Professors Collaborating on Mummy Database

Professors Ronald Beckett and Jerry Conlogue, executive co-directors of the Bioanthropology Research Institute at , are among the recipients of a grant from the National Science Foundation to encourage and enable greater collaboration among scientists and professors around the world. 

The $165,313 grant was awarded to a larger team of researchers led by Andrew Nelson of the University of Western Ontario, with whom the two Quinnipiac professors are collaborating to develop one of the world’s first major radiological mummy databases. The project is designed to provide mummy and medical researchers with a large-scale comparative database of medical imaging of mummified human remains. It will enable greater collaboration with experts and students around the world.

“It’s a global effort,” Beckett said. “It’s important for this database to be developed.”

The new database will allow researchers to share data and collaborate across thousands of miles in real-time. It will also allow researchers to more easily cross-reference archival materials and develop revised or expanded conclusions.

“In doing so, it will help us to develop a much better understanding of particular diseases, their paleopathology and paleoepidemiology,” Beckett said.

Graduate students, other universities and museums around the world will also have access to the new database, Beckett said. It will enable users to share and expand their research and work with industry-leaders.

“This is something that Ron and I wanted to do for the last 10 to 15 years,” Conlogue said. “There may be someone sitting in Korea or Japan or at a small university somewhere without any access to materials. But with a database, they will suddenly be able to join the conversation and offer their insight.”

Conlogue said the database will encourage diagnosis by consensus, something he said is very valuable.

“It’s much better if you have three radiologists and three or four anthropologists and maybe two pathologists from all around the world taking a look at these images rather than just one or two individuals,” Conlogue said. “Ten years from now, when more knowledge has been gained, the same images can be reviewed. Maybe the diagnosis could then change.”

Beckett and Conlogue are in the process of digitalizing their data so it will be ready to upload and share with the global audience.

“We are one of the most active paleoimaging groups in the world,” Beckett said of his work with Conlogue. “We are contributing our data and the infrastructure. We hope to find new colleagues and build new relationships.”

The Quinnipiac professors will meet with other researchers and grant recipients in Oregon in early April to develop a timeline and guidelines for the new database.

“Ron and I were asked to design imaging guidelines,” Conlogue said. “If everyone is collecting something the same way, it will be easier to analyze.”

The professors expect the database to be online relatively soon.

“We hope to have something up and running in a year or two,” Beckett said. “It will be a continuous project.”​