New Record for Mass Spec

I've been writing my manuscript all week - hence the lack of posts. But this morning I flipped open the paper and read that they've sequenced by mass spec (proteomics in the new lingo) several proteins from the interior of a T. rex bone. So I'm reading the article in the NYTimes and then I stumble on to Lew Cantley's name. Lew's lab is into Dino bones? Interesting. From the article:

Lewis C. Cantley, a Harvard biology professor on the team, said he was satisfied that the findings were "unlikely due to contamination."

In a press release from Harvard, Dr. Cantley said, "Basically, this is the breakthrough that says it's possible to get sequences beyond one million years," which had been thought of as the absolute time barrier for the preservation of organic matter in animal remains. In the fossilization process, minerals replace the constituents of bones, turning them to stone.

More details on why the organic matter was preserved:

The huge tyrannosaur thigh was discovered in 2003 by Jack Horner of Montana State University, a longtime dinosaur paleontologist. It was excavated at a depth of 60 feet in the Hell Creek Formation, a dinosaur-rich bed of sedimentary rock underlying much of Montana and Wyoming.

Dr. Schweitzer, a biologist affiliated with Montana State as well as North Carolina State, cut into the thick bone and recovered the soft tissues, including blood vessels and possibly cells that, she said at the time, "retain some of their original flexibility, elasticity and resilience." This had never been found in a dinosaur before and prompted the investigations into the nature of the organic matter.

Mr. Horner suggested that the size of the bone and the depth of its entombment accounted for the unusual preservation of the tissues. Thick bones, he said, afford interior matter more protection from environmental degradation. Another factor was that this particular dinosaur was buried in a virtually oxygen-free setting very soon after death. The depth may also have insulated it over time.

So if you have any old, well preserved bones lying around, you know what to do with them ...