National Institute of Justice and CHORI - Collaboration with SoftGenetics® and California Department of Justice
Date
April 2016
Overview
Degraded and mixed DNA samples are often encountered in forensic cases and pose interpretation challenges. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers are ideal targets for analyzing these samples, as the high copy number of mtDNA and the large number of nucleotide polymorphisms can allow for discrimination among samples. A software program that could analyze the aspects of mtDNA significant to forensics could enable more accurate and rapid DNA analysis.
Dr. Cassandra Calloway of Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) recognized that NextGENe software, from SoftGenetics, offered a user-friendly, versatile program that could handle analysis of data generated by many different Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) platforms. Dr. Calloway led the research effort with SoftGenetics® to modify NextGENe®, commercial software tool to improve analysis of mtDNA in a forensic context.
"Mitochondrial analysis holds significant potential for the forensic community and represents a great market opportunity for SoftGenetics®. As part of Dr. Calloway’s NIJ funding, we were able to initiate a collaboration to customize the NextGENe® software for forensic use."
- John Fosnacht | Co-Founder/VP Sales & Marketing, SoftGenetics®
Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence success story was provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this success story are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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