Lab-on-a-chip can already detect DNA at crime scenes

UT PhD candidate Brigitte Bruijns has designed a lab-on-a-chip that enables detectives or forensic experts to crime scene to determine within half an hour whether a sample contains human DNA.

The invention, which currently only exists on paper, can save a lot of time during a police investigation. The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) currently performs more than a hundred thousand DNA tests annually, half of which do not contain a useful DNA profile. With Bruijns' lab-on-a-chip concept, it can be determined at the crime scene whether or not a sample should be sent to the NFI.

By means of indicative screening, a sample of only 100 picograms can give a result in half an hour. The concept still needs improvements, among other things in sampling. This is currently done with swabs, but these have the disadvantage that a lot of DNA remains and can therefore not be analyzed. The storage of evidence also still poses a challenge.

Opposite TW says Arian van Asten, professor at the UvA and guest researcher at the NFI, that Bruijns' lab-on-a-chip concept is promising because it can increase the chance of success of DNA research. However, money is needed to develop the first prototypes.