What is DNA·VIEW^™?

An integrated software package for DNA identification

History and concept

• DNA·VIEW is the universally acknowledged authoritative world-wide standard for DNA identification.
• Leading paternity and crime laboratories have been using it since 1988. They appreciate not only the reliability and sophistication of the software, but also the authority that it represents – created and supported by Dr. Charles Brenner.
• The design, especially in the details, owes much to direct interaction and feedback from many users.
• DNA·VIEW is more than a software package. It is better understood as an amalgam with a software component but also forensic mathematical expert support and as well interaction with the world-wide DNA·VIEW User community.

Casework

• Mixture Solution^™

  • Analysis of many-contributor mixtures including dropout/-in (fully continuous), stutter.
  • Also explores — considers various numbers of contributors and various combinations of references.
  • Amazingly fast — seconds or minutes where other programs take hours or days,
  • despite being more thorough — uses mathematics, not MCMC.

• Symbolic Kinship Program^™

  • analyzes all irregular cases including reconstruction, deficiency, incest, missing body, inheritance, even twin zygosity
  • incorporates Y-haplotypes
  • Kinship Simulation permits predicting the potential utility of DNA for a kinship problem.
  Applications include immigration casework in several countries; identifying Croatian & Bosnian war dead, Argentine orphans, SwissAir crash victims, World Trade Center victims.

• Paternity case analysis – routine version

• automatically identifies allele sharing, and automatically handles motherless cases, maternity cases, missing alleles (nulls), mutations
• calculation of paternity index PI, probability of paternity W, and exclusion probability A, avuncular index
• interfaces to the PATER paternity report program (not included), or to custom report
• suitable for high volume of casework

• Crime case calculators

  • DNA profile matching odds (NRC II options)
  • Y-haplotype matching odds
  • Mixtures:
    • see Mixture Solution above
    • "likelihood ratio" or exclusion

• Disaster identification

  In September 2001 DNA·VIEW immediately became part of the World Trade Center victim identification work; and was the main analysis tool for DNA identification. The screening module and the Kinship program are the essential tools for finding and verifying DNA identifications, especially those where the link is to living relatives.

  DNA·VIEW has been widely used in both the Thailand and Japanese tsunami victim identifications, Hurricane Katrina, and is also used for other mass identification projects including desaparacito children from El Salvador and war victims in Bosnia, Mexico, Kuwait, Guatemala, Argentina, and Iraq to name a few of many instances.

  • Screening module
  • Kinship
  • Kinship simulation

Populations

	VWA allele frequencies Caucasian Black Japanese

• Allele/fragment length frequency databases:
  • available for all common loci
  • compile automatically from your own case data
  • import or type in
  • graphical display (screen, printer, or research paper) and comparison
  • Convicted offender database capability – database search for duplicates or for a specified pattern
• Database validation:
• exact Hardy-Weinberg test (Guo & Thompson)
• exact test for independence of loci (for STR population data)
• Exact test for similarity of databases

Data Acquisition

Import data from various platforms including the ABI 3xxx, and the Hitachi FMBIO

• STR/PCR input automatic (ABI GeneMapper, Genotyper, Genescan, Hitachi STaRCall data files) or manual (type or mouse-click)
• RFLP-VNTR – various methods

More features

• Database validation & statistics
• estimate mutation rates from casework data

Hardware recommended

• PC (possibly Mac using the Virtual Box simulator.)
• a printer is recommended, DOS-compatible laserjet preferred

Miscellaneous information

• The DNA·VIEW subscription (inquire for prices) includes:
  • on-site training, typically 1+ weeks of interactive instruction but depending on which DNA·VIEW features are of most interest. Maximum 5 students.
  • a year of program updates and of mathematical and software technical support,
  • reference data for many hundreds of populations and loci
  • exchange of DNA·VIEW data bases via the DNA·VIEW Users' Group.
  • DNA·VIEW User's Manual. The 300+ page book —
  • explains all the programs,
  • includes a tutorial giving keystroke-by-keystroke instructions for routine work,
  • has discussions on fundamental issues of statistics and probability,
  • is thoroughly indexed and illustrated.
• DNA·VIEW is in use at over 100 laboratories in six continents (Antarctica please come in).
  References available on request.

contact

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