Qiagen and Hamilton Robotics to develop automated DNA fingerprinting workflows

Qiagen has announced a new partnership with Hamilton Robotics to create new high-throughput solutions for human identity databases.

The companies will ally to create new approaches to DNA fingerprinting of samples, with streamlined automated workflows to enable high-throughput assay setup for analysing large numbers of reference samples collected for law enforcement databases.

Labs will be able to receive DNA samples from police, process them rapidly for analysis and upload the digitised information to databases. At the front end, pre-treatment and assay setup for Qiagen's Investigator GO! assays is simplified through the use of preinstalled and pre-validated protocols on the STAR Q Punch AS and STAR Q Swab AS instruments.

Currently, about 30 European countries, a similar number of US states, and several Asia-Pacific countries take swabs or other samples upon arrest or charging of suspects, with the technology becoming more widely used than ever before.

Dr Thomas Schnibbe, senior director and head of Qiagen's global forensics franchise, said: "Qiagen is pleased to partner with Hamilton to launch complete, efficient solutions for human identity workflows, especially to help increase capacity and relieve backlogs in law enforcement database laboratories."

This comes after the firm also recently partnered with the International Commission on Missing Persons to utilise next-generation sequencing technology to help identify missing persons.

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