HOW DNA IS HELPING IDENTIFY MIA
Learn more at https://mia.biotech.wisc.edu/
A team at the UW-Madison Biotechnology Center assists the Department of Defense with DNA analysis and helps match DNA to a missing person, thus bringing closure to a family.
DNA analysis and identification
has only been available since the 1990s.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
is often preferred in MIA identifications since it is easier to recover from remains that have not been well preserved; mtDNA is inherited from the mother, so family DNA matches on the MIA’s maternal line are most important when analyzing mtDNA samples.
The MIA Project is headquartered
within the Biotechnology Center on UW-Madison’s campus. They not only research and recover MIAs, they can also run DNA identification analyses as well.
The MIA Project actually began
after Associate Director, Charles Konsitzke and DNA Sequencing Core Director, Dr. Joshua Hyman, were approached to perform the DNA identification of an MIA WWII service member.
The MIA Project and Biotechnology Center
have recently conducted an analysis mission in Saipan to obtain sediment samples for Environmental DNA or eDNA analysis that is ongoing in their labs. eDNA samples will help indicate whether or not human remains are located in sediment.