US to help improve Vietnam’s DNA identification capacity

USAID announced at a workshop in Hanoi on Tuesday that it will equip a lab at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology with advanced DNA equipment, techniques, and materials.

The support is to enable the center to successfully extract usable DNA from highly degraded bone samples, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

At the announcement, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper said: “I am pleased to reaffirm the unwavering commitment of the U.S. in supporting Vietnam’s commendable efforts to identify human remains from the war and reuniting identified remains with their family members.”

The latest support from USAID is part of the agency’s US$7.4-million Identification of Human Remains project, which aims to improve Vietnam’s DNA analysis capabilities and help the country develop a comprehensive system for matching DNA from highly degraded remains with the DNA from families searching for loved ones.

This is part of the U.S. government’s Vietnamese Wartime Accounting Initiative, reciprocating over three decades of support from the Vietnamese in finding and identifying the remains of more than 700 missing Americans in Vietnam.

Via the project, the International Commission on Missing Persons has been developing a modified nuclear-DNA extraction technology to address Vietnam’s challenges with heavily degraded remains samples.

This year, the U.S. and Vietnam celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their Comprehensive Partnership, and the two nations’ cooperation in addressing the legacies of war has been a focus in their relations.