Families of targeted missing Australian service members will be invited to help establish a DNA Biobank to aid in identifying recovered remains, funded by a new $2.2 million Department of Defence Innovation Hub contract undertaken by QUT in collaboration with Defence.
Lead investigator Lyn Griffiths, from QUT’s Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health, said the project would use next generation sequencing (NGS) technology to generate DNA profiles of recovered remains and compare these to DNA profiles of samples from the Biobank of fallen soldiers’ living relatives.
“We will establish the Biobank and generate both sets of DNA profiles to facilitate identification of fallen soldiers’ remains,” Griffiths said. “To do this, we will first develop family trees for around 500 missing soldiers so that we can track relatives alive today."
Members of those families will be invited to give a non-invasive DNA sample, which will be used for DNA profiling and compared to profiles that the team at QUT will generate from the remains of fallen soldiers accessed with the aid of the Defence.
The QUT multidisciplinary research team is made up of experts in molecular genomics, genealogy, ancient DNA, sequencing analysis and bioinformatics.
“Our DNA strategy will use techniques typically applied to extract ancient DNA combined with the newest NGS technology to improve DNA profiling of highly degraded bones,” said Griffiths.
Griffiths said the method used to identify historical human remains relied primarily on DNA from the mitochondria and, where possible, Y chromosome sequences.
“However, this project will also build on techniques used to extract useful nuclear DNA information and combine this with NGS to probe a wide range of genetic variations in nuclear, mitochondrial and Y chromosomal DNA to improve the reliability and accuracy of identification," she said. “After analysis, we will produce a genetic report containing information from the recovered remains on ancestry markers, as well as physical characteristic markers, such as, hair, eye and skin color. This will aid Defence to target identification to fewer possible unaccounted soldiers and significantly reduce investigation and identification time.”
The project also aims to develop standardized methods to improve current identification practices with full compatibility with and accreditation under Australian and international laboratory standards.
“The improvements in the range of identification markers, and analysis and comparison methods could enhance forensic techniques in general, which could assist in criminal investigations, missing persons, disaster victim identification and archaeology," said Griffiths.
Republished courtesy of QUT. Photo credit: QUT.