Today’s blog is from guest blogger Charles Stollberg. Charlie is a Promega production scientist in the Genetic Identity group and is focused on manufacturing inventory material and production process improvements. He’s been with the company for about 4 years. He graduated from UW-Whitewater in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in cell biology. Prior to Promega, he worked in a small genetics lab studying lethal recessive traits in cattle.

Forensic DNA laboratories rely on reagent and plastics manufacturers to supply high-quality products with minimal interference from contaminating DNA. With the increasing sensitivity of short tandem repeat (STR) amplification systems, levels of DNA that were previously undetected may now generate partial profiles. To address the concern of laboratories worldwide regarding the potential of low-level DNA contamination in consumables, ISO 18385 was developed to provide requirements for minimizing the risk of human DNA contamination events during the manufacturing process. Many of you may not have heard of ISO 18385, so I’d like to give you an introduction to how the standard came to be.

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