Dental Forensic Kit (DFK®) and Quick Extract™ FFPE DNA extraction kit, a new workflow for obtaining dental DNA for human genetic identity.

Background: Most of the protocols described for obtaining DNA from dental tissues are methods that involve major laboratory equipment and many hours of work. They are also methodologies that almost destroy the tooth.

Aim: Our aim was to develop an innovative workflow for optimizing dental DNA extraction from teeth.

Optimizing DNA recovery and forensic typing of degraded blood and dental remains using a specialized extraction method, comprehensive qPCR sample characterization, and massively parallel sequencing.

Human dental remains encountered in criminal casework evidence, missing person cases, or mass disaster tragedies provide a valuable sample source for DNA typing when suitable soft tissue is unavailable. Using traditional methods, teeth samples can be challenging to process, resulting in low-quantity and/or quality nuclear DNA and insufficient profiles for comparisons. This study examines the performance of a three-part nuclear DNA analysis workflow for teeth samples based on (1) improved dental tissue recovery using the Dental Forensic Kit (DFK) (Universidad de los Andes) and DNA extraction with QuickExtract™ FFPE DNA Extraction Kit (Lucigen®), (2) quantification with InnoQuant® HY (InnoGenomics Technologies) for sensitive assessment of total human and male DNA quantity/quality, and (3) massively parallel sequencing for simultaneous genotyping of 231 short tandem repeat (STR) and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers with the ForenSeq® DNA Signature Prep Kit (Verogen, Inc.

Histological transformations of the dental pulp as possible indicator of post mortem interval: a pilot study.

Background: The correct estimation of the post mortem interval (PMI) can be crucial on the success of a forensic investigation. Diverse methods have been used to estimate PMI, considering physical changes that occur after death, such as mortis algor, livor mortis, among others. Degradation after death of dental pulp is a complex process that has not yet been studied thoroughly.