Welcome

Dear Scientists,

After a particularly bleak winter in Wisconsin, I find myself enjoying the sights and sounds of robins, sandhill cranes, and Canadian geese who’ve returned home. Moments like those fill me with peace and hope for the rebirth of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope that you, too, are able to find moments like these in your corner of the world.

We wish with this issue of Profiles in DNA, to give you a few moments to concentrate on something positive, useful, and perhaps a bit entertaining. Speaking of entertaining, don’t miss the profile piece on Bob McLaren. Bob is one of our leaders in our R&D department. He and his team have helped develop some of our best-selling STR kits and have worked a tremendous number of R&D hours on both Spectrum CE instruments.

In this issue, we are excited to highlight the Spectrum Family! After a long journey, the Spectrum CE System will be available for sale early this summer—joining its small but mighty counterpart, Spectrum Compact. We’re glad that we took the time to get it right—the Spectrum CE instrument was entirely designed by our team of engineers here at Promega. It will be manufactured in our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities here in Madison.

Additionally, you can read a fascinating article from Lisa Dierig, from the Legal Medicine in Ulm, Germany on the Potential of the PowerSeq® 46GY System to Investigate Low Template Samples. We are grateful to Alacoque Browne from Forensic Science Ireland for writing about her lab’s Validation of Promega’s Casework Extraction, DNA IQ™ and PowerQuant® Systems on the Hamilton Microlab STAR Liquid Handling System.

And as always, we have the latest information on upcoming meetings. We look forward to finally seeing many of you in person again.

I hope this issue inspires you to submit your own idea for an article. We love showcasing the hard work being done in forensic laboratories around the globe. Send me an email at ann.macphetridge@promega.com, and we’ll get you signed up for our next issue!

Wishing you continued success in your work,

Ann MacPhetridge

Senior Global Commercialization Manager