Forensics laboratory developes new way to test biological evidenc

According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, only 58 percent of sexual assault arrests result in felony convictions.

But a forensics lab based in Hillside hopes to change that number.

Independent Forensics, of 4600 Roosevelt Road, has developed a new laboratory test called Sperm Hy-Liter that could revolutionize the way biological evidence in sexual assault cases is analyzed.

This new test will rapidly and specifically identify human sperm cells present within a forensic sample.

Dr. Karl Reich, chief scientific officer for Independent Forensics, developed the test with the help of fellow IF research and development scientists Dr. Brett Schweers and Dr. Jennifer Old. The test took about two years to develop.

A number of companies, including Independent Forensics, have kits on the market that help laboratories identify seminal fluid, but that's only half the battle. The individual sperm cells must be detected within the seminal fluid and then isolated, as it's only the sperm cells that can be used in DNA testing.

Reich said the process presently used to identify sperm is "extremely labor intensive and very difficult," and involves a lab technician spending hours poring over microscope slides to look for sperm cells. He said sperm can often be missed within a forensic sample, as the sperm looses its shape and is often obscured within other cellular debris, making it very difficult to identify, resulting in many negative DNA test results.

"In your mind, you know what a sperm cell looks like. It has this beautiful morphology with a tail and everything else. Unfortunately, for sexual assault evidence, that morphology, that beautiful shape, doesn't exist. If you had the shape, you wouldn't need a different method. It looses the tail, it looses the midsection, so you're left with a little dot (which is the sperm head). All of that shape is gone in real-world evidence. So you're left trying to figure out whether (the tiny dot) is dirt, whether it's a fragment, whether it's a fungi, whether it's a pollen or whether it's a fragment of a nuclei, and it's all on a background of stuff you can't identify."

Reich explained that not every forensic sample of semen will have sperm, and particularly in cases where the perpetrator has a low sperm count to begin with, sometimes there are only a few sperm cells to be found within a sample.

"Laboratories are trying to screen their samples to avoid doing the most painful and time consuming aspect, sperm searches. We have developed a very good and much more sensitive and specific method for finding sperm," Reich said.

Reich said this new test will have two positive results for forensic laboratories.

"It will dramatically increase the number of tests they can perform within the same time frame, which will increase their efficiency, and it will let them find much more sperm, as our test is much more sensitive. So in samples that escaped their notice before, they will now be able to find sperm in them," he said.

"Sperm searches are a terrible headache for laboratories. It's a difficult, time consuming and poor method as it is performed now, through no fault of (the laboratories)," Reich said. "What they see is not definitive. Even if they're searching, what they see is not that easy to identify, and not that specific, so they want to have lots of images to look at, because they don't really believe all the images, so they're trying to assure themselves and everybody else that what they're looking at really is a sperm. They want to look at multiple fields and do multiple samples. It's an effort to make the results both believable and robust."

The five-step test works by introducing a series of chemical solutions, stains and fixers to the sample. Each requires 30 minutes of incubation time. Total "hands-on" time for the lab technician is only 10 minutes. Then the samples are placed under a fluorescent microscope, and bathed in different types of filtered fluorescent light. The fluorescent light will cause the human sperm cells to glow, separating them from other types of cells and biological debris that may be present in the sample, including animal sperm cells.

With this method, forensic labs can quickly and accurately tell if human sperm cells are present within the sample, and exactly where they are within the sample. These chemicals do not affect the DNA within the sperm cells, so even if only a few sperm cells are found, they can still be used to create a viable DNA profile.

Independent Forensics announced the release of the new Sperm Hy-Liter test July 13, and is in the process of marketing it to labs around the country. Reich explained that each crime lab operates on its own specific set of protocols, so each lab will need to test the product independently before using it in their own forensic testing procedures.

Currently labs in Massachusetts, Vermont, St. Louis and a U.S. Army forensic lab are testing the product. Independent Forensics is marketing the test to labs in New York City, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Reich said Illinois labs are typically very slow to try new procedures, so he expects they will be among the last to test the new product.

Independent Forensics also makes blood, semen and saliva stain identification kits, and is in the process of developing a urine stain identification kit, although Reich said there is not a lot of call for urine stain testing in forensic analysis.

Independent Forensics is a full service DNA testing laboratory, performing paternity, immigration and forensic testing. DNA testing is sometimes used in immigration cases to determine if an applicant is truly a blood relative of a U.S. citizen. Independent Forensics is the only lab in Illinois accredited to do such testing. They are also the only independent forensics lab operating within Illinois. All other labs are operated by law enforcement agencies.

The staff of Independent Forensics also provides expert witness services to both prosecution and the defense attorneys. Reich served as expert witness for the defense in the Brown's Chicken murder trial.

Independent Forensics was founded four years ago by Reich and Chief Operating Officer Jack Keehma.

More information about Independent forensics can be obtained at http://www.ifi-test.com.