Gale Force Software Corp. has rolled out enhancements to its SmallPond DNA-profile matching system, including the ability to perform familial searches based on kinship likelihood ratios will enable users of the SmallPond system to search their privately maintained databases for parent/child, full sibling, half-sibling, uncle-niece, cousin and second cousin matches among their stored DNA profiles, according to the company.
"This is a welcome feature for our clients that want to use SmallPond for identifying missing persons and mass casualty victims as well as for verifying immigration applications," according to Scott Rulong, SmallPond's product manager.
SmallPond, which was first introduced at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference in Chicago in 2011, is a web-based DNA-profile matching technology that enables users such as law enforcement or government agencies to maintain their own private database of STR DNA-profile information and provides for efficient matching of new DNA-profile data against the database.
The product performs much like the national CODIS database—it uses the CODIS common (.CMF) file format for DNA-profile entry—and can be used as a resource to various agencies by enabling matching on DNA-profiles that may not be eligible for promotion to CODIS.
The ability to rapidly match DNA profiles generated from evidence collected at crime scenes generates more investigative leads, particularly in property crimes, with the expected result of more of those crimes being solved.