VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Holocaust Museum Houston presents the lecture The DNA Shoah Project: Using Forensic Science to Reunite Survivors of the Holocaust.

Speaker: Matt Kaplan (pictured).

The DNA Shoah Project aims to reunite families disrupted by the Holocaust, or Shoah in Hebrew, by constructing a database of genetic material from survivors and their immediate descendants. Using contemporary genomic technologies, project founders hope to match displaced relatives, provide Shoah orphans and lost children with information about their biological families and eventually, when the database has reached sufficient size, assist in the identification of Holocaust-era victims whose remains continue to surface.

Matt Kaplan, associate staff scientist at Arizona Research Laboratories at the University of Arizona, will outline the goals of this effort and the science behind it. Facilitators will be available after the presentation to assist those who wish to contribute their DNA to the project.

Admission is free, but advance registration is required. This program is cosponsored with the Houston Council of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Second Generation. For more information, call 713-942-8000 or e-mail events@hmh.org.