High-Throughput Genotyping of Forensic STRs and SNPs Using Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Time-of-flight mass spectrometry offers a rapid, accurate, and cost-effective means for high-throughput DNA analysis. Using proprietary chemistry and robotic sample preparation, GeneTrace has demonstrated that several thousand DNA samples may be processed daily with a single mass spectrometer. This mass spectrometry approach is a potential solution to the processing of samples currently being gathered for large criminal DNA databases around the world. We present results from a number of tetranucleotide STR markers of forensic interest including the 13 CODIS core loci. We are also working on some new Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers that may prove useful in screening forensic samples.