U.S. flag
      An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.
        Here's how you know
      Here's how you know**Official websites use .gov**
            
            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
      **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
            
            A **lock** (
            A locked padlock
            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Menu

      
        close

            
            
                                              About NIJ
        
                    
  
          About NIJ
      
    
          The NIJ Director
          How NIJ Is Organized
          Mission and Guiding Principles
          Research and Development Process
          Strategic Framework
          Assessments of NIJ
          Annual Reports & Reports to Congress
          Staff Directory
          Funding & Awards
        
                    
  
          Funding & Awards
      
    
          Current Funding
          Forthcoming Funding
          Expired Funding
          Awards: Listing of Funded Projects
          Guidance for Applicants and Awardees
          Fellowship & Student Programs
          Travel Scholarships
          NIJ Challenge Program
          Library & Multimedia
        
                    
  
          Library & Multimedia
      
    
          NIJ Journal
          Podcasts
          Publications Listing
          Multimedia Listing
          Rated Practices on CrimeSolutions
          Rated Programs on CrimeSolutions
          Software & Databases
          Datasets
          Patents
          Topics
        
                    
  
          Topics
      
    
          Article Listing
          Corrections
          Courts
          Crime Prevention
          Crimes
          Drugs and Crime
          Equipment and Technology
          Forensic Sciences
          Youth Justice
          Justice System Reform
          Law Enforcement
          Tribal Crime and Justice
          Victims of Crime
          Events
        
                    
  
          Events
      
    
          NIJ 2024 Research Conference
          Scheduled Events
          On-Demand Events
          Research Meetings & Workshops
          NIJ-Hosted Online Training

                            
                                About
          Contact Us
          Subscribe
          Topics A-Z
                  Share
FacebookXLinkedInRedditPinterestEmail Home
                            Funding & Awards
 Dense DNA Data for Enhanced Missing Persons Identification
Award Information
Awardee
              UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT FORT WORTH
Award #
              2019-DU-BX-0046
Funding Category
              Competitive Discretionary
Location
                    FORT WORTH, TX
Congressional District
              12
Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2019
Total funding (to date)
              $743,927
Original Solicitation
              Research and Development in Forensic Science for Criminal Justice Purposes, FY 2019
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2019, $743,927)
DNA profiles from human remains are compared with potential family reference samples (biological relatives such as parents, offspring, siblings, cousins) and indirectly identified by kinship analysis. Indirect comparisons are based on leveraging identity by descent (IBD) between related individuals. In many situations, not all immediate family members are available; at times only a single reference sample is available and it may derive from a single sibling, a grandparent, an uncle or aunt, a half sibling or a first cousin. Presented with only genotypes of these more distant reference individuals it often is difficult to develop statistically significant supported associations. Moreover, some related individuals can appear to be unrelated (or uninformative), thus reducing the weight substantially and potentially supporting an exclusion as well as some unrelated individuals may falsely appear related. There is uncertainty about the findings because of the stochastic nature of allele sharing between relatives. This situation is exacerbated for second degree relatives and beyond. Typically, up to third degree relatives are sought as reference samples by investigators for missing persons identifications.
Genetic genealogy tools employ dense DNA testing (SNP microarrays chips) to determine biological relationships between individuals which may be used to help investigations. If a weak or uninformative association is made due to limited STR data, a SNP panel (using a SNP chip or by NGS) could be typed to further support or refute the limited association. As the marker densities are generally high, the precision is similarly high, allowing for tight confidence interval estimation on related samples. This approach should be invaluable for missing persons identifications as correct kinship inferences can be made, and equally important exclusions can be inferred. The proposal herein will develop strategies to extract reliable and accurate data from dense SNP typing results from less than optimum input DNA, i.e., the type of samples encountered in human remains. Through simulation and empirical studies, the feasibility of inferring kinship associations up to 3 degrees distant will be determined. If successful (preliminary data already support feasibility), current requirements for family reference samples can be relaxed reducing the need for a maternal (or paternal relative) and a first degree relative reference sample. A single reference sample (as distant as first cousins and likely beyond) would be sufficient for effecting associations as well as reduce the rate of false and negative associations that occurs with current DNA typing systems. Moreover, the identification success rate will increase.
Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law, and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR 200.210(a)(14).
CA/NCF



  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      Optimized variant calling for estimating kinship
                  A machine learning approach for missing persons cases with high genotyping errors
                  A genotype likelihood function for DNA mixtures
                  Evaluating probabilistic genotyping for low-pass DNA sequencing
                  Evaluating the Impact of Dropout and Genotyping Error on SNP-Based Kinship Analysis With Forensic Samples
                  Skater: An R package for SNP-based kinship analysis, testing, and evaluation
                  vcferr: Development, validation, and application of a single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping error simulation framework
                  Forensic investigation approaches of searching relatives in DNA databases
                  How many familial relationship testing results could be wrong

  
Date Created: September 13, 2019
    
          Side navigation
  

        

  
  
              Current Funding
    
      
            
            
            
      Forthcoming Funding
    
      
            
            
            
      Expired Funding
    
      
            
            
            
      Awards: Listing of Funded Projects
    
      
            
            
            
      Guidance for Applicants and Awardees
    
      
            
            
            
      Fellowship & Student Programs
    
      
            
            
            
      Travel Scholarships
    
      
            
            
            
      NIJ Challenge ProgramSimilar Awards
        
                      A Whole Community Approach to Hate Crime Reduction: Research to Improve Prevention, Reporting, and Victim Support
                  Pivoting Headspace Ethanol Analysis to Accommodate Modern Day Scenarios
                  Mechanics of Retinal Hemmorhage in Abusive Head Trauma
 Top

      National Institute of Justice

        
        
                        About NIJ
                    About NIJ
      
    
                  How NIJ Is Organized
      
    
                  NIJ Director
      
    
                  Research Disclaimer
      
    
                  Funding & Awards
                    Funding & Awards Home
      
    
                  Awards Listing
      
    
                  Current Funding
      
    
                  Guidance for Applicants and Awardees
      
    
                  Resources
                    Events
      
    
                  Podcasts
      
    
                  Publications
      
    
                  Topics
      
    
                  Multimedia
      
    
                  Reuse Policy
      
    
                  Contacts
                    Contact NIJ
      
    
                  Staff Directory
      
    
                  Submit a FOIA Request
      
    
                  File a Civil Rights ComplaintFacebook
          
                      X
          
                      YouTube
  

      810 7th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20531
      
              Secondary Footer link menu
            Accessibility
              Plain Language
              Privacy Policy
              Legal Policies and Disclaimer
              No FEAR Act
              Freedom of Information Act
              USA.gov
              Justice.gov