Forensic lab comes up in Gurgaon

A new state-of-the-art forensic laboratory by global biotechnology firm Life Technologies Corporation was opened here Tuesday, a company official said.

The facility will provide high throughput DNA profiling service to facilitate a broad range of DNA testing including paternity testing, kinship testing, and will also help in generating DNA database and forensic DNA analysis.

"Life Technologies' DNA forensic laboratory will reduce the burden on existing forensic system and address the requirements of DNA database generation for unidentified bodies or other crime investigations," said Devashish Ohri, managing director of Life Technologies-South Asia.

The company is looking forward to work with the state and central government laboratories "to assist in the establishment of a DNA database project".

The country has 28 laboratories dedicated to forensic DNA investigation, however, many of them have sample backlogs, according to the official.

"DNA technology has widely been accepted as the most effective crime fighting tool among law enforcement agencies for a variety of applications including sexual assault, missing persons and disaster victim identification," said Nadia Altomare, senior company executive.

J.R. Gaur, principal scientific officer (life science), ministry of home affairs, was hopeful that this new lab "would bring more efficiency" and improve the available forensic capabilities.