Nov 19, 2008 7:06 am US/Mountain
'Touch DNA' Allows For More Successful Matches
DENVER (CBS4) ―
The new technology of "touch" or "trace" DNA analysis allows scientists to get a successful match with just a fraction of the cells they needed 10 or 20 years ago.
Simply drinking out of a cup or touching a napkin or cigarette can leave behind enough cells and genetic material that can be tracked back to someone.
"What's the chance that their DNA profile would match this one and the numbers are going to be one in quadrillions, or trillion," said Ron Ardnt, Colorado's top DNA analyst at the state's bureau of investigation.
"In the 80s and 90s all we were looking at was blood," Ardnt said.
Now scientists can pull cells from body oils and skin left on the collars of shirts or baseball caps.
The technology helped capture a serial rapist in Fort Collins. Troy Graves pleaded guilty in 2003 to eight rapes near Colorado State University. The material from a ball cap also linked him to a murder in Philadelphia.
It is the same technique that freed Tim Masters, who served nearly 10 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
Touch DNA also lifted the veil of suspicion surrounded the Ramsey family and eliminated them as possible suspects in the murder of Jon Benet.
Because of the technique's success, crime labs are getting a 20 to 30 percent increase in requests to perform Touch or Trace DNA analysis.
It is especially valuable in reviving cold cases where blood and other bodily fluids have broken down and are no longer valuable.
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