16th – 18th November 2015, Pullman Hotel Kuala Lumpur

The topic “Development and Validation of a Targeted Next Generation Sequencing Solution for Forensic Genomics” was presented by Joseph Vartaro from Illumina, discussing the development and validation of a targeted amplicon panel for forensic genomics, the Illumina ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit, that combines a core of global short tandem repeat markers routinely used today.

The Illumina ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit and the MiSeq FGx System was adopted by the DNA Forensic Section, Department of Chemistry of Malaysia to assist in the mass grave incident in the jungles of Perlis near the Thai border in 2015. Illumina next generation sequencing (NGS) technology was utilized to investigate whether the mass grave bone samples belong to Malaysians. Results of DNA analysis and the present crisis of Rohingya, indicated that chances of the unknown mass grave samples are Rohingya are high. Subsequently, the DNA results from the living Rohingya indicated that the bone samples of the Wang Kelian’s mass grave are indeed of similar origin.