A NEWTOWN-based company played an integral part in confirming a skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park was that of King Richard III.
Scientists from the University of Leicester used a product developed by Newtown-based company CellPath – a CerviBrush – to determine the bones belonged to Richard III, who was killed in battle in 1485.
The skeleton excavated in Leicester last September showed all the signs of being the king, including a curved spine, a skull that appeared to have suffered a severe blow and an arrowhead embedded between vertebrae, but to be sure they had unlocked a 500-year secret they needed to conduct a DNA test of a direct descendant of Richard III.
To do this a team of enthusiasts and historians managed to trace a 17th-generation descendant of Richard’s sister with whose DNA they could compare any remains.
Joy Ibsen, from Canada, died several years ago but her son, Michael, who now works in London, provided a sample using a CerviBrush.
The test proved positive, meaning CellPath, based at Mochdre Enterprise Park in Newtown, played a vital role in the discovery of the English king’s remains.
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