NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Thermo Fisher Scientific's Life Technologies said today that the FBI has granted approval of the Life Tech GlobalFiler Kit for forensic laboratories that generate DNA profiles and upload them to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database.
The agency based its decision on data submitted by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, which validated the product, Thermo Fisher said.
This is the second DNA kit from Thermo Fisher to be cleared in the past year. In October the FBI approved the GlobalFiler Express Kit for use by laboratories generating DNA profiles to be included in CODIS.
Both GlobalFiler and GlobalFiler Express feature six-dye chemistry and include 24 loci. GlobalFiler has been designed to help crime labs obtain answers from very small amounts of DNA, and to interpret samples containing inhibitory substances or mixtures of more than one contributor's DNA, Thermo Fisher said. Meantime, GlobalFiler Express has been optimized to process samples from a known single source, such as a cheek swab sample collected from a suspect. It is also a direct amplification kit, and enables labs to obtain an answer in less than two hours.
Both products contain all the genetic markers recommended for inclusion by the CODIS Core Loci Working Group, as well as 10 additional markers commonly used in Europe to reduce the risk of chance matches while enabling more effective data sharing among countries, Thermo Fisher said.