AFDAA MEETING MINUTES
January 25-26, 2007
DAY 1
The meeting was opened by Chair Joe Warren. A presentation on the difference
between mixture statistics and mixture interpretation was given by John Planz of
the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. Thomas Curtis of
QIAGEN gave us some insights on dealing with inhibitors in extractions while Dr.
Thomas Schnibbe spoke about extracting "touch DNA". Information on the EZ1
extraction robot was also presented.
The AFDAA business meeting was called to order by Joe Warren. Aliece Watts,
Secretary, began by thanking Promega for sponsoring the morning's breakfast. A
poster representing some of the AFDAA events over the last 16 years was displayed.
As the web site was down, the minutes of the last meeting were shown on the
screen. A few spelling corrections were noted. George Schiro made a motion to
accept the minutes after the corrections.
Melba Ketchum, Treasurer, reported that the organization had approximately $5500
in the bank. Dues statements will be e-mailed.
George Duncan, Vice-Chair, presented the persons who have applied for
membership.
*
Trinh Landry voted in to membership
* Bethany Langlinais voted in to membership
* Scott Schroeder not acted upon
* Tanya Dean - DPS Houston voted in to membership
* Jill Kramer - voted in to membership
* Grace Helms - OSBI voted in to membership
* Negin Kuhlman - DPS Austin voted in to membership
Qualifications (including attendance at one meeting) were verified for all except
Scott Schroeder. It was recommended that his application be tabled until next
meeting. A motion was made by George Schiro to accept the remaining applicants
for membership. Melba Ketchum seconded the motion. The motion passed by voice
vote.
Under old business, Chair Joe Warren requested that the members review the
proposed changes to the by-laws on the AFDAA web site in anticipation of a request
for vote on-line.
New business included information about the problems with the web site and that
the summer meeting will be held at a conference center in Austin. Vendor booths
and a poster session are possible additions being considered.
George Schiro made a motion to close the meeting that was seconded by Melba
Ketchum.
Joe Warren next presented information on the Y-chromosome biology and Martin
Tracy followed up with a lecture on Y-chromosome statistics.
Rhonda Roby spoke about the new NIJ Expert Systems Testbed Project (NEST) that
compared Gene Mapper ID, FSSi3, and True Allele.
A question was raised by Kaye Shepard about the definition of "inconclusive". A
discussion followed. The meeting adjourned to the State Trouper's Association.
DAY 2
George Schiro of the Acadiana Crime Lab offered suggestions on how to test defense
experts by using the SWGDAM guidelines.
LeAnne Suchanek of the Southwest Louisiana Crime Lab presented an interesting
case that involved Y-STR testing.
Melba Ketchum of DNA Diagnostics spoke of new SNP technology being used in
animal testing.
Chris Comar of Broward County Sheriff Office presented his research on robotics
including the QIAGEN BioRobot 8000.
Brandt Cassidy of DNA Solutions shared his validation studies using POP 7 and
PowerPlex16 with the ABI 3130.
Kim Huston gave the Promega update on Plexor HY quantitation kit, improvements
in the PowerPlex 16 kit, DNA IQ use in casework and Maxwell 16 robot.
Maurice Padilla of Applied Biosystems spoke about improvements to the Quantifiler
kit and the ABI 7500 instrument. He also introduced VALID software that will track
validation experiments, analyze data and summarize the data to create a protocol.
The next generation of GeneMapper ID is near completion. Persons interested in
attending the AB user's meeting at the AAFS meeting in February should register online. AB has a Forensic Newsletter that is also available on-line.
The meeting concluded at noon.
Minutes respectively submitted by Aliece Watts, Secretary