Royal Canadian Mounted Police implements state-of-the-art DNA analysis processing system for its national DNA databank
Anjura Technology reports the successful production implementation of the Stacs DNA tracking and control software for the national DNA databank of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Designed and developed co-jointly with the RCMP, Stacs meets the ever-increasing need for DNA analysis in forensic sciences and ensures the integrity and anonymity of convicted offender's DNA, as well as biological evidence electronically indexed in the national DNA databank (NDDB).
Stacs also allows for the seamless transfer of data from and with the Combined DNA Index System (Codis) from the FBI in the USA.
Stacs facilitates the meticulous recording of all processing and analysis of DNA and biological samples for forensic crime solving, with the following key features.
Stacs is a single purpose, highly integrated software solution, flexible to change yet ensuring security and privacy.
It is easily supported, provides stability, and is available 24 hours a day.
Stacs allows forensic laboratories to leverage advanced robotics for increased throughput and maintain the chain of custody from start to finish using a robust bar coding system.
Stacs provides the ability to track every step of a DNA sample from its reception to the full import and export integration with the NDDB and Codis.
Stacs has a built-in comprehensive reporting capability that provides a full range of operational, supervisory, and management information via a report portal on the corporate network.
Stacs is an affordable approach for data capture and storage of DNA profiles that is consistent with Canadian privacy concerns, and it accounts for what, when, and where information is captured and by whom.
"For a project this complicated, it's a tremendous feat that the final outcome met or exceeded the lofty objectives, lean budget and tight timeframe" said Rick Mandy, project manager, national DNA databank.
"It was clear that the complex maze a DNA sample takes within the data bank required a sophisticated software solution that was both scalable and reliable," said Ron Fourney, officer in charge of the national DNA databank, RCMP.
"The technical solution had to be rock solid to ensure the national DNA databank was on time, on budget and operated to our specifications with a zero margin of error." The development of Stacs resulted from a unique partnership between the seasoned private sector developers at Anjura and the public sector forensic DNA scientists at the RCMP. This relationship and its end product have opened the door to worldwide marketing of Stacs.
Other potential uses lie in emerging bioscience markets such as paternity cases, animal husbandry, and horse racing, and thousands of other laboratories still using pen and paper to record their processes.
Stacs offers a cost-effective tracking of control samples throughout the analysis process in compliance with the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation standard.
