ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORT 2015-2016

Cobb Research Laboratory

232 Douglass Hall

2419 Sixth Street, NW
Howard University
Washington, DC 20059
USA
Fatimah L.C. Jackson, Ph.D., Director

CONTENTS
FORWARD
A. SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS
1. Overview of Scientific Achievements
2. External Publications 2015-2016
3. Internal Publications 2015-2016
4. Grants Submitted and Status
5. Students and Post-Docs Trained
6. Research Symposium
7. Ancient DNA Workshop
8. Current and Future Scientific Efforts
B. OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE COBB RESEARCH LABORATORY
1. Advisory Board Members and Status
2. Memorandum of Understanding Developed
3. Physical Reorganization of the Lab Facilities
4. Improvements of Existing Facilities
5. Application for space at HUIRB
6. Web Presence and Statistics (for www.cobbresearchlab.com)
7. Loss of Administrative Assistance
8. Future Operational Issues
C. SERVICE ACTIVITIES
1. Open House
2. Visitors and guest to the Cobb Research Laboratory
3. Training of SMDEP Scholars
4. Tours of the Lab to Community Groups and K-12 Outreach
5. Presentations and Publications on the CRL
6. Future Service Activities
D. FINANCIAL ASPECTS
1. Financial Statement
2. Fundraising Status
3. Current and Future Financial Plans
APPENDIX

FORWARD
The Cobb Research Laboratory. The CRL)\ is an interdisciplinary research unit at Howard University.
The CRL currently occupies 3000 square feet in Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall and provides offices,
archives, and two laboratories housing two major collections of human skeletal, dental, and
bioarchaeological materials. Currently, the CRL serves as a research magnet for students from the
College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Dentistry, the College of Nursing, and the College of
Engineering and Computer Sciences. The CRL also attracts students from the social sciences and the
humanities as the facility offers diverse research opportunities for self-directed learning, incidental
learning, and socialization, or tacit learning, three of the four major forms of informal STEM learning. The
CRL also serves as an important community outreach site for public access to science and our website
(www.cobbresearchlab.com) is viewed in over 72 countries and our online newsletter and research journal
reach nearly 2,000 individuals within the United States.
Research Collections of the CRL. The two major collections housed at the CRL are the New York
African Burial Ground remains and the Cobb Collection, representing 400 years of African American
biological history. Our 17th and 18th century samples are derived from the New York African Burial Ground
(NYABG) remains currently housed at Howard University and on loan from the National Park Service. The
NYABG is the nations earliest and largest African burial ground).These previously buried samples reflect
African/African American biological diversity from the late 17th to late 18th centuries in New
Amsterdam/New York City. While there are an estimated 15,000 burials, we have well-documented,
archived biological remnants from approximately 250 individuals. Our 19th and 20th century samples come
from the Cobb Collection (CC). The CC contains 699 individuals from the mid to late 19 th and early to mid
20th centuries. It the nations third largest collection of human skeletal remains and is the largest
containing a majority of African American individuals (83%).
Scientific, Historical, and Educational Value of Collections. Combined, the NYABG and the CC
represent 400 years or approximately 20 generations of African and African American biological history.
This timeframe has been understudied in the academy yet holds the key to providing evidence for key
processes in human evolutionary biology (e.g., evidence of past selective sweeps, changes in mutation
rates, evidence of gene flow [admixture], and opportunities for genetic drift). These collections also serve
as major inspiration for the students who have affiliated themselves with the CRL. This unique collection is
highly relevant (both socially, culturally, and biologically) for many of our recruited students and access to
these materials for study serves as a catalyst for student engagement in STEM-associated research.
In addition to the skeletal, dental, and bioarchaeological resources of the CRL, we also maintain an
extensive archived set of clinical, demographic, and historical records on many individuals biologically
represented in the collection. We have their names, occupations, age, marital status, and address at the
time of death for a large number of the individuals of the Cobb Collection. Photographs and radiographs
exist for some of the individuals and using supplemental documents provided by Dr. Cobb, materials
available at the National Archives, and using the resources of Ancestry.com Inc. (www.ancestry.com), the
largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, we have begun to construct and publish biohistories on
a subset of the individuals in the collections. These efforts complement in 2015-2016 our focus on the
extraction and sequencing of DNA from the individuals of our collections.

A. SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS
1. Overview of Scientific Achievements
During the 2015-2016 Academic year, the Cobb Research Laboratory has been engaged in a wide
variety of scientific research activities. This was largely possible through the unreimbursed efforts of a
number of Howard University undergraduate and graduate students as well as post-bac and post-doc
volunteers.
2. External Publications 2015-2016
Refereed Journal Articles
a. Jackson F 2015 The Cobb Collection: Current Status and Future Research Directions. Am J
Hum Biol.. 2015 Mar 4;27(2):233-4. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22692.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajhb.22692/full
b. Johnson J and Jackson F 2015 Use of multiple intelligence modalities to convey genetic and
genomic concepts in African American college biology students.Natural Sciences 7(6):299308. doi:
10.4236/ns.2015.76033 http://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=56902
#.VZ-tG_lVhBc
c. Jackson F, Jackson, LF, Cross C, Clarke C. 2016 What could you do with 400 years of
biological history on African Americans? Evaluating the potential scientific benefit of systematic
studies of dental and skeletal materials on African Americans from the 17th through 20th
centuries. American Journal of Human Biology, 9 January 2016, doi:
10.1002/ajhb.22821 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26749025
d. Jackson F. 2016 DNA and Diasporas: Fatimah L. C. Jackson weighs up a study on the
cultural politics of genetic testing among African Americans. Nature (21 January 2016)
529:279-280.
Genomics doi:10.1038/529279a http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7586/full/529279
a.html?wt.mc_id=twt_naturenews
Monographs and Scholarly Books
a. Jackson FLC, Harrell JP, Mitchell DSB, Cross C 2016 The Grand Canyon, Discovery of Lost
and Under-Told Stories of Non-Native American Ethnic Minorities from the 15th to
20th Centuries and the Conscious Exploration of Mindfulness and Spirituality. Grand Canyon
National Park Historic Diversity Research in Coordination with Healthy Parks Healthy People
Program. Study Funded by the United States National Park Service. 88 pp.

3. Internal Publications 2015-2016

Refereed Publications:
a. Jackson F and Cross C 2015 Applying Next Generation Science Standards in the Cobb
Research Laboratory. The Backbone 1(1) Spring 2015.
http://www.cobbresearchlab.com/issue-1/2015/1/26/sk2by7uuny8if3aku45ty3npnws60f
b. Strong A, Nwaogwugwu U, Cross C, Jackson F. 2016 Chronic Kidney Disease and its
Sequelae within the Cobb Collection: Osteological Manifestations and Clinical Record of
Evidence. The Backbone 2(1) Spring 2016
http://www.cobbresearchlab.com/issue2/2016/1/26/sk2by7uuny8if3aku45ty3npnws60f

c. Jackson F. 2016 Resilience through Research and Publication. Letter from the Editor, The
Backbone 2(1). http://www.cobbresearchlab.com/issue2?utm_source=CRL+General+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=440e180707BB_vol2_announcement4_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_864e295717440e180707
Laboratory Reports:
a. Cementum Removal for Ancient DNA Extraction on the W. Montague Cobb Collection of
Skeletal Remains (with Alexis Payne, John Harvey, and Christopher Cross), 5 pp.
b. Barcoding of Individual Teeth and Archived Bones for Inventory Control and Database
Development (with Whitney Griffin), 2 pp.
4. Grants Submitted and Status
a. Letter of Intent to Pamela. L. Thornton, PhD, MSW, National Institute on Minority Health
and Health Disparities, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 800, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 DATE:
March 6, 2015 PURPOSE: pursue funding under the Big Data 2 Knowledge (BD2K) Increasing
Diversity in Big Data program announcement. Fatimah Jackson, PI.
b. Full Proposal to John Yellen, Ph.D., National Science Foundation, submitted via
Fastlane. Senior Researcher Proposal. Title: Geospatial, Molecular Genetic, and Soil Chemistry of
Grave Soils of the 17th and 18th Century African Burial Ground in New York City. Fatimah Jackson, PI
(with Courtney Robinson, Michael Thomas, Latifa Jackson, et al)
c. Full Proposal to National Science Foundation Research Traineeship - Innovations at the
Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems - Harnessing the Exposome of Built Environment Water
Systems (NRT-INFEWS-HEBEWS). Fatimah Jackson, co-PI on Howard University subcontract of
Virginia Tech proposal (with Courtney Robinson).
d. Full Proposal to National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program.
Title: Acquiring Next Generation Sequencing Technology: Science for the Future. Fatimah
Jackson, co-PI (with Michael Campbell).
e. Full Proposal to National Science Foundation Advancing Informal Stem Learning
Program. Title: Developing the Cobb Research Laboratory as an Informal STEM Learning
Infrastructure Resource Center (ISLC) at Howard University. Fatimah Jackson, PI.
f. Letter of Intent to National Science Foundation Centers for Research Excellence in
Science and Technology (CREST), Directorate for Education and Human Resources,
Division of Human Resources Development, March 4, 2016. Proposed Title: CREST-Cobb
Research Laboratory. Fatimah Jackson, PI. STATUS: Under Review
5. Students and Post-Docs Trained
Student advising/mentoring
Undergraduate academic advising (indicate numbers of students, time spent per week)
a. Cobb Research Laboratory mentoring: 40 undergraduates, 1 hour per week. A large number of
these mentees presented their research during Research Week (i.e., orally at the CRL
Symposium and as posters during the Poster Sessions in Blackburn).
b. Summer Medical and Dental Education Program: 52 undergraduates, 0.3 hour per week (1.5
hour per week during the summer) A select number of these students had the results of their
biohistorical/biomedical research work published in The Backbone 2(1): Spring 2016.

