Tecan and Applied Biosystems jointly develop the HID EVOlution™ System, a validated automated system designed to reduce the time necessary to process forensic DNA casework samples

Tecan today announced the availability of the HID EVOlution™ System used for the automated analysis of forensic DNA casework samples.

This new system was developed in collaboration with Applied Biosystems, an Applera Corporation business, and integrates Tecan's liquid handling workstation with Applied Biosystems 7500 Real Time PCR System, 3130xl Genetic Analyzer and Quantifiler^® and AmpF?STR^® DNA testing kits. Based on Tecan's versatile and flexible Freedom EVO^® 150 robotic platform, the liquid handling workflow for sample quantitation, normalization and short tandem repeat (STR)-PCR set-up has been fully automated in this new standardized system.

The HID EVOlution™ System utilizes Tecan's Freedom EVOware^® Standard software and a specialized Applied Biosystems application wizard which minimizes labor intensive processes involved in forensic casework analysis. In addition, the system maintains chain of custody by tracking samples using Tecan's PosID™ Positive Identification System barcode scanner. This is the first commercially available platform for human identification developed to assure the efficient import and export of data between Tecan and Applied Biosystems instrumentation. The HID EVOlution™ is expected to allow laboratories to reduce the amount of time required to process forensic casework samples, allowing them to manage higher throughputs in their laboratories.

"Routine, labor intensive tasks required to process DNA samples have been hampering forensic laboratories from being as efficient and productive as they could be," said Bob Barrett, Vice President and General Manager, Applied Markets Division, Applied Biosystems. "By combining resources to develop a solution that automates the analysis of forensic casework samples, Applied Biosystems and Tecan aim to significantly reduce the amount of time and effort needed to process samples in existing laboratories."

The collaborative product will be launched at American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) 2007 annual meeting, from February 19-24, at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas, where Tecan and Applied Biosystems will be exhibiting at booths 305 and 300/302, respectively.