Developmental Validation of the Illumina Infinium Assay using the Global Screening Array (GSA) on the iScan System for use in Forensic Laboratories

This developmental validation study aimed to provide the forensic community with a validated microarray-based genome-wide SNP genotyping workflow for DNA inputs consistent with forensic sample types. Most labs performing microarray-based SNP genotyping are clinical and lack a forensic framework. Our approach was to evaluate the Infinium Global Screening Array-24 v3.0 Kit [GSA, Illumina] on the iScan array system [Illumina], focusing on shifting applicability from clinical laboratories to the forensic community. To date, there is no existing guidance on how to validate microarray based genome-wide SNP genotyping within the forensic community. This validation was performed guided by the standards (FBI QAS, SWGDAM) accepted by the forensic community with the intended application to challenging cases crime labs encounter. This will allow greater confidence in the investigative leads developed by law enforcement agencies, as the data used to develop such leads will have been generated under the same scientific standards already established within other human identification methods.