OTHRAM INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: X224-OCSO1

Description

The DAF aims at providing the fullest possible accounting of currently missing service members to return them to their families and to the nation. However, traditional forensic methods, alone, cannot address this backlog of unidentified human remains. Moreover, many of these remains have highly degraded and damaged DNA, contaminated with bacteria, or extremely low in human DNA quantity. The Air Force and the DOD need to modernize DNA-assisted identification of missing U.S. service members with using forensic-focused advanced DNA sequencing. Othram has built the world’s first private DNA laboratory specifically to apply the power of massively parallel sequencing to forensic evidence. Our fully integrated genetic testing platform and deployable hardware solutions allow us to digitize challenging forensic DNA evidence and provide investigators with the tools they need to identify human remains. Othram has demonstrated human identification from difficult evidence such as greater than century-old skeletal remains, touch DNA, and rootless hair. Over the last three years, Othram’s DNA technology has helped law enforcement crack cases at the local, state, and federal level, many of which had been unsolved for decades. This is the perfect technology to now assist the DAF and the DOD in providing enhanced investigative and identification services.