The FY 2015 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program for Anoka County - Tri County Regional Forensic Laboratory

The Tri County Regional Forensic Laboratory provides forensic science service in the areas of Biology/DNA, Latent Prints, Drug Chemistry, and Toxicology for all the law enforcement agencies within the Minnesota counties of Anoka, Sherburne, and Wright.
The DNA lab would like to upgrade its thermal cyclers to the most current models available. The DNA lab has three DNA scientists, and purchasing three of these thermal cyclers will enable all three scientists to perform amplification procedures at the same time, thus cutting the wait time for using the instruments and helping to increase efficiency in the lab’s ability to process DNA
samples.
The addition of another microcentrifuge will also help increase efficiency in the DNA lab. The laboratory currently has three of these microcentrifuges, two of which are primarily for serology use. Another microcentrifuge dedicated to the DNA process would help DNA scientists in providing more space for DNA samples within large cases or batches to be centrifuged together, thus reducing wait time.
The laboratory would like to maintain a 30 day average turn around time for Biology/DNA
cases. Adding appropriate equipment to increase efficiency and capacity would enable the laboratory to maintain these quick turn around times.

nca/ncf.