BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.6.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news455@dbe.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251127T091744 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251218T163000 SUMMARY:Salt\, tendons\, and bones: Forensic identification of human remain s in Mexico DESCRIPTION:Abstract Mexico is currently facing a forensic crisis. Since 20 06\, the “war on drugs” has resulted in countless unidentified bodies and body parts linked to organized crime and its enforcement. Many of thes e remains show advanced decomposition\, complicating identification. With over 52\,000 deceased persons\, the National Human Rights Commission has r ecognized the situation as a humanitarian crisis. This talk addresses the challenges of identifying severely degraded human remains using DNA\, focu sing on how commercially available table salt and tendons can enhance DNA recovery. In addition\, various techniques for DNA extraction from bones w ill be compared and it will be shown how small changes in extraction proto cols can significantly improve the success rate of identification and supp ort humanitarian forensic efforts.\\r\\nBiosketch Valentina Leonie Birne i s a doctoral candidate in forensic biology at the Institute of Legal Medic ine in Frankfurt am Main\, Germany. Her research focuses on the genetic id entification of human remains\, with a particular interest in the applicat ion of molecular methods to the preservation of human tissue samples and t he prediction of eye\, hair and skin colour\, especially in difficult bone samples. She has gained international research experience while working a s a research assistant in the German-Mexican cooperation project “CoCiMe x”\, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)\, and in t he UNFPA-funded project “Identificación Humana en México”\, which ai ms to identify unknown deceased persons in Mexico. X-ALT-DESC:

Abstract
Mexico is currently facing a forensic crisis. Since 2006\, the “war on drugs” has resulted in count less unidentified bodies and body parts linked to organized crime and its enforcement. Many of these remains show advanced decomposition\, complicat ing identification. With over 52\,000 deceased persons\, the National Huma n Rights Commission has recognized the situation as a humanitarian crisis. This talk addresses the challenges of identifying severely degraded human remains using DNA\, focusing on how commercially available table salt and tendons can enhance DNA recovery. In addition\, various techniques for DN A extraction from bones will be compared and it will be shown how small ch anges in extraction protocols can significantly improve the success rate o f identification and support humanitarian forensic efforts.

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Biosketch
Valentina Leonie Birne is a doctoral candidate in forensic biology at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Frankfurt am Mai n\, Germany. Her research focuses on the genetic identification of human r emains\, with a particular interest in the application of molecular method s to the preservation of human tissue samples and the prediction of eye\, hair and skin colour\, especially in difficult bone samples. She has gaine d international research experience while working as a research assistant in the German-Mexican cooperation project “CoCiMex”\, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)\, and in the UNFPA-funded project “Identificación Humana en México”\, which aims to identify unknown deceased persons in Mexico.

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251218T173000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR