FY 2017 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program - Beaufort County Sheriff's Office

The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office Forensic Services Laboratory provides forensic DNA testing of biological evidence recovered from criminal investigations in Beaufort County, South Carolina.

This biological evidence is submitted to the laboratory by law enforcement agencies of Beaufort County, South Carolina, which together serve an estimated 175,000 residents. The laboratory began DNA testing in 2010 on cases with known criminal suspects. The laboratory was accredited by Forensic Quality Services (now known as ANAB) under the ISO/IEC 17025 Standard in 2011; following this, the laboratory began accepting cases with unknown suspects. As a result, submissions to the laboratory for DNA casework increased significantly.

Previous grant funding added capacity for DNA extraction, quantification, amplification, and data interpretation, but additional DNA sample submissions and new STR amplification processes have outgrown the capacities of the laboratory's thermal cycling and capillary electrophoresis instruments. As such, the laboratory is seeking funding to support the purchase of two Applied Biosystems Veriti thermal cyclers and one Applied Biosystems 3500 Genetic Analyzer. The Veriti thermal cyclers will supplement the laboratory's current thermal cycling capacity and allow for multiple examiners to perform multiple amplification methods at the same time.

The 8-capillary 3500 Genetic Analyzer will replace the laboratory’s 4-capillary 3130 Genetic Analyzer and allow for twice as many samples to be analyzed in a shorter overall run time. Funding will also provide for two additional years of warranty coverage for each instrument, thus covering all instruments for a total of three years. A Veriti thermal cycler temperature verification unit will be purchased to allow the laboratory to perform temperature verification on the Veriti units in order to ensure their continuing functionality. Finally, funds will be used to purchase installation and validation supplies and consumables.

nca/ncf