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A Discussion of Automation for the Forensic DNA Laboratory
By: Cris Cowan and Melissa Schwandt

Although laboratory automation holds the promise of increasing sample throughput, in practice this does not alleviate the burden on laboratory staff. Rather it shifts the focus of the analyst’s efforts from sample preparation to sample analysis.

Automation is commonly viewed by the forensics community as a way of increasing the efficiency and throughput of DNA extraction as well as other processes in laboratory workflow (such as qPCR setup, Normalization, STR setup, etc.).

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