The massive effort to identify the victims of the World Trade Center collapse — once shelved to wait for better technology — has reopened thanks to a Springfield labarotory.
The Bode Technology Group initially had a contract with New York authorities to examine some 30,000 skeletal remains found in the rubble after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the heat and refuse of the mass grave made DNA difficult to extract and the remains were put into deep-freeze, Bode general manager Maureen Loftus said.
Last year, Bode was given a contract to examine the skeletal remains of women who had been killed in Juarez, Mexico. The bones had been boiled and then bleached.
In such circumstances, “the DNA gets little nicks,” Loftus said. “The nicks give you imperfect profiles because it’s been cut, if you will.”
Bode scientists went to work on the problem and developed a new style of extraction and lengthened the incubation time for the DNA. Loftus would not go into detail about the new process because it’s a trade secret, but she said the results have been astounding.
Before the process was developed, staff was lucky to get partial DNA profiles from a percentage of remains. After the process, the staff got full DNA profiles in up to 85 percent of the remains, Loftus said.
“The result is that New York has sent a letter to all the families that they are reopening the identification project,” she said.
At a glance
» Bode tested its new process on about 50 World Trade Center remains to confirm that the process worked.
» The lab is now testing 5,000 remains from the World Trade Center.
