Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Not Listed

Committee Chair

Jeremy Dawson

Committee Co-Chair

Jeremy Dawson

Committee Member

Natalia A. Schmid

Committee Member

Tina Moroose

Abstract

Rapid DNA biometric identification applications are becoming more essential and widely used in human identity validation processes. Despite their powerful identification capabilities, processing a sample to generate a forensic DNA profile still takes longer compared with other rapid biometric technologies. Methods used to speed up the analysis could lead to signal artifacts similar to those arising from low copy or degraded DNA samples, making the electropherogram unsuitable for forensic interpretation and analysis. The goal of this research effort is to apply biometrics and mathematical approaches to forensic STR (Short Tandem Repeat) profiles. To accomplish this goal, a multi-function software tool was developed to evaluate STR profiles in the form of electropherograms. This tool is capable of generating degraded and non-degraded STR profiles based on allele statistics from the human population using MATLAB. The software also acts as an interface to apply a previously developed signal processing method to recover alleles in electropherograms produced from degraded DNA samples. The user interface offers the capability of visualizing and comparing those discovered peaks with the allelic ladder to confirm recovery or a rejection. The software is demonstrated on both artificial and real degraded STR electropherograms, indicating a higher allele recovery rate when compared with commercial GeneMapper IDx software. Finally, the software produces a match score based on the number of matching alleles when comparing two or more DNA profiles based on the number of existing and recovered allele peaks in the electropherogram.

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