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Re:Woman sues after DNA from rape kit used to arrest her by jxf on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @02:43PM (#32828549)
> From a DNA perspective one can only use the Guthrie test samples for about a decade after collection

Why is that? Is it because of sample degradation of some kind?

Re:Woman sues after DNA from rape kit used to arrest her by jjcon on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @02:50PM (#32828629)
Yes - blood must be kept at very specific temperatures and conditions if you want to preserve its usefulness in DNA sequencing - most of these are dried blood cards without strong controls which makes them not particularly useful for good DNA data.
Re:Woman sues after DNA from rape kit used to arrest her by User23 on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @02:55PM (#32828702)
Scientists have extracted usable DNA from from 7000 year old corpses. I imagine the technology exists for a decades old blood sample if it’s stored at least somewhat properly.
Re:Woman sues after DNA from rape kit used to arrest her by jjcon on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @03:11PM (#32828919)
Yes that is very true - There is however quite a bit of difference between a full corpse that is mildly preserved and a dried fleck of blood - a big difference too between a stored fluid blood sample and these pinprick dried sample.
Re:Woman sues after DNA from rape kit used to arrest her by xeromal on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @03:14PM (#32828956)
It's probably prohibitively expensive at the moment.