Effective Forensic Sample Tracking and Handling

摘要

With implications for the success of a legal case, forensic samples must be stored under optimal conditions to avoid DNA deterioration. Failure to maintain proper storage condi-tions can result in cases being unnecessarily discontinued by the prosecution due to inappropriate treatment of evidence.~1 National guidelines and standards have been implemented that are enforced by governing bodies in forensic science, such as Interpol~2 and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.~3 These agencies ensure the collection, extraction, quantification, amplification, detection, and analysis of all samples in compliance with regional and/or institutional regulations, to mini-mize the occurrence of any contamina-tion. In order to accurately determine a profile from a DNA sample, ensuring it is admissible in a court of law, the entire process must be documented and the pro-tocols followed precisely, within admissi-ble margins of error. As such, once crime scene or reference samples have been obtained, they should be aliquoted and stored as a viable library.