Read the validation
report in Forensic Science International:
Genetics (FSI:G) Supplement Series
Concordance
Study Summary: MaSTR™ and STRMix™
Probabilistic Software Programs

Software validation
studies by independent researchers
are in progress:
Dr. Michael
Adamowicz, Director of the Forensic
Science program at the University
of Nebraska is performing
a full validation of MaSTR™ software.
Click here to
receive a copy of the validation study
upon its completion. Prior to heading
up the forensic science program at
Lincoln, Dr. Adamowicz was a faculty
member and forensic science
program coordinator at the University
of New Haven, Henry C. Lee College
of Criminal Justice & Forensic
Sciences. During his tenure
at the Connecticut State Forensic
Laboratory, he served as a supervisor
in the DNA unit and managed
both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA
casework groups. From 2007 – 2009
Dr. Adamowicz was a member of the
SWGDAM Mixture Committee developing
/ writing mixture analysis guidelines.
The forensic community
will have access to the validation
study upon submission for peer reviewed
publication. SoftGenetics will provide
the validation data files to laboratories
that wish to use it in their initial
evaluation of a MaSTR software trial.
Additional independent
evaluations:
Dr. Mitchell
Holland, Associate Professor, The
Pennsylvania State University.
Prior to assisting in the development
of the Forensic Science Program at
Penn State in 2005, Dr. Holland was
the Director of both AFDIL (1993-2000)
and the Bode Technology Group (2000-2005).
He currently serves as the Laboratory
Director of Mityptyping Technologies,
LLC, a SoftGenetics company. In addition,
he has held positions on governmental
and company advisory boards (e.g.,
DMORT and Identigene, Inc), and has
been recognized by leading organizations
for his work (e.g., the FBI Laboratory
and the NY City OCME), including an
honorary doctorate from the University
of Split in Croatia. Dr. Holland’s
research team will carry out a controlled
study to model environmental degradation
by producing mixed samples with known
amounts of degradation through the
shearing of DNA to known size ranges.
This controlled approach will allow
us to ask questions such as what effect
would combining two sources of DNA,
one pristine and one degraded, have
on the interpretation of the mixture
profile through MaSTR.
Professor Kelly
Knight, Assistant Professor,
Forensic Science Program College of
Science, STEM Outreach Coordinator
George Mason University is
heading up a research team to evaluate
MaSTR software’s precision, accuracy,
sensitivity, and specificity when
evaluating mixed sample DNA profiles.
The study will be conducted using
the public PROVEDIt
database from the laboratory for
forensic technology development and
integration (LFTDI)1 following
the corresponding sections of the
2016 NIST draft on guidelines for
validating probabilistic genotyping
software.
1Alfonse
et al., “A Large-Scale Dataset of
Single and Mixed-Source Short Tandem
Repeat Profiles to Inform Human Identification
Strategies.”
|