Next-generation DNA sequencing technology has been used to secure a criminal conviction for the first time, San Diego-based biotech startup Verogen announced this week.
Verogen's MiSeq technology, which received FBI approval in May for use in forensic laboratories, was used to re-test biological evidence in a sexual assault case in a Dutch court. Though the defendant had initially been acquitted, prosecutors were granted an appeal since DNA evidence in the case had been tested with older technology that generated inconclusive results.
"Using the MiSeq, we obtained a great deal more useful data, which proved extremely valuable as evidence in the case," said Peter de Knijff, PhD, head of the forensic lab for DNA research at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, who conducted the additional testing. "We could only have obtained these results using this sequencing platform."
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