engleski

Genetic data as a tool to find missing people

Nearly a decade after the war in Croatia has ended, over a thousand families still doesn't know what happened to their loved ones. Unfortunately, most of them were probably killed and are now being identified in numerous mass graves in once occupied parts of Croatia. Thanks to the use of advanced techniques of molecular biology, Croatia is running one of the most successful programs of identification of war victims. However, this process required collection of blood samples from thousands of family members and the analysis of their genetic data. DNA analysis performed for the purpose of identification does not reveal any potentially harmful information, but some possibilities of misuse of collected blood samples exist and strict rules have to be set to avoid them. Potential risks and our experience in avoiding them will be discussed.

DNA typing; STR; identification; databasing

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