A device from Bay Area startup Integenx can conduct DNA profiling in just 90 minutes with its new device, the RapidHIT – and looks like the FBI’s chomping at the bit to use it for rapid, broad-scale IDing. Mother Jones says:
The RapidHIT represents a major technological leap—testing a DNA sample in a forensics lab normally takes at least two days. This has government agencies very excited. The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Justice Department funded the initial research for “rapid DNA” technology, and after just a year on the market, the $250,000 RapidHIT is already being used in a few states, as well as China, Russia, Australia, and countries in Africa and Europe.
The piece centers on Bay Area startup Integenx’s speedy DNA sequencing machine, called the RapidHIT, that can churn out the intricacies of an individual’s genetic code in just 90 minutes. The user-end process is pretty simple – just insert a cotton cheek swab, piece of fabric or even a cigarette butt that has DNA – and let the machine do the rest.
The device, which is the size of a desktop printer, works as a fully automated sample-to-answer system for STR-based human identification.
Speeding up DNA profiling has some pretty interesting repercussions in law enforcement, but also for refugee monitoring and family-matching, Mother Jones says – but it is concerning to those who think this will be enable the government to collect and database large swaths of civilian DNA.
“We’re not always aware of how it’s being used,” Schueren said. “All we can say is that it’s used to give an accurate identification of an individual.” Civil liberties advocates worry that rapid DNA will spur new efforts by the FBI and police to collect ordinary citizens’ genetic code.
The US government will soon test the machine in refugee camps in Turkey and possibly Thailand on families seeking asylum in the United States, according to Chris Miles, manager of the Department of Homeland Security’s biometrics program. “We have all these families that claim they are related, but we don’t have any way to verify that,” he says. Miles says that rapid DNA testing will be voluntary, though refusing a test could cause an asylum application to be rejected.
Interestingly, Integenx has spent about $70,000 lobbying Congress on a bill that would allow “tens of thousands” of police stations countrywide to use its machines for fast-turnaround DNA profiling, Mother Jones reports:
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The FBI declined to comment, and Heimburger wouldn’t say which lawmakers might sponsor the bill. But some have already given rapid DNA their blessing. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a former prosecutor who represents the district where IntegenX is based, says he’d like to see the technology “put to use quickly to help law enforcement”—while protecting civil liberties. In March, he and seven other Democratic members of Congress, including progressive stalwart Rep. Barbara Lee of California, urged the FBI to assess rapid DNA’s “viability for broad deployment” in police departments across the country.
