Holland Advises National Committees on Improvements in Human Identification

1 June 2006—Mitchell Holland, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has been invited by the National Center for Forensic Science (NCFS) to participate on two focus groups supported by the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ), one titled "Identifying the Missing" and the other titled "Mass Fatality Incident Management." 

The first group will identify specific needs of medical examiners and coroners regarding technologies and resources that will enhance their ability to identify the missing. There are more than 40,000 unidentified deceased individuals in medical examiner's offices across the country today. Many remain unidentified due to a lack of resources, such as DNA testing, and the failure of communication systems that would enable offices across State lines to share information. 

The Mass Fatality Incident Management group is working toward providing an on-line guide and training resources for professionals in the field. From 1999 to 2002, Holland was part of a group sponsored by the same organizations that developed printed guidelines to address the issue of online resources. The project was extended to account for lessons learned during the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93 that took place on 11 September 2001.

Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, Holland led the efforts of two prominent forensic-DNA laboratories: the Armed Forces DNA-Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) in Rockville, Maryland, and The Bode Technology Group in Springfield, Virginia. Holland is best known for his pioneering work to develop DNA-based methodologies for human identification. At AFDIL, Holland developed mitochondrial-DNA (mtDNA) methods that have been used for the past fifteen years to assist in the identification of U.S. military personnel. The most famous of these cases was the identification of the Vietnam Unknown Soldier, 1st Lieutenant Michael Blassie, in 1998. Prior to that, Holland's laboratory had used mtDNA analysis to help identify the remains of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas Romanov, and to refute the identification of Anna Anderson Manahan as the long-lost biological daughter of the Romanov family, Anastasia. Laboratories around the world have adopted the methods developed by Holland and his colleagues at AFDIL.

Holland's laboratory at Bode completed the analysis of more than 15,000 forensic cases and 300,000 convicted-offender databanking samples. Holland is noted for his development of new methodologies and approaches to assist in the identification of victims from the attacks on the World Trade Center, in support of the efforts of the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. These included novel DNA-extraction approaches that were capable of processing more than 200 skeletal samples per day. As a result, while prior methods allowed for the analysis of approximately 100-200 samples per week, the new methods could analyze more than 800 samples in the same time frame. Given the magnitude of the World Trade Center victim-identification project, this level of throughput was vital to the success of the project. Holland has also been involved in the identification of victims from a number of other disasters and airline crashes; including US Airways Flight 427 outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, TWA Flight 800 in Long Island, New York, and Alaska Airlines Flight 261 off the coast of Los Angeles, California.

Holland now applies his previous experience to courses he teaches for Penn State's new forensic-science major. His students are exposed to cutting-edge technologies and techniques to develop forensic-DNA profiles from a wide variety of biological sample types. Holland teaches his students how the principles of biochemistry and molecular biology relate to the field of forensic-DNA science, and provides the students with hands-on training in the analysis of forensic-type samples (bloodstains, hairs, mock sexual-assault swabs, and even cells recovered from the surface of a soda can). This level of hands-on preparation will benefit students hoping to start a career in the field of forensic DNA.

Holland is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He was honored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1998 for helping them develop mitochondrial-DNA-analysis techniques for forensic-casework samples such as hair shafts. Holland has published 36 scientific papers and book chapters about his work and research. He has been on the editorial board of the Journal of Forensic Sciences since 2000 and was a member of the editorial advisory board of the International Journal of Legal Medicine from 1996 to 2000. He has given more than 100 invited presentations on forensic-DNA analysis and has been qualified in courts of law as an expert in forensic-DNA analysis. In 2005, he established a consulting firm, Forensic DNA Consultants, to support the law-enforcement and crime-laboratory communities. 

Holland received his bachelor's degree in chemistry, with a minor in philosophy, from Hobart College in 1984 and received his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Maryland in 1989. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1990.

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