One tenacious Detroit prosecutor brought to light the outrage of 21 serial rapists. These were rapists whose DNA had been untested for many years in a police warehouse. Kym Worthy, the Prosecutor of Detroit, shined a light on the inefficient and gratuitous testing of rape kit samples. In fact, she declared a national epidemic.

The U.S. has a backlog of approximately 400,000 untested kits for rape. There are bags of evidence that collect dust in storage boxes and labs.

Detroit alone had 11303 unprocessed, unreported rape kits. Each contained semen, saliva and hair, as well as other evidence of rape. Worthy identified 20 serial rapists from the initial 153 kits.

The lack of resources from funding to staff is part of the problem. It is tedious and time-consuming to separate two sets of DNA (the perpetrator’s and victim of rape) from one swab.

Dr. Bruce McCord is the associate director at the International Forensic Research Institute (FIU). He uses new technology from Pressure BioSciences Inc. in order to speed up the processing of rape kits. The improvement of testing methods is so critical that the Office of Justice Programs of Department of Justice granted a grant of $349,000 to further develop the technique. pressure cycling technology (PCT), at FIU.

PCT could speed up rape kit testing, by avoiding the complicated extraction of male and female cells from a swab to collect the assailant’s DNA.

“Our goal is to develop a PCT-based method that can selectively disrupt sperm cells in mixtures containing female cells, without the need to first separate the cells,”McCord explains. “This unique approach has the potential to significantly decrease costs and improve results.”

“We’re impressed with Dr. McCord’s findings on the potential of PCT to enhance rape kit processing,”Dr. Henry Lee is a leading forensic scientist around the globe. “We are excited to examine the potential of PCT in improving forensic evidence, particularly DNA.”

The PCT “unique approach,”The use of cycled pressure to control molecules in biological samples is a method that goes beyond forensics. PCT could lead to better prescription drugs, improved vaccines, and more precise research into disease and disorders such Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and cancer.

Despite this promise, many people still don’t know about PCT. PBI is making great progress, and this will only continue to improve.

Learn more about the PCT here www.pressurebiosciences.com. PBI trades OTC as PBIO.