The Intermountain Forensics lab would like to thank Sam Houston State University (and most specifically Rachel Houston) for sending us some much needed bone fragments to use in our upcoming validation project that begins next week.
The IMF lab expects to aid in many cases of unidentified bodies and often times bone is the only viable DNA source left to attempt to identify the remains. In our constant mission to utilize the most cutting edge of scientific tools, we're going to test and validate the use of the Qiagen TissueLyser II to grind up the bones and make them usable for DNA extraction in the lab.
(yes, we agree, it does kind of look like a mini paint shaker)
Next week, we will be welcoming in the team from Qiagen to help us get this up and running and make sure it works effectively for bone processing. We will be working with Sam Houston State in this project to directly compare our results to that of older methods of bone pre-processing.
This is another HUGE chapter in the story that is our laboratory. We need all the tools that we can muster in our mission to solve these cold cases. We are thankful to Qiagen and Sam Houston State University for their assistance. It takes a village to solve cold cases and we have a fantastic one pushing us forward.
We will update you on how things go!
As always, Justice for all, no exceptions (and no excuses)!
Stay safe,
-Danny