Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. announced the Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service, an investigative forensics service that produces a descriptive profile from any human DNA sample. Snapshot predicts physical characteristics including skin pigmentation, eye and hair color, face morphology, sex, and genomic ancestry, and can identify distant familial relationships between samples.
Now available, after three years of development with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Snapshot provides a first-of-its-kind capability for determining the physical appearance and other characteristics of an individual from a DNA sample, whether it is from an active crime scene or skeletal remains. These results provide investigators with information that can help determine the identity of suspects and victims. In addition to identifying the traits an individual is likely to have, Snapshot also produces high-confidence trait exclusions - for example, it might report with >99% confidence that a particular individual does not have brown or black eyes. Knowledge of what traits can be excluded from consideration allows investigators to greatly narrow their investigation and direct their resources more effectively.
Snapshot requires <1 nanogram (ng) of extracted DNA, and good results have been obtained with just 50 picograms (pg) of DNA. (A nanogram is a unit of mass equal to one billionth of a gram and there are 1,000 picograms within one nanogram.) Parabon scientists have built predictive models for each trait using data collected from thousands of known subjects across multiple data sources. Snapshot analysts then run the genotype data collected from each unknown DNA sample through these predictive models to produce a final phenotype prediction report. Snapshot reports are generally produced within 30 days from receipt of a DNA sample and rush orders can be filled in less than two weeks.
