Bioinformatics and Human Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents: The World Trade Center Disaster

• NCJ Number: 219245
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 52 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2007 Pages: 806-819
• Author(s): Benoit Leclair Ph.D.; Robert Shaler Ph.D.; George R. Carmody Ph.D.; Kristilyn Eliason B.Sc.; Brant C. Hendrickson M.Sc.; Thad Judkins B.Sc.; Michael J. Norton B.Sc.; Christopher Sears Ph.D.; Tom Scholl Ph.D.
• Date Published: July 2007
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report describes one of the bioinformatic tools developed to assist with the identification of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11: the Mass Disaster Kinship Analysis Program (MDKAP).

Abstract

The MDKAP is a pair-wise comparison software designed to handle large numbers of complete or partial short tandem repeats (STRs) genotypes and infer identity of or biological relationships between tested samples. The software performs all functions required to take advantage of the information content of processed genotypic data sets from large-scale mass fatality incidents (MFIs), including the collapse of victims' data sets, remains reassociation, virtual genotype generation through gap-filling, parentage trio searching, and a consistency check of reported/inferred biological relationships within families. Although very few World Trade Center victims were genetically related, the software can detect parentage trios from within a victim's genotype data set through a nontriangulated approach that screens all possible parentage trios. All software-inferred relationships from World Trade Center data were confirmed by independent statistical analysis. With a 13 STR loci complement, a fortuitous parentage trio that involved nonrelated individuals was detected. Additional STR loci would be required to reduce the risk of a fortuitous parentage trio from going undetected in large-scale mass fatality incidents (MFIs) that involved related individuals among the victims. Although kinship analysis proved successful in this September11 incident, its continued success in larger scale MFIs is dependent on the use of a sufficient number of STR loci in order to reduce the risk of undetected fortuitous parentage trios, the use of mitochondrial DNA and Y-STRs to confirm parentage, and bioinformatics that can support large-scale comparative genotyping schemes that can detect parentage trios from within a group of related victims. 2 tables, 8 figures, and 13 references