P126 – Validation of the New EZ2 DNA Investigator Sep&Prep Kit for Automated Processing of Sexual Assault Samples

16:07

Wednesday August 19^th

Station 09

Duration: 12 minutes

03. Human identification

Dominic O'Neil

Sexual assault samples are often challenging to analyze, as they are commonly mixtures of sperm and non-sperm cells, while the identification of suspects relies on DNA analysis of sperm cells alone. Insufficient separation of cells from the involved individuals can result in mixed profiles that are difficult to interpret. Most conventional methods are based on differential extraction and the success of this approach largely depends on the amount of sperm DNA obtained. This is often very low, particularly in complex samples such as post coital swabs collected after extended periods of time.

Despite continuous methodological improvements over recent decades, existing procedures remain labor intensive, time consuming, and sometimes unsuitable for addressing backlogs of sexual assault cases or for reliably analyzing challenging samples with low sperm counts and high proportions of victim DNA. To overcome these limitations, the EZ2 DNA Investigator Sep&Prep Kit was developed.

The kit combines the established principle of differential extraction with an automated workflow on the EZ2 Connect Fx. Through the development of a novel lysis buffer and bead capture technology, Sep&Prep enables precise separation of sperm cells from mixed samples, reduces carryover of female DNA, and improves recovery of sperm DNA compared to conventional methods.

Automated processing reduces hands on time to a maximum of 30 minutes for up to 24 samples, with an instrument run time of approximately 70 minutes, while ensuring high efficiency and reproducibility. The method is fully compatible with common downstream applications such as qPCR, STR analysis by capillary electrophoresis, and NGS. The sperm fractions are directly suitable for downstream analysis without additional purification steps, enabling rapid processing and shortened turnaround times.

Validation data for the EZ2 DNA Investigator Sep&Prep Kit are presented, and its advantages in the processing of sexual assault samples are demonstrated in comparison with other methods.

Authors

Dominic O'Neil (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany)
Sarah Aurora Heß (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany)
Daniele Terramagra (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany)
Margaretha Willuweit (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany)
Anke Prochnow (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany)

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P126 – Validation of the New EZ2 DNA Investigator Sep&Prep Kit for Automated Processing of Sexual Assault Samples

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