c. Freshman Seminar: approximately 30 science majors, 1.5 hour per week in the Fall Semester
only. Many of these students went on to join the Cobb Research Laboratory or participate in
other research efforts in the Department of Biology
Graduate advising/mentoring (include titles of dissertations or theses, role, level (M or D), student name,
expected date of graduation)
a. Christopher Cross, doctoral candidate (D), expected date of graduation: Spring 2018
(dissertation will be on DNA extraction and sequencing from diverse human anatomical
sources). I am Mr. Cross primary research advisor.
b. Keely Clinton, doctoral student (D), expected date of graduation: Spring 2019 (dissertation
will be on the analysis of grave soils from the African Burial Ground National Monument in New
York City). I am Ms. Clintons primary research advisor.
c. Njlaa Bakhsh, doctoral student (D), expected date of graduation: Spring 2020 (dissertation will
be on human genomic variability and its relationship to disease susceptibility and population
substructure in the Arabian Peninsula). I am Ms. Bakhshs primary research advisor.
Post-bac and Post-doc mentoring; During 2015-2016 I have also mentored three post docs
(Drs. Latifa Jackson, Bradford Wilson, and Candice Duncan) and two post bacs (Alexis
Payne and Sierra Williams).
6. Research Symposium
Organized the inaugural Cobb Research Laboratory Symposium 2016
http://www.cobbresearchlab.com/2016-research-symposium/
7. Ancient DNA Workshop
Organized the inaugural Workshop on Human Ancient DNA http://www.cobbresearchlab.com/2016research-symposium/
8. Research Week Posters
Twenty-one students, fellows, and faculty affiliated with the Cobb Research Laboratory presented
posters during Research Week 2016. These posters were an extension of the oral presentations
given the day before at the Research Symposium.
9. Current and Future Scientific Efforts
Manuscripts in Preparation:
a. Jackson FLC Jackson LF Explaining the Stoke Belt I: Investigating the founding ancestral links
to West Central Africa and an evolutionary rationale for the increased frequency of
hypertension and stroke in the Carolina Coast region. (Under review)
b. Jackson LF Jackson FLC Explaining the Stroke Belt II: Computational and bioinformatics
approaches to identifying the most relevant genomic candidates for the increased frequency of
hypertension and stroke in the Carolina Coast region. (In preparation)
c. Jackson FLC African American mtDNA haplotypes reveal multiple African ancestral ethnic,
geographical, and linguistic affiliations. (Under review)
d. Jackson FLC et al Applications of phenotype segregation network analysis (PSNA) to identify
potential triggers for chronic disease. (Under review)

