Advances in Forensic DNA: Developing Molecular Applications for

Saving Lives

Department of Biomolecular Engineering SeminarJack Baskin School of Engineering

Steven Lee Professor and Director of Forensic Science

San Jose State Universitysteven.lee@sjsu.edu

408-924-294805 February 2009

Top 10 ways you can tell you’re a forensic DNA scientist

10. You have your kid’s DNA types vs. their pictures on your wall.9. When your kids were born, you got an extra newborn footstick smpl.8. When your kids get injured you are more interested in collecting the

blood than dressing the cut.7. You have a backlog of fingernails, hair, and teeth from every

member of your willing lineage awaiting testing.6. You want to open a paternity service for the Jerry Springer show.5. When you stay in hotels you bring a portable UV light so you can

avoid unsanitary latent stains, and then you collect them.4. You know forensic DNA takes longer than a CSI commercial break.1. You see stains where no one else can.2. You spend your day looking at dirty underwear.1. Your license plate reads “ OJ DID IT!”

* Modified from Butler, J. 2005 ACS Meeting presentation

Outline

b. Optimizing Shipping, Storage & Processing of Forensic Samples AFDIL, Biomatrica, CSU LA, FBI, FSS, ICMP, NIST, SDSO, SJSU, RCMP, U Carleton, UNTHS

II. Forensic DNAHistorical PerspectiveApplications of Forensic DNAOverview of Forensic DNA typing and recent SJSU research applications

I. Selected Research Projectsa. Development and Evaluation of a New DNA Extraction Kit

for Degraded Skeletal Remains Nat’l Res. Inst. Police Sci., Dept Legal Med, Shinshu University School of Medicine , Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd., MiraiBio, SJSU

I. Brief Intro to the SJSU Forensic Science ProgramOverviewGrants and Acknowledgements

c. Enhancing Amplification of Low Quantity and Low Quality Samples using a new PCR enhancer: PCRBoost AFDIL, Biomatrica, NIST, SJSU, SCCCL

SJSU Forensic Science Program • BS Forensic Science- Conc. Biology or Chemistry

Interdisciplinary collaboration: Bio, Chem, JS, Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory

• 6 years old: Launched 10/2003• Justice Studies Department home: 75yrs old, > 900

majors, 3000 alumni. • 10 fold increase in FS majors (20-->260)• >20 FS research presentations • Over 75% grads hired, interning or in grad school:

– 6 crime labs (Alameda, Kern County, OPD, San Mateo,

SCCCL, SFPD)– 2 biotech/pharma (Gilead, Bayer)– 2 med exam techs (SCCME)– 3 investigators (CA DOI Fraud, DMV, CA DOJ)– 3 in grad school: SJSU MS, UC Davis MS, UCSC PhD

Spearheaded by the lateDean: Dr. Inger Sagatun-Edwards

Active SJSU Forensic Science Grants• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant

– 2008-2011: In collaboration with Biology: $1,300,000.00– 4 year research support for forensic DNA undergraduate research

• NSF REU RUMBA : http://www.biology.sjsu.edu/rumba/index/index.html– 2007-2010: Co-PI with Dr. Julio Soto, Biology– Collaboration with Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory– 10 week summer research program in molecular biology- $204,000.00

• CAC Reed McGlaughlin: Forensic Science Scholarships – 2006-2009: $13,000.00, $5000.00 for 2009– CAC A. Reed and V McGlaughlin Endowment Scholarships– Support student research: 3 awards available in 2009

• CSUPERB Joint Venture Grant– 2008-2009: $35,000.00 – Support for undergraduate biochem DNA storage research

• Justice Studies Scholarships– Over $10,000.00 annually in scholarships for JS majors– New scholarship to cover the entire senior year

New Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory• Dedication on Wednesday,

September 3, 2008

• 250 West Hedding Street-

10 minutes from SJSU 

• Four-stories, totaling 90,072 sq. ft.

• Full Service: Toxicology, Vehicle Examination, Computer Forensics, Trace Evidence, Questioned Documents, Latent Prints, Firearms, Full Length Firing Range, Forensic Biology, Evidence Property Unit, Photo Unit, Administration Offices, Training Classrooms and Support Spaces.

Selected Student Research Projects• Evaluation of Purification Columns for DNA Extraction- Marissa

Meinenger: In collaboration with Brooke Barloween- SCCCL- Presented at the 2008 ISHI

• Recovery of DNA profiles with Amplification Enhancers- Linda Le; Presented at the 2008 ISHI

• Optimizing DNA Storage- Kimberly Clabaugh; Presented at the 2008 AAFS meeting

• Optimization of fluorescent detection of biological stains- Clarissa Trogdon- New HHMI student

• Non-DNA Projects:– Latent print residue analysis for determining the relative age of the

fingerprint: Jamie Lunkley – FS Chem major with Dr. Frank Rossi of Chemistry

– QD: Analysis of fraud resistant inks: Wendy Farell – JS MS student

– Impact of Random Match Probability on Case outcome- Milani Fisher – JS MS program and JD

Acknowledgements

• Consortium Members: AFDIL, CSU LA, FBI, FSS, ICMP, NIST, SDSO, SJSU, RCMP, U Carleton, UNTHS

• Grant Support: – NIJ Grant Support to Roberts and Muller– NSF-REU grant # DBI-0647160 to Dr. J. Soto, Dr. S. Lee and

Dr. C. Ouverney– CSUPERB Grant to S. Lee

• Commercial Support and Products:– BioMatrica- Dr. Peggy Faix, Bret Light– Miraibio: Tateo Nagai, Takashi Shimizu– Qiagen: QiaSafe– Applied Biosytems: 7500, Quantifiler, Identifiler

AcknowledgementThis research was supported by NSF-REU grant # DBI-0647160. I would like to thank my mentors, Mrs. Lynne Burley, Dr. Ian Fitch and Dr. Steven Lee for their unwavering assistance and guidance during this research. I also want to thank Dr. Elizabeth McGee (Department of Biological Sciences, San Jose State University, CA) for her encouragement and support. My appreciation also goes to the scientists at Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory for their support, Dr. Soto and other RUMBA mentors for their feedback and other participants in the RUMBA 2007 program. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their understanding and support during this research program.