Dr. Art Eisenberg declared a HealthCare Hero

The Fort Worth Business Press honored its 2008 HealthCare Heroes last week, and the Health Science Center’s own Dr. Art Eisenberg made the list. Dr. Eisenberg serves as the director of the UNT Center for Human Identification DNA Identity Lab, located right here on the Health Science Center campus. “He has devoted his life, beyond a 40-hour work-week, to helping families find closure at the most heartbreaking times of their lives by identifying the remains of their missing loved ones,” according to an article in the Business Press about his award. “He continually makes time to speak to victims’ families at conferences, through television broadcasts, and one on one to guide them through the process of submitting DNA samples.”

Dr. Eisenberg and his team analyze DNA samples from unidentified remains and family members of missing persons in the hopes that matches will identify the individuals. The lab’s work has led to the identification of more than 130 people and has led to criminal convictions in many cases.

Dr. Eisenberg is a member of the FBI’s Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methodologies, the American Academy of Forensic Science, the American Association of Blood Banks and the College of American Pathologists. The DNA Identity Lab contributes samples to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) national missing person database and is the only academic center in the nation to do so.