26-May-2014

Latest in DNA analysis gains wider acceptance

Pittsburgh, PA

Hundreds of thousands of DNA samples are collected each year from crime scenes across the country. About half of them never make it to the courtroom because traditional laboratory analyses often rule out the samples as inconclusive. Cybergenetics has a way to better analyze DNA data, allowing more samples to yield matches, leading to a stronger criminal justice system.

TrueAllele has produced DNA matches from evidence "that were previously quite difficult to isolate and secure," said Mike Manko, spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. The technology also gives the DA's office confidence that it can "protect the community from a criminal who may strike on repeated occasions, but it also protects the innocent from being wrongly accused," Manko said. "In that way, Dr. Perlin and the cutting edge work of Cybergenetics has proven quite helpful in identifying dangerous criminals and securing convictions," he said.

• Latest in DNA analysis gains wider acceptance - Newspaper