e. Jackson FLC, Cross C. and Clinton K Exploring the Effects on African American Identity of
Ancestral Genetic Composition. (In preparation)
f. Jackson FLC Evolutionarily significant historic events in Africa and their impacts on
contemporary population substructure. (In preparation)
Conference Proceedings in Preparation:
a. Jackson F. and Washington K (eds). The Past, Present, and Future of African American
Genomes: A Workshop on Ancient DNA Retrieval and Application. Conference Proceedings
(in preparation)
b. Jackson FLC Applications of aDNA in the Reconstruction of African American lineages. Paper
presented at Workshop on Ancient DNA Retrieval and Application. (in preparation)
Grants in Preparation:
a. Full Proposal to National Science Foundation Collections in Support of Biological Research
(CSBR). Title: Natural History Collections: Optimizing Four Centuries of African American
Skeletal, Dental, and Grave Soil Collections In The Cobb Research Laboratory. Fatimah
Jackson, PI
b. Full Proposal (awaiting submission date of August 2016) to National Science Foundations
Science, Technology, and Society Program. Title: Exposure and Commitment to STEM
among African American college students: An Experimental Approach to Broadening
Participation. Fatimah Jackson, PI (with Jules Harrell)
c. Full Proposal (in progress) Targeted towards National Science Foundation Biological
Anthropology Program and/or National Human Genome Institute (National Institutes of Health).
Title: GWAS and EWAS of an admixed African American family. Fatimah Jackson, PI.
d. Full Proposal (in progress) Targeted towards National Science Foundations Biological
Anthropology Program. Title: Genomic and Geospatial Analysis of Four Centuries of African
American history and biology (G24Cs). Fatimah Jackson, PI

B. OPERATIONAL ASPECTS
1. Advisory Board Members and Status
CM Lee, Professor and Chair, Department of Biology
I Livingstone, Professor, Department of Sociology
G Carr, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of African American Studies
D Williams, Professor and Chair, Department of English
D Grant-Mills, Professor and Associate Dean, College of Dentistry
C Callender, Professor, Department of Surgery
J Donaldson, Professor, Department of Mathematics
W Southerland, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
B Mair, Dean CoAS, (ex-officio)
2. Memorandum of Understanding Developed
MOU between the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, 104 Mount Auburn
Street, 3R, Harvard University, Department of African and African American Studies, Center for

African Studies, Cambridge, MA 02138 and the W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, College of
Arts and Sciences, 232 Douglass Hall, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059
3. Physical Reorganization of the Cobb Research Laboratory Facilities
Rooms 232 and 230 have been reorganized to better optimize their functionality. The Red Lab has
been slightly reorganized to accommodate access to the NYABG grave soil samples.
4. Improvements of Existing Facilities
The blackboard in room 232 has been transformed into a massive whiteboard.
5. Application for Space at HUIRB
We have made formal application for research, storage, and training space at the Interdisciplinary
Research Building. After making the short list, we are awaiting a final decision from higher
administration.
6. Web Presence and Statistics (for www.cobbresearchlab.com)
Our website has received accolades and had an impressive performance during the period of this
report. Website, Publications, and Workshops. The CRL maintains an active, regularly updated
website, www.cobbresearchlab.com. CRL Website traffic has been notable. Over the past year our
readership has grown 3 fold to an all-time audience size of 1568 unique users. We average 187 visits
per month from 130 average users per month. Over 50% of our web traffic in October originates from
a Google search, while over 25% of users are navigating directly to the site. The final 25% of traffic
can be attributed to Social Media, comprising promotional email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,
Instagram, and LinkedIn. These numbers are typical for a month where the CRL News is released.
Over the past year, the User Base for our website has originated from 72 countries with the largest
hits coming from the USA, Thailand, UK, Netherlands, Canada, India, Kenya, and South Africa. This
metric does not include automated hits, because Google Analytics does screen hits for bots and
crawlers. Please see the specific figures provided in the appendix.
The CRL maintains six important active social media links that are used to keep our followers abreast
of developments at the lab and to recruit student researchers. Our links are:

Twitter: @CobbResearchLab
Tumbler: CobbResearchLab@tumblr.com

Facebook: The W. Montague Cobb Research Lab

Cobblab.slack

Instagram: CobbResearchLab
Linked In: W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory
7. Loss of Administrative Assistance
In June 2015 we lost Ms. Sherese Taylor, our administrative assistant III due to university downsizing.
8. Future Operational Issues
We desperately need an administrative assistant for the Cobb Research Laboratory. We also need to
know if we will be officially moved to the Interdisciplinary Research Building (HUIRB) and, if so, when.
The National Park Service has promised to assist us financially with the move from Douglass Hall to
the HUIRB. We have purchased a portable X-ray machine and we will need appropriate operational
space to use this machine once it is installed and we are trained on its use next Fall. Finally, we are
actively seeking to recruit an External Advisory Board for the CRL.

