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Nature 441, 673 (8 June 2006) | doi:10.1038/441673a; Published online 7 June 2006

Disasters drive DNA forensics to reunite families

Claire Ainsworth

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Genetics innovations may help Holocaust survivors.

Forensic tools developed because of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 could soon find a happier use — helping reunite Jewish families separated by the Holocaust.The DNA Shoah project, announced on 1 June at the Human Genome Organisation's meeting in Helsinki, Finland, is the brainchild of Syd Mandelbaum, whose parents survived the Holocaust, or Shoah as it is known in Hebrew.