NYC OCME
Definition
New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner; led the 9/11 WTC DNA identification operation and developed the mini-STR and high-throughput mtDNA workflows now used globally.
- Full name
- New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner
- Major operation
- 9/11 WTC DNA identification effort
- Methods developed
- Mini-STR kits, high-throughput mtDNA workflows
- Legacy
- Techniques now used globally in mass fatality identification
Common questions
Why did the 9/11 identification effort require developing new DNA methods?+
Remains recovered from the WTC site were extensively fragmented and degraded by fire, structural collapse and prolonged exposure, which meant standard STR kits often failed. Mini-STR kits with shorter amplicons could recover profiles from more degraded fragments, and OCME scaled up mitochondrial DNA testing for samples where nuclear DNA failed entirely.
How long did the WTC identification effort run, and is it still active?+
The identification effort continued for years after 2001 and OCME has periodically reexamined previously unidentified remains as DNA technology improved, with additional identifications announced well over a decade after the attacks as newer, more sensitive methods became available.
How are OCME's mass-fatality methods used outside the United States?+
Mini-STR kits and high-throughput mtDNA extraction protocols developed or refined during the WTC effort became part of the standard toolkit recommended in disaster victim identification guidance used by INTERPOL member states and forensic labs handling mass casualty events worldwide.
Related terms
- Bonaparte
- NFI kinship-matching software used in the MH17 DVI operation and subsequent Dutch-led mass-casualty responses; handles pedigrees across multiple national reference-sample databases.
- Direct Reference Match
- A DVI DNA comparison between a post-mortem profile and a reference profile derived from a personal effect (toothbrush, razor, stored sample) known...
- DVI (Disaster Victim Identification)
- The systematic multi-agency process for identifying victims of mass-casualty events, governed by the INTERPOL DVI Guide 2018 revision. Organises work into five...
- Kinship Match
- A DVI DNA comparison between a post-mortem profile and reference profiles from one or more biological relatives, using a pedigree-based likelihood ratio...
- M-FIsys
- Kinship-matching software developed by the Netherlands Forensic Institute and first deployed at scale in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami Thailand DVI operation.
- Pink Form
- The INTERPOL DVI post-mortem recording form, used to document all biometric data collected from human remains (fingerprints, dental charts, DNA, physical descriptors,...
- Yellow Form
- The INTERPOL DVI ante-mortem recording form, completed by family liaison officers using information and reference samples provided by relatives of the missing.