A revolution in DNA testing
May 11, 2010 | Length: 00:02:29
It's something you might see on the crime drama CSI, but Stevan Jovanovich, the CEO of IntegenX insists their invention is no TV prop. The company has developed an all-in-one, portable device for DNA analysis. The system avoids the need to take a DNA sample from one lab to the next for testing, and eventually, it will fit into a carry-on size suitcase, and will be mobile enough to take on a crime scene or use at a police booking station.
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>>It's something you might see on the crime drama CSI but this is no TV prop. In reality you're looking at a new way to speedup DNA testing.
>>We're going to go from where people are not DNA typed for many months after they've been arrested to where will be answers within several hours.
>>Stefan Jovanovich phonetic is the CEO of InterGenetics a technology company that has developed an all-in-one portable device for DNA analysis.
>>This is the whole system right here. Things will be miniaturized down but this is basically the engine that's going to drive the system. We've worked to improve the chemistry on it and it's really the system integration is the magic that we bring.
>>The high tech system avoids the need to take the DNA sample from one lab to the next for testing and analysis. Eventually, it will fit into a carry on size suitcase and will be mobile enough to take on a crime scene or use at a police booking station.
>>A police officer in a booking station would take out a swab like this, swab the inside of the arrestee's mouth to take the buckle cells out, put it into this tube, press go and the instrument would extract the DNA from the swab.
>>The sample is then processed and compared against a database of existing DNA strains to see if a match exists. This person has a 7 and a 9.3; those are the numbers that go into the CODIS file. So it's a set of 16 numbers; two sets of them, one for each set of chromosomes and those are what interrogate this database.
>>The unit is still in development but law enforcement officials have seen prototypes and are interested in the technology. Diane Urban is a caption with the San Jose Police Department.
>>Diane Urban: Right now there's a lot of backlogs in the country for DNA analysis. It's expensive, it's time consuming. By being able to do it maybe even under and hour and and half or two hours, we might be able to identify somebody while they're in custody for an unrelated criminal offense.
>>The next generation of forensic tools reducing time in the lab to better fight crime. For Smart Planet, I'm Simee Doss phonetic.
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==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====