An integrated software tool for detecting criminals using DNA databases

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kong, K.S.^a | Ng, E.Y.K.^{b; *}

Affiliations: [a] DS Center/IEP, DSO National Laboratories, 20 Science Park Drive, 118230 Singapore | [b] School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798 Singapore

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Adjunct NUH Scientist, Office of Biomedical Research, National University Hospital of Singapore, Singapore. E-mail: mykng@ntu.edu.sg.

Abstract: The work showed that the integrated suite of software tools for detecting criminals using DNA databases has achieved the overall objective by providing a working platform for sequence analysis. The work also demonstrated that by integrating BLAST and FASTA (two widely used and freely available algorithms), plus an additional implementation of PSA (custom-built pairwise sequence alignment algorithms) and TR analysis tools (for detecting tandem repeats) with the rest of the utilities supporting tools (databases and files management) developed, it is entirely possible to have an initial working version of the software tool for criminal DNA analysis and detection work. The integrated software tool has great potential and that the results obtained during the tests were satisfactory. The recent South Asia Tsunami incident has renewed the need to establish a quick and reliable system for DNA matching and comparison. This work may also contribute towards the quick identification of victims in many disasters. Future works are to further enhance the existing tools by adding more options and controls, improve upon the visualisation display, and to build robust software architecture to better manage the system loadings. Fault tolerance enhancement to the system is one of the key areas that can further help to make the entire application efficient, robust and reliable.

DOI: 10.3233/JCM-2008-81-202

Journal: Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, vol. 8, no. 1-2, pp. 21-49, 2008