Florida International University (FIU) and Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (PBI) have announced that FIU has been awarded $349,130 from the Office of Justice Programs of the Department of Justice. The grant will support the continued development of a faster and more accurate method of processing DNA evidence for rape prosecutions using PBI's Pressure Cycling Technology Platform.

Dr. Bruce R. McCord, Associate Director of FIU's International Forensic Research Institute (IFRI) and principal investigator of the study, believes the new testing method has the potential to greatly improve the processing of sexual assault evidence, thus helping to reduce the current bottleneck in extracting the DNA evidence contained in rape kits.

News reports point to a current national backlog of more than 400,000 completed rape kits, sitting in storage and waiting processing and analysis. Unfortunately, each warehoused kit may be allowing a rapist to remain free. New sexual assault cases, estimated at 180,000 annually, tragically add to this backlog.

The DOJ-supported study, entitled "Rapid and selective extraction of DNA from rape kits and other forensic evidence using pressure cycling technology," is expected to help develop and validate a new DNA extraction technique based on PBI's PCT platform technology. Dr. McCord and other forensic researchers at FIU's IFRI, note that the pressure system ("Barocycler") provides an exciting new technology that is capable of extracting DNA from rape kits and other samples without the need to first separate sperm from female epithelial cells, a complex and time-consuming procedure.

FIU's Dr. McCord, a noted expert in forensic DNA research, describes PCT technology as having great potential to simplify the complex processing of rape kits. Currently in most forensic labs, the analyst is required to perform a series of tedious manual extractions in order to separate male and female cells collected on swabs from the victim. With the PCT System, there is no need to remove female cells prior to analysis. "The PCT technology permits the user to selectively burst open and extract DNA from the perpetrator's sperm cells, while leaving the victim's own cells in the swab sample unbroken. This unique capability offers great hope for significantly improving rape kit analysis."

Dr. McCord's group is scheduled to present an update of their latest PCT studies at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, February 20 – 25, 2012, in Atlanta, GA.

Source: Pressure BioSciences, Inc.