British stone. Louis County (KMOV) – The St. Louis County Police Department’s Crime Lab is rolling out new DNA Technology software that will allow scientists to make more definitive DNA matches.
The software, STRmix, helps crime labs interpret DNA profiles that were previously considered too complex or too small to be interpreted manually.
“Fewer inconclusive results mean more conclusive results, which means more leads for our investigators, which means more conviction, so it’s definitely going to change the dynamics of this lab. DNA explained,” said Justin Lautz, a forensic scientist at the crime lab.
The department received new software through competitive grant funding from the 2017 Forensic DNA Laboratory Efficiency Improvement and Capacity Enhancement Program grant. The department implemented the software and began training analysts in December.
The software will bring more objectivity to the interpretation process and remove much of the natural human subjectivity, Lautz said. Without it, scientists would be overly cautious and often draw “inconclusive” conclusions. Lautz hopes the software will produce more consistent results, leading to more “conclusive” findings.
“Crime labs across the country are constantly struggling with backlogs,” he said. “It didn’t give us a lot of time for R&D. So when you want to implement something in the lab, it becomes a long process. There’s always a need to balance the work case while trying to improve our systems and workflows .”
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