What is it about?
Cell mixtures are significant obstacle for forensic DNA profiling. In this work we tested whether cells from different individuals could be physically isolated from the sample before DNA profiling by using fluorescently labelled antibody probes targeting surface antigens that vary among individuals. We show that this initial separation lead to less complex and more easily interpretable DNA profiles.
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Why is it important?
For forensic laboratories, cell mixtures lead to increased sample processing time and in many cases loss of evidence. This is one of the first studies that reports a front-end cell separation method that can be used on dried or degraded cell samples (common in forensic casework).
Perspectives
This was an interesting extension off of our previous work separating cell mixtures composed of uncompromised whole blood samples using antibody probes. We decided to 'up the ante' for these experiments by (1) drying the samples first and (2) processing mixtures composed of 3, 4, and even 5 individuals. We were honestly surprised at how well just a simple binary sort worked to make the resulting mixture profiles more informative/interpretable after sorting compared to the unsorted mixture. The foundation laid out here is currently being used to test other types of forensically relevant mixtures (e.g., saliva, epidermal, etc...)
Dr. Christopher J Ehrhardt
Virginia Commonwealth University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Simplification of complex DNA profiles using front end cell separation and probabilistic modeling, Forensic Science International Genetics, September 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.07.004.
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