By IAN ROSS
Ten years ago, few made the connection that mitochondrial DNA could be used as an investigative tool to solve criminal cold cases.
How quickly things have changed.
And few people in Thunder Bay ever thought their city of grain elevators, pulp and paper mills had the burgeoning potential to be a global hub in the fast-growing field of life sciences and medical research.
Arlene Lahti and Curtis Hildebrandt are the faces of this so-called new knowledge economy.
Inside sanitized rooms accessed only by fingerprint identification, the Lakehead University grads and senior scientists at Molecular World Inc. (MWI) gown and mask up to solve another mystery.
When degraded material from an exhumed grave moves beyond the investigative abilities of government or police forensic labs, it’s sent to Molecular World, often straight from the crime scene.
They can deal on a daily basis in their clean lab and recovery unit with a sometimes grisly smorgasbord of skeletal remains, pieces of human appendages, shell casings, shoes embedded with glass or garments flecked with blood, saliva, semen, strands of hair (sometimes decades old) to either tie people to crime scenes or exonerate them.
Molecular World is the only Canadian facility to use both nuclear and a variety of DNA techniques used in human identification, including mitochondrial (maternally-inherited) DNA.
“Every day I come to work, I remember these are people who are victims,” says Lahti. “We’re dealing with people’s lives.
“We try to have a sense of humour, it can get pretty depressing, but this is real life and these people had horrible things happen to them and we’re trying to help them or help their families get some closure.”
Four years ago, Lahti and Hildebrandt helped renovate a Royal Bank building in the former downtown core of Port Arthur into a highly secure facility.
The basement bank vaults are ideal storage space for evidence.
Since 2003, the seven-employee private lab has been out to constantly prove themselves to their clients by boasting the fastest turn-around time in Canada in screening samples and reporting back results within days or sometimes overnight.
“We know the meaning of overtime,” says Lahti.
“We have no choice when it needs to be done now,” adds Hildebrandt.
The company has made great strides is securing accreditation and building up their case work.
MWI regularly works with Canadian law enforcement agencies, Immigration Canada and has a contract with the U. S. Public Defender Service.
A large archaeological collection on site, including a 2,000-year-old skull from a raided grave in Egypt, helps them perfect their DNA extraction technique when dealing with relatively-fresh crime scene material that’s only 50 years old.
Molecular Work has gained respect among law enforcement for their work in cracking two cold cases.
It was the first Canadian lab to introduce mitochondrial DNA in the courts to get a conviction.
Forensic testing performed at MWI helped convict career criminal Ronald Woodcock in 2006, tying him to two first-degree murders surrounding a 1994 armed robbery in Oshawa.
More recently, the lab’s re-examination of evidence in a 23-year-old missing person’s case led to the arrest of a convicted sex offender connected to the death of Winnipeg teen Candace Derksen.
General manager and lab manager Dr. Amarjit Chahal hopes those two high profile cases will boost their national profile.
It gave RCMP and OPP investigators the confidence that the technology can be used successfully in court. Already, says Chahal, it’s “opened the door for a lot more cases that require specialized technologies.”
Building trust with law enforcement agencies has been key.
To that end, the company hired Karl Hummel as their marketing director. He has 35 years experience working in RCMPs forensic labs.
“He’s well connected with investigators and understands their needs and where our lab can help them,” says Chahal.
Their range of services is growing, especially in immigration cases. DNA samples arrive from Canadian consulates around the world to verify familial relationships or for private paternity tests.
For the immediate future, Chahal says the lab’s focus is making maximum use of the forensic technologies available to assist investigators in solving cold case files. Once the technology builds widespread acceptance, they plan to branch out.
“DNA testing is known for forensics, but it can be used for disease and genetic disorders.
“Our future expansion can be along those lines using DNA testing as a diagnostic tool.”
Chahal says their Thunder Bay location really doesn’t matter when performing this kind of work.
In branding the city as a biotech cluster, Chahal says there’s a clear understanding there must be alternative local economy because of the struggles of the forestry industry and outmigration.
Chahal says they can bring more companies to town if there are tax breaks, good infrastructure for start-ups, and qualified people available.
Lakehead University’s biology programs and its Paleo-DNA lab are a good place to recruit.
“The success of companies already here like us and Genesis Genomics, is a very good indication the message is already being sent that we can do research and technology from Thunder Bay.”
