New Service for Forensic Laboratories Accelerates Implementation of DNA...

New Service for Forensic Laboratories Accelerates Implementation of DNA Testing Methods and Technologies

Applied Biosystems, an Applera Corporation business, today announced a new service program for forensic DNA laboratories. The new Applied Biosystems Validation Support & Training Program is intended to make it faster and easier for forensic DNA laboratories to comply with quality assurance standards and validation guidelines. Validation is the documented, scientific evaluation of the performance and analysis of DNA technologies that provides objective evidence to demonstrate the validity and reliability of the forensic DNA test results.

This new program involves forensic application experts from Applied Biosystems, the global leader in validated human identification solutions, providing support and resources to help the participating forensic laboratory create and implement an efficient plan for laboratory validation and training. The application experts help conduct time-consuming testing and required data analysis, utilizing Applied Biosystems' new VALID(TM) software application for streamlining these activities and producing a comprehensive report with results and supporting data for each experiment. Data from the validation process is used in accordance with national quality assurance guidelines and accreditation standards.

The program is designed so that the participating forensic laboratory's personnel retain the management and responsibility for compliance and remain involved in the execution of the validation studies. Applied Biosystems' forensic application experts complement existing forensic analysts for assistance in planning, on-site support and comprehensive, hands-on training to help facilitate proficient implementation in the laboratory.

This program helps forensic analysts save time and focus more effort on routine casework and other workflow activities. With Applied Biosystems' involvement, the laboratory should also be better able to adopt more effective DNA testing capabilities, such as analysis of degraded DNA, into forensic DNA testing workflows.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) participated as an early-access site in the Validation Support & Training Program to implement multiple instrument platforms, the AmpF?STR(R) kits and software at its crime laboratories in Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis. As a result, officials estimated that TBI saved more than 450 hours in analyst time at its Nashville facility alone, allowing this laboratory to process an additional 174 cases and 392 forensic samples.

"The major support provided by Applied Biosystems' validation program has allowed our crime laboratory scientists to spend more time processing casework samples," said Joe Minor, the DNA Technical Manager at TBI. "The final result has been the rapid implementation of new DNA equipment and typing kits without sacrificing valuable time in the crime laboratory."

Another of the early access sites to take advantage of this validation support and training program was the coroner's office in St. Tammany's Parish, Louisiana, north of New Orleans. The new St. Tammany forensic laboratory, which recently opened, managed to conduct the validation testing in eight weeks with the support of Applied Biosystems.

Typically, DNA laboratories take six to 12 months to validate new DNA technologies, according to information gathered from the thousands of forensic DNA laboratories to which Applied Biosystems provides advanced DNA instruments, software and reagents. Applied Biosystems' new Validation Support & Training Program should enable St. Tammany's Coroner's Office to bring its forensic DNA laboratory into validated operation much more quickly.

"The rapid deployment of this new state-of-the-art forensic science services center is allowing us to achieve our goals faster to provide forensic DNA testing in our community," said Dr. Peter Galvan, the chief coroner of St. Tammany. "The assistance of Applied Biosystems application experts was instrumental in speeding up the process and enhancing the quality assurance of validation, so we can start processing DNA evidence."

"The more that the process of validation can be streamlined and accelerated for a forensic lab, the more it allows forensic scientists to focus on speeding up casework, reducing backlogs and delivering definitive results as expeditiously as possible," said Leonard Klevan, Ph.D, president for Applied Biosystems' applied markets division. "By providing the Validation Support and Training Program, Applied Biosystems is helping forensic labs establish processes, workflows and testing capabilities for improving the results in criminal investigations, missing persons cases and mass disasters."

Applied Biosystems is a global leader in the development and commercialization of instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services for the life science market, including the forensic science market. Thousands of forensic laboratories worldwide use Applied Biosystems' forensic DNA instruments, software and reagents for human identification. The company's Validation Support & Training Program is currently available for any forensic laboratory in North America. The company plans to expand this program globally in the future.

Source from Selectscience.net