Future possible advances in technology that affect forensic science

As time is of the essence in many police investigations, the future of forensics will implement various Next Generation Sequencing techniques (Bhagat and Shetty, 2014) which require less time to run, such as SOLiD and Illumina (Solexa) sequencing (Mardis, 2008).

Figure 1. A diagram demonstrating the SOLiD method sequences via ligation where a large group of oligonucleotides are labelled by their position on the sequence annealed and ligated, then amplified through PCR (Mardis, 2008).

Figure 2. Illumina Sequencing enables rapid sequencing of DNA base pairs encompassing entire genomes via bridge amplification resulting in the entire sequence of each chromosome in the DNA sample being recorded (Mardis, 2008).

The application of nanopore technology such as with the USB-key based MinION MkI provides real-time biological analysis due to its accessibility as it can be plugged into a laptop by USB thereby meaning lab-based DNA sequencing is a thing of the past (Oxford Nanopore Technologies, 2016).

Figure 3. The nanopore is immersed in a fluid and an electrical current is passed through it, and each DNA base moved through the nanopore causes a specific disruption in this electrical current (Eser, 2015).

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Bhagat, V. & Shetty, C.K. (2014). Amazing Advances in Forensic DNA Analysis – past, present and the future. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 5(6), pp. 1418–1422.

Eser, R. (2015). The next generation of Sequencing technologies. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from 

http://dnasequencing.yolasite.com/next-generation-sequencing.php

Mardis, E.R. (2008). Next-generation DNA Sequencing methods. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 9(1), pp. 387–402. doi: 10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164359

Oxford Nanopore Technologies. (2016). MinION MkI - products & services - Oxford Nanopore technologies. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from https://www.nanoporetech.com/products-services/minion-mki