Workshop Overview

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in conjunction with the National Forensic Science Technology Center (NFSTC), is sponsoring a series of workshops designed to help facilitate the transition of novel technologies into practice by operational crime laboratories. These Technology Transition Workshops, which highlight technologies developed under the NIJ’s forensic science research and development programs, are a critical component of NIJ’s research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) efforts.

The purpose of this technology transition workshop is to provide the participants with exposure to newly-developing single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis methods that may be applicable to forensic testing. This class includes lecture and demonstration activities to illustrate the concepts presented, as well as hands-on instruction of SNP data analysis on the testing platforms presented.

The participants perform SNP data analysis on two platforms: a combined oligonucleotide ligase assay (OLA) followed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Participants will evaluate typical results produced from single source and mixed samples on each platform.

Students are introduced to additional SNP applications being developed to address more advanced types of forensic analysis, such as, phenotypic markers, other mass spectrometry SNP typing assays, linked SNP panels, combined SNP-STR analysis, and mtDNA typing.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of the Forensic SNP Analysis Technology Transition Workshop, the participant will acquire the knowledge to: