Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is an American company (Reston, Virginia) that provides DNA phenotyping services to law enforcement agencies. The company has begun cooperation with Ukrainian organizations to help find relatives of Ukrainians who died during the Russian military aggression.
Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is an American company (Reston, Virginia) that provides DNA phenotyping services to law enforcement agencies. The company has begun cooperation with Ukrainian organizations to help find relatives of Ukrainians who died during the Russian military aggression.
The National Police began an experiment in February of this year. It published on its website «five computer-generated images of our defenders who died in the face of the enemy, defending our freedom and independence.»
Andriy Chernousov, Senior Advisor on Missing Persons at the Partnership for a Strong Ukraine Foundation, told dev.ua about the role that Parabon technology plays in the process of identifying missing persons in Ukraine.
The Foundation, thanks to donor support from 9 countries, financed access to this technology for the National Police.
Chernousov noted that 11 images of fallen defenders have been created so far, with which the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine is actively working. DNA samples have been extracted from their bones and sent to the United States for examination.
By default, Parabon reconstructs faces using DNA at the age of 25. But the technology of reproducing appearance allowed to age these images to 40 years, because most of the deceased were not young people after all.
«We have received several thousand calls from relatives who allegedly recognized their loved ones in the image. We are currently verifying the requests and conducting repeated comparative examinations,» he says.
The technology has already proven its effectiveness in the US, where it is used for FBI investigations and by local sheriffs. According to information provided by Chernousov, Parabon has made it possible to determine DNA similarities with bodies that have been lying unidentified, sometimes for years. This process helps relatives find their loved ones who have disappeared due to hostilities or other circumstances.
Of course, the question immediately arises about the accuracy of the portrait of a person. Chernousov noted the case of a woman-"witch» who was buried in the 17th century. Researchers conducted an exhumation, analyzed DNA, and were able to establish her identity.
Thanks to DNA sequencing, it was established that she belonged to a wealthy family, and after several generations it was possible to prove that she was in no way connected with the Widmann stories. The snapshot (as the recreated image is called) turned out to be identical to a portrait of a woman that had been preserved since ancient times.
Chernousov also shared that Parabon’s technology is capable of producing not just images, but also predicting a person’s appearance through 3D modeling. This is an important step forward in investigations, especially for situations where there are no photographic materials or reliable information about appearance.
Responding to dev.ua’s question about the Ukrainian office, a Parabon representative said that the company does not have an office in Ukraine. «Parabon NanoLabs is an American company with a single office in the US, but our technology is available for use worldwide, and we work in partnership with organizations in various countries, including Ukraine,» he wrote.
Regarding the operation of the DNA facial reconstruction technology, company representatives explained how this process occurs: «Human DNA contains anthropological features of each person’s phenotype: eye color, hair, skull shape, chin, nose, etc. After extracting DNA from a bone, nail, or tooth, the laboratory performs an analysis procedure called full sequencing using the SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism) method. It is this procedure that makes it possible to isolate unique anthropological indicators, which are then combined into a facial image.»
Regarding further plans for the development of the technology in Ukraine, Parabon representatives noted that they are waiting for the final results of the matches and hope for further improvement of the process. «It is too early to talk about plans. We are now waiting for the final results of the matches. Ideally, we want to equip our laboratories with the necessary equipment and experts to be able to perform such examinations independently,» Parabon emphasized.
Chernousov also noted that although the results are already available, additional checks are still needed to make the identification process as accurate and effective as possible. «We can’t say en masse that it works… This is a step forward in terms of technology that will develop and allow it to be used more often in the future.»
Overall, Chernousov noted that today there are over 63,000 active wanted persons in Ukraine, and Parabon technology gives hope to relatives to find their loved ones.
