The Center for Forensic Science Research and Education (CFSRE) was established in Willow Grove, Penn. at the nonprofit Fredric Rieders Family Foundation in 2010. The CFSRE provides training, education and research that advances the capability, acceptance, and integrity of forensic science as it informs public health and public safety policy and missions.
One of the current programs at the CFSRE familiar to readers of this brand is NPS Discovery, dedicated to surveilling the markets for illicit drugs in order to identify novel substances that have entered the supply of street drugs and then disseminate information about these substances. Last year alone, NPS Discovery reported, and authored monographs on 21 novel substances in the US illicit drug supply.
Other programs at CFSRE include continuing professional education in the forensic sciences, partnerships with several graduate level programs in forensic science, laboratory internships for undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in forensic chemistry, toxicology or biology, a variety of research projects funded by both National and International organizations, and a summer STEM program for high school students.
In January 2024, the CFSRE will move into a new state-of-the art facility in suburban Philadelphia that will accommodate the growing scope and scale of its mission to educate, train and conduct research. The CFSRE will be hosted by the Center for Diagnostics Discovery (CDD), a 52,000 square foot facility newly renovated in Horsham, Penn. The CDD offers affordable state-of-the-art business and laboratory facilities, supporting early-stage entrepreneurs and corporations involved in developing diagnostics technologies including those applicable in the forensic sciences. For example, one of the first firms to reserve space in the CDD is developing a new technology enabling simultaneous, sub-ppb detection of multiple drug classes (including THC) using oral-fluid at the point of collection. The CFSRE will be part of a larger community of scientists at the CDD while occupying its own 15,000 sq ft of new laboratories comprising its core mass spectrometry and genetics operations within its teaching, training and research operations.
“The CDD is the perfect home for the CFSRE given how extensively we rely on collaboration with scientists working on emerging technologies and at-risk populations in both public health and safety. We look forward to being an analytical resource to the new CDD tenants and finding new opportunities for collaboration," said Dr. Barry Logan, Executive Director of the CSFRE.
“At the CFSRE we promote the development and growth of professionals in the forensics field through our academic partnerships with Thomas Jefferson University and Arcadia University," said Carrie Barron, Director of Operations. "We have graduate programs with both universities and students attending lectures and labs at our facility and our scientists teaching as adjunct professors. In addition, we provide continuing education to professionals in the field through in person webinars and courses as well as virtual and hybrid. This new facility will allow us to expand our reach and ensure that we are providing the highest quality programming."