Novel microfluidic and bio-imaging technologies solutions for forensics areas - Medical / Health Care
Evidence Screening & Differential Extraction For DNA Analysis: More than 200,000 rapes and sexual assaults are reported each year in the United States. Worldwide, in excess of 840,000 cases involve sexual assault4. Every 107 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted. South Africa records the highest rates of rape in the world. According to children’s welfare groups, a woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa.
DxNow, in collaboration with The Demirci Bio-Acoustic MEMS in Medicine Labs (BAMM) at Stanford Medicine, has developed microfluidic-based platforms for the capture and sorting of a diverse type of cells and pathogens by utilizing highly specific recognition elements including antibodies and carbohydrates. These platform technologies have the potential of being deployed for the detection, capture and quantitation of multiple cell types from unprocessed samples. We have now applied these state-of-the-art technologies to selectively capture sperm from complex bodily fluids, a step which is crucial in forensic DNA analysis of sexual assault samples. Processing of sexual assault evidence generally requires separation of the victim’s cells (epithelial) from the perpetrator’s cells (sperm) and involves time consuming steps of selective cell lysis, centrifugation and separation into female and male DNA fractions (a process known as differential extraction). DxNow technology will provide a catalyst in helping to reduce DNA forensic backgrounds in cases involving sexual assault evidence. Methods for rapid and efficient processing of sexual assault evidence will accelerate forensic investigation and reduce casework backlogs.