Humber College and Othram Partner to Create and Measure Social Impact of Unsolved Cases On Families and Community
Tags: February 2023, Vol. 3, Issue 2
A new collaboration between Humber College and Othram Labs will measure social and criminal justice impact and develop tools to support law enforcement and the development of programs to educate future forensic professionals.
Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, located in The Woodlands, Texas, is the world’s first private DNA laboratory built specifically to apply the power of modern parallel sequencing to forensic evidence. The company develops best-in-class forensic DNA technology, which has helped law enforcement solve cases locally and nationally throughout the United States and Canada, many of which had been unsolved for decades. Othram recently assisted the Toronto Police Service in high-profile criminal investigations including the murders of Christine Jessop, Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour.
Humber is the only college in Ontario to offer a Forensic Identification program providing students with leading-edge forensic knowledge and skills for public and private policing and laboratories. The college also has strong connections to law enforcement across the country.
This exciting partnership will enable applied research initiatives to drive validation and adoption of new DNA technology in forensics. It will also support the development of curriculum to develop the next generation of forensic professionals in diverse topics such as genomics, bioinformatics, and forensic genetic genealogy. For this initiative, Humber’s newest Centre of Innovation, the Centre for Social Innovation, will provide leadership to identify and cultivate social impact opportunities generated by the partnership with Othram.
The establishment of infrastructure will support the deployment of forensic genetic genealogy and other new tools throughout Canada’s forensic and law enforcement communities. It will also measure and monitor the impact of cold case backlog reduction at the level of victims, their families and society at large to affect social policy change.
The collaboration marks the potential for understanding the impacts of forensic-grade genome sequencing technology in a social innovation application. The contribution to social justice initiatives and support of the law enforcement community with emerging investigative technology is unique in Canada.
