Humanitarian Forensic Scientists Trace the Missing, Identify the Dead and Comfort the Living

Ahmad Samarji, Phoenicia University and Dina Shokry, Cairo University   The word “forensic” is typically associated with crimes and legal disputes. Forensic medicine, for example, applies medical knowledge to establish the causes of injury or death.   But forensic science can have a humanitarian role, too. Working under international humanitarian law rather than local or […]

This Week in Forensic Science

No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door!       How a DNA Database Helped Solve a Horrific Double Murder (NY […]

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 […]

Under the Microscope – Brittney Chilton

In her presentation at ISHI, Brittney Chilton (Criminalist II at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Science Division) will share the story of Washoe County employee, Chris Long. In 2014, Chris was diagnosed with AML/MDS Leukemia. He underwent a stem cell/bone marrow transplant and volunteered to participate in a case study led by the Washoe […]

This Week in Forensic Science

No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door!       Eurofins Scientific: Cyber-Attack Leads to Backlog of 20,000 Forensic Samples (BBC […]

Under the Microscope – Regina Wells

Laboratories across the country are dealing with backlogs of sexual assault kits waiting to be tested.  Laws in many states have changed requiring all kits to be tested, increasing the caseload for laboratories as well as the turnaround time in which results are obtained.  The ANDE 6C Rapid DNA System can analyze an evidence sample […]

Under the Microscope – Kevin Cheng

Reproducibility is one of the main principles of the scientific method.  Reproducibility in forensic DNA interpretation typically relates to the reported match statistic. The development of probabilistic genotyping (PG) solutions using semi-continuous and continuous models was partly in a response to intra and inter laboratory differences to improve reproducibility of the results. However, there are still […]

This Week in Forensic Science

No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door!       German Law Would Allow Police to Use DNA to Identify Suspects […]

A Brief History of Forensics – Infographic

A Brief History of Forensics

It’s no question that the field of forensic science has come a long way in the past few decades. Some of you reading this article may remember the satisfaction of pouring a perfect gel or the exact method for calculating the half life of the radioactive materials you’d used. If this is you, you likely […]