C. SERVICE ACTIVITIES
1. Open House
This year we offered our second annual Open House in February 2016. The Open House program
was very well received. We hosted approximately 60 total visitors and held the Open House at the

HUIRB Community Room. The keynote address was given by Dean Bernard Mair (CoAS) and the
entire skeletal and dental collection of the Cobb Research Laboratory was prayed over by Dr.
Bernard Richardson (HU Chapel).
2. Visitors and Guests to the CRL
Over twelve visitors and guest honored us with their presence at the CRL during this review period.
These individuals included: Dr. Hannes Schroeder (University of Copenhagen [Denmark]), Dr.
Christopher DeCourses (Syracuse University), Dr. Sheila Walker (UNESCO), Dr. Michael Blakey
(William and Mary), Dr. Joseph Jones (William and Mary), Dr. Rui Diogo (HU-Anatomy), Dr. Donald
Rigamonti (HU-Anatomy), Dr. Taseer Hussain (HU-Anatomy), Dr. Candice Duncan (University of
Arizona), Dr. Marcus Lambert (Cornell University), and Mr. Norman Francis (HU-Biology).
3. Training of scholar-researchers
Academic Rank
Year

2015-2016
(18 months)

Undergraduate

Grad
-uate

PostDoc

62

11

Academic Majors
Represented

Biology, Chemical
Engineering, History,
Biochemistry, Sports
Medicine, Anatomy,
Microbiology, Genetics,
Anthropology,
Bioinformatics, English,
Computer Sciences,
Sociology

Research Presented at
university-wide
Research Week
Oral
Poster
PresentPresentations
ations
13
27

4. Tours of the Lab to Community Groups

During the review period we provided tours of the CRL to several classes from African American
Studies, children and elders from a local AME Zion Church, a large number of Summer Medical and
Dental Education Program students, and a group of students visiting the College of Pharmacy.
5. Presentations and Publications on the CRL
a. Invited Speaker at Freshman Seminar, Fall 2016. Title of Presentation: Practices of
Freedom and Justice: Optimizing Our Histories, Heritage, and Potentials.
b. Developed accepted special journal issue proposals entitled: Proposal for Special Issue on
Gene X Environment Interactions for two ranked scientific journals:Frontiers in
Genetics http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/genetics and the International Journal of
Molecular Sciences http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms
c. External Ph.D. reviewer, Center for Geo-Genetics, University of Copenhagen,
Denmark. http://geogenetics.ku.dk/ Doctoral Reviewer for Ms. Marcela Sandoval Velasco,
September 2015.
d. We publish a quarterly newsletter, the Cobb Research Lab News
(www.cobbresearch.com/newsletter) with a national email and hardcopy distribution of
2000.The email campaign statistics for the Fall 2015 CRL News were taken 10 days after
delivery, giving a sample ranging from Oct 15 to Oct 26, 2015. The Fall 2015 CRL News

was delivered to 1231 addresses, and has been opened by 22% of those inboxed, and the
items inside the email were clicked by 4% of the total cohort sent. These stats are
promising; as MailChimp's Industry averages for those in Education are a 14% open
average and 2% click average. Similar favorable statistics were produced for the Winter
2015 issue of the newsletter.
e. We also publish a biannual online journal, The Backbone
(www.cobbresearchlab.com/backbone). In our second issue (Spring 2016) of The
Backbone, we published seven full articles, seven biohistories (case studies), and twentyone abstracts from a national group of faculty and student authors.
6. Future Service Activities
We hope to increase our outreach to community members. Towards that end, we hope to apply for
funding from DC Humanities for a community-oriented Open House and we are writing communityfocused reports on our research with support from the National Park Service.

D. FINANCIAL ASPECTS
1. Financial Statement
Support for the CRL during the review period was derived from a Cooperative Agreement with the
National Park Service for $30,000 and $260 from the sale to logoed teeshirts through TeeSpring
(https://teespring.com/)
2. Fundraising Status
This summer we offered an inaugural set of Boot Camp courses in forensics, bioinformatics, genetics,
and biostatistics that generated $4,000 in revenue. We have obtained an account number at CoAS.
3. Current and Future Financial Plans
We hope to secure support (financial and technical) from regional biotechnology companies as well
as continue our grantsmanship to various federal sources.

Appendix