The Missouri State Highway Patrol Laboratory in Jefferson City has installed a Freedom EVO liquid handling workstation from Tecan to automate the steps of DNA purification and tackle a case backlog.
Brian Hoey, supervisor of the DNA unit at the Highway Patrol Laboratory, said: 'Recent policy changes, combined with more reliable and accessible technologies for low-level DNA samples, have resulted in a 50 per cent increase in our workload over the last few years.
'To meet this extra demand, we needed to increase the laboratory's capacity and it was obvious that we needed to automate our workflow to achieve this.
'I visited other laboratories where automation had already been implemented, and Tecan's Freedom EVO platform was clearly the best instrument for our needs.
'We have now developed a system that does exactly what we need, automating all DNA extraction, quantification and amplification processes; our workstation is working very well, freeing up laboratory space and allowing analysts to open up more evidence and gather samples,' he added.
