Sarajevo, 7 March 2018: The International Commission on Missing Persons has presented Sarajevo University’s Faculty of Natural Science with a comprehensive range of equipment that will make it possible to establish a new DNA laboratory at the university.

At the Faculty today, the Head of ICMP’s Western Balkans Program Matthew Holliday presented the Dean of Faculty of Natural Science, Professor Mustafa Memić with the accompanying documentation for the equipment, which includes two DNA sequencers and sequencing computers, pipettes necessary for DNA lab work and essential laboratory hardware and furniture.

ICMP has also supplied the operating system and software needed to make the equipment operational.

“The equipment donated to our faculty is of great importance and will be used in the teaching process of all three study cycles. In this way, students will be introduced to the latest technologies in the field of molecular biology. In addition, teaching staff at the Faculty of Natural Sciences will have at their disposal modern equipment for their scientific research work,” Professor Memić said.

Matthew Holliday pointed out that when ICMP reorganized its BIH laboratory system in 2016 it donated strategic equipment to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Banja Luka. “ICMP has always sought to ensure that equipment is put to effective use for as long as possible. The laboratory system was relocated to The Hague during 2017, which has enabled ICMP to begin utilizing Next Generation Sequencing, a method of DNA matching that is significantly more powerful than the systems that have been applied until now. However, the equipment donated today can still serve extremely useful purposes. It can help scientists in Bosnia and Herzegovina develop their forensic capacity.”