Leave No Stone Unturned: Warming Up Cold Cases with the QIAGEN/Verogen Sample to Insight Workflow

Despite the benefit of DNA testing for criminal justice, when sample quality is too poor to return a profile, or the profile doesn’t match a suspect or a database, traditional capillary electrophoresis (CE) methods are unable to help.

As a result, some of the most heinous cases can go unsolved for years or even decades. Intermountain Forensics is pioneering the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to address the limitations of CE and gain greater insight from every casework sample. Leveraging QIAGEN sample prep, automation and quantification, and Verogen NGS solutions, Intermountain Forensics is one of the very first laboratories to validate NGS for forensic casework and is a blueprint for other labs wanting to operationalize NGS.

In this talk, laboratory director Danny Hellwig will describe the sample to insight workflow his team have validated and present data from early casework resolved using this workflow.

About the speaker

Danny Hellwig, Laboratory Director

Intermountain Forensics

Daniel holds an M.S. in Forensic Science and is a 16+ year veteran of both Public and Private Crime Forensic DNA Laboratories. He has served as a DNA analyst, technical leader and in executive management of Forensic DNA laboratories over that time. He has provided training to hundreds of Forensic DNA labs and conferences on a variety of different topics. Armed with a black belt certification in Lean/Six Sigma process improvement and extensive experience in both quality and operational leadership, he provides executive direction and oversees the quality system of the Intermountain Forensics laboratory.