Simple, Rapid, and Accurate Quantitation of Human DNA

Project summary for 2000-IJ-CX-K012 (S-2)

This project is a supplement to award 2000-IJ-CX-K012, and focuses on the continued development and optimization of methods for dtermining the amount of human DNA in a biological evidentiary sample. The forensic community has embraced DNA profiling for the analysis of biological evidence. Although a number of DNA profiling methods exist, that analysis of short tandem repeats (STRs) has become the standard within the community. There are a number of steps required to obtain an STR profile from a crime scene sample. One critical step is the determination of the amount of human DNA present in the sample. The forensic community relies almost entirely upon a technique that is inherently inaccurate, time-consuming and labor-intensive. The goal of this project is to evaluate and optimize alternative approaches to human DNA quantitation in order to increase the accuracy, expand the analytical range, and make the procedure less labor-intensive.

This phase of the project will explore various DNA quantitation strategies, all focusing on the detection of the high-copy number, primate-specific Alu sequences in human DNA. From among the methods, one or two will be chosen for optimization in terms of cost, reliability, and analyst time. The method(s) will be validated by comparison with the slot blot method on mock and real forensic samples. The information obtained from this study will then be disseminated to the forensic DNA community.

nca/ncf

Project summary for 2000-IJ-CX-K012 (S-2)

This project is a supplement to award 2000-IJ-CX-K012, and focuses on the continued development and optimization of methods for dtermining the amount of human DNA in a biological evidentiary sample. The forensic community has embraced DNA profiling for the analysis of biological evidence. Although a number of DNA profiling methods exist, that analysis of short tandem repeats (STRs) has become the standard within the community. There are a number of steps required to obtain an STR profile from a crime scene sample. One critical step is the determination of the amount of human DNA present in the sample. The forensic community relies almost entirely upon a technique that is inherently inaccurate, time-consuming and labor-intensive. The goal of this project is to evaluate and optimize alternative approaches to human DNA quantitation in order to increase the accuracy, expand the analytical range, and make the procedure less labor-intensive.

This phase of the project will explore various DNA quantitation strategies, all focusing on the detection of the high-copy number, primate-specific Alu sequences in human DNA. From among the methods, one or two will be chosen for optimization in terms of cost, reliability, and analyst time. The method(s) will be validated by comparison with the slot blot method on mock and real forensic samples. The information obtained from this study will then be disseminated to the forensic DNA community.

nca/ncf