Orchid Cellmark: History

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Orchid Cellmark is a recognized world leader in forensic DNA testing providing a variety of services to law enforcement agencies, government crime laboratories, and private clients. One of the first laboratories in the world to offer DNA identification, Orchid Cellmark opened in 1987 using the revolutionary technology developed by the geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. Orchid Cellmark has four identity testing laboratories in the United States and one in the United Kingdom (www.orchideurope.com).

Throughout its lifetime, Orchid Cellmark has remained a leader in the application of innovative DNA identity technology including the following innovations:

1991: Offered the first commercially available proficiency test specifically for forensic DNA (IQAS).
1991: Used Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing for human identification of casualties in the Persian Gulf War.
1994: Became the first private forensic testing lab to obtain ASCLD/LAB accreditation.
1994: Became the first company to offer criminal offender DNA databasing services to state law enforcement agencies.
1995: Developed Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)-based genotyping tests using primer extension to perform human identifications. This testing methodology would later be used to help identify a large number of 9/11 World Trade Center victims for whom conventional methods had failed.
1999: Began processing casework with the 13 CODIS STR loci that the FBI had designated as the standard in the forensic DNA community.
1999: Offered Mitochondrial DNA testing services.
2001: Began offering Y-STR DNA testing services.
2003: Became the first private forensic testing laboratory to donate a criminal case file to the Smithsonian Institution (OJ Simpson case).

Orchid Cellmark is proud to be recognized as a leader in quality, objectivity, dependability, innovation, and customer satisfaction in forensic DNA identity testing.