Bone tissue is often used for recovering DNA samples for the purpose of human identification; however, the initial cleaning and sampling of the bone specimen is a labor-intensive and time-consuming step, which must be completed prior to isolating DNA. Thus, it is difficult to adapt the current method for automation. To address this issue, the current project developed a simple processing method using a trypsin treatment prior to DNA isolation.
The use of the trypsin-based procedure potentially reduces the amount of labor required by a physical method such as sanding. By incubating samples with the trypsin solution, the soft tissue and outer surface of the bone fragment samples are removed. The processed bone fragment or a portion of the fragment can then be used for DNA isolation. (Publisher abstract provided)