What is your background and how did you become interested in FIGG?
I’ve been a forensic scientist for almost 26 years and first heard about FIGG when news of the investigation into the Golden State Killer was released. When I heard how the technology was used to find someone that wasn’t in any CODIS databases, I was very interested in learning more and seeing how this could be incorporated into our own forensic lab. This seemed like a huge leap forward in solving challenging cases.
At the time it seemed like it was going to require a huge shift in workflow as we were not doing any sequencing work in our lab. However in 2020, we purchased the MiSeq FGx to validate the Signature Prep workflow with the hope of one day being able to use the same instrument for FIGG work.
Please describe a typical day at work.
As I manage the day-to-day operations of the BCIT Forensic DNA Lab, each day presents a new opportunity for novel problem solving and is quite varied. I work on long term project planning within the lab as well as validation development and implementation. I also write forensic DNA reports and am called to testify.
What type of cases are you dealing with?
We do all the unidentified human remains work for the BC Coroner’s Service, as well as immigration DNA testing for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and criminal casework for local law enforcement agencies ranging from homicide cases to firearm charges.
What is status for use of FIGG in your country?
FIGG is still in its infancy in terms of use in Canada. There have recently been policies developed by various law enforcement agencies to dictate how it can be used, but to the best of my knowledge it is still being used sparingly. There is a lot of interest in the law enforcement community around this process though and I imagine there will be more use as time goes on.
How did you first hear about ForenSeq Kintelligence?
I heard about Kintelligence through conversations with sales reps at Verogen. As we were already using the MiSeq FGx we were a good candidate to implement Kintelligence as well.
Tell us why you chose Kintelligence for your FIGG workflow?
Kintelligence gave us the opportunity to implement FIGG in the lab using a workflow we were already comfortable with. It also has a high sensitivity for low input DNA samples which made it ideal for the human remains cases we work on regularly.
Do you have many cases which you think will benefit from your new FIGG workflow?
We are currently working with a First Nation community to identify a number of children buried in their cemetery associated with a residential school. These remains are all fairly old and the amount of DNA that will be recovered is expected to be low and degraded. Kintelligence provides a unique tool to generate that data that would be very challenging to generate using any other approach.
What do you appreciate most about ForenSeq Kintelligence―GEDmatch PRO―FIGG?
The workflow is streamlined and was easy to implement if you’re already familiar with sequencing. The software makes interpretation much more straightforward than I was expecting, and once you’ve got a handle on how to evaluate the data it can be faster to evaluate 10,000 SNPs than to deal with a complex STR mixture.
Would you recommend ForenSeq Kintelligence to others in your field?
I would recommend Kintelligence to anyone working with low input DNA forensic samples. WGS and microarray have limitations on input DNA that Kintelligence can overcome, and there may be times where this is the only viable solution for those types of cases.
How do you see the future of FIGG?
I think FIGG use will only grow in forensic science as time goes on. It provides such a powerful tool for investigators who don’t have any other information on the case. The idea of being able to take a bone sample that’s found in the woods or washed up on shore with no associated evidence to help narrow down who it may belong to and put a name to that person even if they aren’t in any law enforcement databases is very appealing. It will allow you to solve a lot of cases that were previously never going to be answered. As the databases we use for FIGG become more robust, the power of this technology will only continue to grow, and more cases will be resolvable.