Utah-based Sorenson Forensics is designing and implementing the first professional law enforcement DNA laboratory in Nigeria.

Led by Timothy D. Kupferschmid, a worldwide leader in advanced forensic DNA services, a team of scientists will travel to the West African nation in January 2012 to oversee installation of genetic testing equipment at the new laboratory in Lagos, Nigeria.

"This is a great milestone for both the people of Nigeria and our team here at Sorenson Forensics," said Kupferschmid. "We are very pleased to be helping a developing country like the Federal Republic of Nigeria launch its first DNA lab and bring modern crime-solving techniques to law enforcement there."

Between January and July of 2010, Kupferschmid and his colleagues hosted three Nigerian scientists for an intense regimen of forensic DNA training. "Working with the Nigerians now for a couple years, we've become friends as well as colleagues," Kupferschmid said. "I'm looking forward to going to Lagos and starting the next phase of this project."

In Lagos, Kupferschmid—joined by Sorenson Forensics' Biotechnical Solutions Manager Craig Nolde, and Daniel Hellwig, the company's forensic DNA technical leader—will outfit the new Nigerian lab with DNA and serology (blood, semen, and other bodily fluids) testing equipment; screen and select cases and begin processing evidence in those cases; make sure lab gear is up to operating standards; and train Nigerian staffers in operating their new technology.

"Most countries in Africa still do not yet have a forensics DNA lab. We helped establish the continent's first such lab a couple years ago in Senegal, and we are also working with some other countries in preliminary lab development projects," Kupferschmid said.

In addition to its international work with Nigeria and Senegal, Sorenson Forensics' Advanced DNA laboratory helped the Chechnyan government identify victims of the September 2004 terrorist attack on an elementary school, assisted the Thai government in identifying victims from 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and helped identify victims of a deadly plane crash in Libya in 2010.

Source: Sorenson Forensics