California’s Pure Gold Forensics Will Begin Using STRmix to Interpret Mixed DNA Profiles
Summary
Pure Gold Forensics’ decision to use STRmix™ is based on the software’s strong track record in producing usable, interpretable, and legally admissible DNA evidence in a wide range of violent crime and sexual assault cases, as well as cold cases in which it was used to re-examine evidence originally dismissed as inconclusive. STRmix™ works by assessing how closely multitudes of proposed profiles resemble or can explain an observed DNA mixture. These two probabilities are then presented as a likelihood ratio (LR), inferring the value of the findings and level of support for one proposition over the other. STRmix™ success in accurately analyzing complex DNA mixtures has led to its use in 68 local, state, federal, and private forensic laboratories in the U.S., as well as all nine state and territory labs in Australia and New Zealand and 14 other forensic labs in countries including the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, and Denmark. The team behind STRmix™ has also launched two related products: DBLR™, an application used with STRmix™ that allows users to undertake superfast database searches, visualize the value of their DNA mixture evidence, carry out mixture to mixture matches and kinship analyses; and FaSTR™ DNA, expert forensic software that rapidly analyzes raw DNA data generated by genetic analyzers and standard profiling kits and assigns a number of contributors (NoC) estimate.