Advances in forensic technology have focused heavily on improving the tools available for forensic scientists to assemble high-quality analyses from degraded DNA, typically achieved through short-tandem repeat (STR) analysis via capillary electrophoresis (CE).
Forty-nine years after Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker had enough foresight to save DNA evidence from the rape kits he collected from women at least once a day, Baltimore County has committed to testing all of that preserved evidence over the next 13 months.
DNA extraction, amplification, analysis and STR profiling all take place within the forensic lab and must conform to quality standards.
Using a 51-year-old DNA sample, bones dead and buried for 49 years, and forensic genetic genealogy technology, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office working with DNA Labs International have identified the murderer of 9-year-old Debbie Lynn Randall.
The National Institute of Justice has awarded a team of researchers from Penn State $770,000 to sequence the mitochondrial genomes of 10,000 Pennsylvanians. This will more than triple the size of the existing database.