STRmix & CODIS: LAPD Software Solutions
With the increasing adoption of probabilistic genotyping software for forensic DNA mixture analysis, the need for methods to upload and perform comparisons for deconvolutions has risen. LAPD has developed internal solutions and methods to develop profiles suitable for CODIS upload from STRmix deconvolution results as well as software tools to aid analysts in comparing possible […]
Forensic Scientist of Note: Walther Parson
One of the most familiar names in forensic genomics is Dr. Walther Parson. An Associate Professor at the Institute of Legal Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck, his resume is long and is filled with many notable accomplishments. He supervised the establishment of the Austrian National DNA Database Laboratory in 1997, where he currently […]
Predicting Facial Morphology Using DNA Phenotyping
When trying to identify a perpetrator of a crime, phenotyping is another tool that investigators have to generate leads and narrow down suspects. Susan Walsh, Assistant Professor at IUPUI, describes what traits can currently be predicted based on DNA evidence and the direction she’s researching next. She also shares advice for others considering a career […]
Identifying the Victims of the Conception Boat Fire
On Labor Day, 2019, The Conception caught fire on the last day of a 3-day diving trip off of the coast of California. Tragically, all 33 passengers and 1 crew member perished in the fire. In this interview, Kimberly Gin, Coroner at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office shares how she and a Deputy Coroner […]
Identifying the Golden State Killer: An Interview with Paul Holes and Barbara Rae-Venter
In April of 2018, news broke that the elusive Golden State Killer had been identified through a new technique called genetic genealogy (or investigative genealogy). In just 4 ½ months, Paul Holes and his team (including genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter) put a name to the man who had terrorized California for years. In this interview, […]
Beyond Genetic Genealogy: Building Family Trees to Investigate Crime
“Class! Class!” Diahan Southard raises her voice and claps twice, cutting through the buzz of conversation that fills the room. Dutifully, her class responds. “Yes! Yes!” It’s a technique that Southard has learned from her experience with raising three children and over 20 years of teaching. Her audience is broken up into small […]
Using Isotopes to Tell the Stories of the Unidentified
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States each year. While many are quickly found, it is estimated that 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with 1,000 of them remaining unidentified after one year. All told, there are currently more than 40,000 sets of […]
Genetic Genealogy – What Does the Future Hold?
Across the United States, and increasingly internationally, detectives are closing cases that have long since grown cold using investigative genealogy. Killers and other predators who have managed to escape justice due to a lack of leads are now finding themselves behind bars. Investigative genealogy relies heavily on open-source DNA databases, such as GEDMatch, […]
Under the Microscope – Nicole Novroski
De-convolution of complex mixtures can be challenging. Various improvements in polymerase chain reaction coupled with capillary electrophoresis (PCR-CE) and massively parallel sequencing (MPS) chemistries coupled with downstream statistical analyses have been developed and implemented to better resolve two or more person DNA mixtures. However, current genotyping outputs describe STR variation solely based on allele size […]