9-11 Victim Identification Project Results in One-of-a-kind Software for Mass Fatality Situations

Fulfilling the Promise of DNA Technology
President’s DNA Initiative Brings Hope of Crime Lab Funding, Backlog Resolution
By Kelly M. Pyrek

Crime Lab Design is in the Details
By Kelly M. Pyrek

Forensic Photography:
The Pros and Cons of Going Digital
By John Roark

EDITOR’S LETTER
Demanding Respect for Forensic Science

PERSPECTIVES
Field Needs Adequate Funding, National Forensic Science Commission

SPECIAL SECTION
Advances in DNA

NEWS & VIEWS
Industry News Briefs, Off the Bookshelf, Notes from the Field

9-11 Victim Identification Project Results in One-of-a-kind Software for Mass Fatality Situations
Posted on: 09/16/2003

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In the aftermath of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, there was no software in the world capable of managing the overwhelming task of compiling, sorting, managing and matching thousands of DNA samples so that medical examiners could identify victims with certainty.

New York City's Office of Chief Medical Examiner turned to Howard Cash and his small Ann Arbor, Mich. bioinformatics company, Gene Codes Corp. Gene Codes is a recognized leader in gene sequencing software used in academic and industrial laboratories, and had the needed expertise -- but not the resources -- to try to create the software that could handle a mass fatality situation.

"I told my team it was a nearly impossible job, the requirements would probably change by the hour, and it would require an unbelievable commitment, but I felt it was our calling to take this on," Cash said. "Everyone agreed that we had to do this."

Gene Codes doubled its staff and by mid-December 2001 delivered the first version of a new computer software program, M-FISys, short for Mass Fatality Identification System. The day the program began operation, the forensic scientists at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner were able to immediately find 55 DNA matches that led to positive identifications.

Since then, Cash has traveled to New York nearly every week delivering software updates. He has met with families and attended funerals. He understands better than anyone that there is no room for error. So far, there have been no misidentifications related to the software.

M-FISys sorts information from three different DNA tests on human remains, and matches them with DNA samples taken from victims' relatives and personal effects. In the case of the World Trade Center disaster, M-FISys is managing millions of bits of data from about 20,000 human remains, and about 14,000 DNA samples from relatives and friends. Of the nearly 3,000 victims of the tragedy, more than 1,500 have been identified. More than half of those cases relied solely on DNA evidence for identification. M-FISys is the only software in the world that can manage so many types of information from such a large number of human remains and help a forensic biologist identify decedents.

Cash said he is in contact with several other countries that are interested in M-FISys, either because of concerns about terrorist attacks or for other potential needs. "If there is a hurricane in the Philippines or another earthquake in Turkey, we expect that the technology developed for the city of New York will be useful. We want to make it available wherever it is needed," he said.

Gene Codes Corporation is an international bioinformatics firm specializing in research software for DNA sequencing and analysis. Gene Codes has succeeded by using a customer driven product development approach combining the latest programming techniques, rigorous quality standards and an open dialogue with customers to produce products of the utmost usability and industry relevance.

Source: Gene Codes Corp.