health issues of today’s Aboriginal peoples?

“It would only be a little piece of the puzzle, because there’s so much involved, and when you look at just how a bacterium is associated with infectious disease, if you look at the genetics involved with that bacterium, sometimes you will notice a change in DNA over time, and so I’m trying to capture that change by looking at it in the past,” she said.

Along with other researchers examining the remains, Swanston attended a conference where all of the findings up to that point regarding the ancient remains were shared. This was an experience Swanston relished.
“There was a conference a couple of years ago, the Northwest Anthropological Conference,” said Swanston.

“There was a special symposium just for the researchers who have dealt with this individual, the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations were involved, as they consider him an ancestor, it was just fascinating how everyone came together and shared their knowledge about what they learned. I feel very fortunate to just have been able to go, and I learned more about the artifacts that were found at the site, and how they learned about how his hat was woven. It was fascinating,” she added.

Some of the researchers came to similar findings, as Swanston discovered through the different research studies being done.

“The mitochondrial DNA research was a separate research group. They were able to determine a link between the modern person and the individual,” she said.

“What I loved too was that with the Helicobacter pylori research I almost found the same link because the strain that individual had, that little stretch of DNA, matched up almost identical to the modern strain isolated from individuals from that same [geographic] area, so there’s actually a link between that individual and people from the same area.”

As for seeing the research completed, Swanston said she was honoured to have that opportunity to be involved.
“That was part of the research agreement that, once we were done, that was it, and that’s fine, everyone’s on the same page. I feel very honoured to have taken part in this research, it was very interesting,” she said.