bProjeto Caminho de VoltaQ: A Brazilian DNA program for missing kids G.J.F. Gatta ´s a, * , C. Figaro-Garcia a , C. Fridman a , M.M. Neumann b , L.F. Lopez a , A.S. Barini a , A.P.H. Souza a , T.M.Q.R. Boccia a , P. Kohler a , L.R. Battistella a , C.L. Wen c , E. Massad a a Department of Legal Medicine, Bioethics and Occupational Health, Medical School, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil b Social Politics and Prevention and Research Center, Sao Paulo, Brazil c Telemedicine, Department of Pathology, Medical School, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Abstract. The main goal of the Brazilian missing kids project called bProjeto Caminho de VoltaQ (that means bthe way to come back homeQ) is to contribute to find children under 18 years old using methodologies as molecular biology, genetics, psychology, bioinformatics and telemedicine. Each year, 8000 kids disappear from their homes in Sa ˜o Paulo State and about 20,000 per year in the whole country. This project was designed to follow four main goals: (1) to identify, through an epidemiological study, the reasons of so many cases of missing kids; (2) to develop an identification process of recovered missing kids after years through a DNA database; (3) to offer psychological support to missing kids’ families during the entire process; (4) to expand the project to other police departments in our state and in the future to the entire country. D 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Missing kids; DNA database; Psychological attendance 1. Introduction The missing kids problem has been discussed seriously in many countries like USA [1] and Canada [2]. In Brazil, the Caminho de Volta Project was initiated in 2004 and it was designed to help elucidate missing children cases in the State of Sa ˜o Paulo, since there is no DNA databank in Brazil, not even for criminal intends. According to the official data of 0531-5131/ D 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ics.2005.12.014 * Corresponding author. Departamento de Medicina Legal, E ´ tica Me ´dica e Medicina Social e do Trabalho FMUSP. R. Teodoro Sampaio, 115. Cerqueira Ce ´sar. Sa ˜o Paulo - SP. 05405-000, Brazil. Tel.: +55 11 3085 9677. E-mail address: gfgattas@usp.br (G.J.F. Gatta ´s). International Congress Series 1288 (2006) 604 – 606 www.ics-elsevier.com