FORENSICS
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Nautilus LIMS is being used by the Forensic Science Service (FSS), a UK government-owned forensics company.
to standard is ISO/IEC/EN 17025 General toxicology, the crime scene unit, which works different levels of access to different users, so
Requirements for the Competence of out in the field, photography, trace evidence that an analyst, for example, would only have
Calibration and Testing Laboratories. and the biology laboratories, which are split access to their particular module and read
LIMS enables forensic laboratories to meet up into trial case work, investigative case only rights in others whereas an administrator
the demands of accreditation audits. ‘It [LIMS] work and the CODIS group. The operation would have access over the entire system. ‘This
ensures that we can track any given sample or also has a central receiving unit that manages is a key advantage of the system, as eventually
case at any given time and so maintain the the workload going in and out, and allocates external users can be granted access to certain
auditing that is crucial to the ISO 17025 the work to each section or analyst. areas on a limited basis to retrieve results,’
standard,’ says Christiansen. ‘The LIMS is used to track evidence as it says Hopp. State attorneys, for instance, can
Christiansen notes that the LIMS is having passes through the various stages in the chain have access to information on cases as well as
a larger and larger impact on the work carried of custody and also serves as a notification the approximately 150 agencies for which the
out. ‘This March we are launching the next system,’ explains Captain David Hopp of forensic science division carries out work.
phase or our LabWare programme and this the forensic science division. For instance, George Duncan, DNA unit manager at the
phase encompasses the entire life cycle of one the LIMS will notify the biology department crime laboratories at Broward Sheriff’s Office,
of our sections. We are going to use the LIMS, supervisor of cases pending and allows the comments: ‘LIMS answers all the questions
not only as a system for managing laboratory supervisor to assign work to analysts in the that forensics demand: namely traceability,
information, but in essence as a production laboratory. Alerts from LIMS will notify i.e. where is the sample; and will it integrate
management system.’ the analyst that there is evidence requiring with the instrumentation?’ Broward Sheriff’s
LIMS can also serve to manage the workflows analysis. A list of assays, from which an office covers Broward County, Florida, an area
of staff: the forensic science division of the analyst may choose, is also captured in LIMS. populated by 1.7 million people including
Maryland State Police uses LIMS supplied ‘All evidence for each case is stored in LIMS Fort Lauderdale, and the crime laboratories
by global company Starlims, to coordinate as a complete package and it’s possible to use SQL*LIMS from Applied Biosystems.
workflows across the various sections and track individual pieces of evidence as they The crime laboratories are primarily
laboratories that make up the division. These are assigned and pass through the chain of concerned with DNA analysis. ‘Each sample
include firearms/tool marks, questioned custody,’ Hopp says. is designated with a number and moves
documents, latent prints, chemistry and The system is set up in order to grant from tubes to 96-well plates to generate the
www.scientific-computing.com SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD february/march 2009
17
SCWfeb09 pp16-19 Forensics.indd 17 4/2/09 10:42:05
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44