Enabling Forensic Intelligence through Genome-wide Analysis of Forensic DNA Evidence

There are currently at least 250,000 unsolved murders in the US and likely 50k-75k unidentified human remains. Furthermore, over 50% of sexual assault kits do not identify the assailant using CODIS. All these unsolved cases create a growing burden for law enforcement, draining resources, and makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies with limited budgets to operate effectively. While the current forensic DNA testing framework, CODIS, is effective in tracking crime by repeat offenders, CODIS is relatively ineffective for unidentified remains, as victims are not usually present in CODIS and CODIS was not designed to identify human remains. New techniques based on modern DNA sequencing are necessary. Unfortunately, forensic DNA is often highly degraded and damaged, contaminated with bacteria, or extremely low in human DNA quantity, which makes DNA identification difficult, even with newer DNA testing tools. The U.S. Department of Defense has tried for decades to verify the identities of the thousands of American troops who died in World War II and many are still unidentified. There is a huge need for the DoD to modernize DNA assisted identification of missing U.S. service members with forensic-focused advanced DNA sequencing. Othram operates the world’s first private DNA laboratory purpose built to enable human identification from the most challenging forensic evidence, using advanced genomics methods and analysis methods such as genetic genealogy.