Real-life Dracula Breakthrough Discovered - More Terrifying Than Fiction

Scientists claim to have successfully extracted a historical biomolecule from a 1475 letter by Vlad Dracula, the real-life character whom novelist Bram Stoker transformed into Count Dracula.

A real-life portrait of tyrant Vlad Dracula.

Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad III , was the ruler of Wallachian (a historical region of Romania) from 1448 to 1477, more terrifying than the vampire count in the novel because of his brutal torture and massacre of his enemies, also nicknamed "the impaler tyrant".

Although there is a lot of historical information about him, because his grave has not been identified, the picture of the "real Dracula" is still shrouded in mystery. But now, 500 years after Dracula's death, two historical chemists from Kazakhstan - Gleb and Svetlana Zilberstein - claim to have successfully extracted Vlad III's genetic material.

According to the Daily Mail, this breakthrough was thanks to a letter dated August 4, 1475, in which a man who described himself as the "Prince of Transalpine" informed the people of the town of Sibiu that he would be coming to live in their village. Under the letter was the terrifying name: Vlad Dracula.

Speaking to The Guardian, Gleb Zilberstein said that the molecules they found are more stable than DNA and provide better information about the environmental conditions, health, lifestyle and nutrition of the historical people they belonged to.

Research is ongoing and they hope that these molecules will help paint a fuller portrait of this remarkable character.

Previously, the two researchers also extracted some genetic material from the manuscript of The Master and Margarita by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov and found traces of morphine and proteins related to kidney disease, proving that the writer wrote it while taking painkillers for kidney disease.