Homeland Security Symposium Set for Wednesday at UTEP

The Center for Law and Human Behavior is hosting a Homeland Security Symposium titled “DNA Barcoding, High-throughput DNA Sequencing, and Forensic Science: Recent Advances and Future Prospects.” The session is scheduled for June 23 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m at the UTEP Library, Blumberg Auditorium.

This symposium is part of UTEP’s Homeland Security Symposium Series focused on addressing supplemental educational and training needs within different homeland security enterprise-related domains requested by local homeland security stakeholders.

The session will consist of three short lectures followed by Q & A sessions with attendees to discuss the current state of the field, as well as possible future applications and prospects.

There are no fees associated with this symposium for attendees. This endeavor is funded by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, Office of University Programs, under the Center for Borders, Trade, and Immigration Research.

More about the session:
Identifying the biological and geographic origins of forensic samples is one of the central challenges to modern forensic science. For some applications, such as identifying whether imported caviar comes from a legal source, it is important to identify the species that the specimen came from and if possible the population to which the specimen belonged. In other cases, such as tracking the prior movements of a laptop, trace evidence such as pollen samples can be used to identify the geographic regions where an object has previously been. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology now provide the ability to rapidly generate large amounts of sequencing data at relatively low costs and has the potential to greatly advance the speed, accuracy and accessibility of forensic sample identification.

The agenda can be found HERE.