100 U.S. Forensic Labs Are Now Using STRmix™

Software Has Proven Highly Effective in Resolving Complex Mixed DNA Profiles

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, August 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- One hundred local, state, federal, and private forensic laboratories in the United States are now using STRmix™ probabilistic genotyping software to resolve mixed DNA profiles previously regarded as too complex or degraded to interpret crime scene evidence.

Since it was first adopted for use in 2014 by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL), STRmix™ has proven to be a highly effective tool in producing usable, interpretable, and legally admissible DNA results for U.S. forensic labs stretching from New York (e.g., the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner) to California (e.g., the California Department of Justice).

Federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Forearms, and Explosives (ATF), and private companies such as Bode Technology and Pure Gold Forensics also regularly use STRmix™ to resolve DNA profiles.

“The popularity of STRmix™ is due in no small measure to its ability to interpret DNA results faster than the previous binary interpretation method and use more of the information in a DNA profile,” explains STRmix™ co-developer Dr. Jo-Anne Bright, a Senior Science Leader within the STRmix team at the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science Limited (PHF Science).

Unlike previous methods of DNA analysis, which are more subjective and depend entirely on the application of fixed stochastic thresholds and other biological parameters to manually analyze DNA samples, STRmix™ uses a fully continuous model that makes better use of the information available within a DNA profile. It proposes hundreds of thousands of different profiles, assesses and weighs how closely these resemble the observed DNA mixture, and then assigns a likelihood ratio (LR) – the widely accepted standard statistical approach for conveying weight of evidence information – should a person of interest’s sample be available.

STRmix™ was originally developed to be used by all nine state and territory forensic labs in New Zealand and Australia. Inquiries from USACIL, NicheVision Forensics (which now distributes STRmix™ in North, South, and Central America), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the California Department of Justice, however, led to the 2014 decision to release STRmix™ for use globally.

Since that time, STRmix™ has produced DNA results in more than 700,000 criminal cases worldwide. It has been particularly effective in helping to resolve violent crime and sexual assault cases, as well as cold cases in which evidence was originally dismissed as inconclusive.
The latest version of STRmix™, released in fall 2025, adds significant new features to previous versions of the software, including new functionality in the Batch Maker module which allows forensic analysts to set up replicate inputs for interpretations in a batch.

STRmix™ 2.13 also expands the visualization features first introduced in STRmix™ 2.12 by introducing a Visualize Evidence function to review and ignore any peak or locus in an electropherogram-style representation of the evidence input file. In addition, 2.13 enables forensic laboratories to set up multiple PDF report templates and choose to automatically generate more than one report at a time for a given calculation.

The worldwide success of STRmix™ has led the team behind its development to create and regularly update three related software applications:
• FaSTR™ DNA, expert forensic software which seamlessly integrates with STRmix™ (when in use) to rapidly analyze raw DNA data and assign a number of contributors (NOC) estimate;
• DBLR™, an application which when used with STRmix™ allows forensic laboratories to undertake extensive kinship analysis, carry out rapid database searches and mixture-to-mixture matches, and visualize the value of their DNA mixture evidence;
• STRmix™ NGS, fully continuous mixture interpretation and likelihood ratio generation software for profiles generated using Next Generation Sequencing.

In combination with STRmix™, FaSTR™ DNA and DBLR™ complete the full workflow from analysis to interpretation and database matching, while STRmix™ NGS broadens the range of profile types that can be interpreted.

For more information about STRmix software, visit https://www.strmix.com.

STRmix – A global leader in forensic DNA interpretation, trusted by more than 120 forensic laboratories worldwide.

Ray Weiss
Pugh & Tiller PR
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