- Academics
Mr. Kuensting's forensics students have been busy handing out verdicts through fingerprinting. Using gel electrophoresis, they separated simple dye molecules from one another in order to conduct DNA analysis.
"Using electricity and agarose (a gelatin-like material), electrophoresis separates charged molecules from one another," said Mr. Kuensting. "The students are placing dye molecules into an electrophoresis chamber and using electricity to separate the molecules according to their charge and molecular size."
According to Mr. Kuensting, this same technique is the foundation of DNA analysis used by Ancestry.com and 23andme.com to determine genetic lineages. The FBI also uses electrophoresis to create DNA profiles and match human DNA with crime scene DNA. Pretty impressive!