Tens of thousands of sets of human remains sit unidentified in law enforcement offices, laboratories, and other institutions throughout the United States. In many cases, these remains were recovered decades ago—long before anyone anticipated advances in DNA technology that have revolutionized modern human identification. In some cases, these remains were already skeletonized upon discovery, and in other cases, the remains have become skeletonized as a result of purposeful lab processing or continued decomposition after long term storage or interment. The end result is a large set of unidentified remains with varying degrees of potential for DNA preservation. A visual assessment of the quality of the bone alone is not a reliable indicator of DNA preservation, and the process of attempting extraction and evaluating DNA for genomic sequencing can be expensive. This project is aimed at exploring cost effective methods of predicting DNA extraction/sequencing success using non-destructive, inexpensive, and widely accessible FTIR analysis. The characteristic peaks from hydroxyapatite and collagen will be analyzed and various peak ratios will be used in an attempt to predict success of DNA extraction from the bone. This information would allow us to prioritize cases for extraction and genome sequencing based on the likelihood of success, which will be useful in cases where funding is limited.

Using FTIR for prediction of DNA preservation in human skeletal remains

ACS Fall 2021

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