A complete forensic STR profile normally moves through a row of separate instruments: one for extraction, one for amplification, one for capillary electrophoresis. Each transfer is a chance to lose sample or introduce contamination.

A 2014 study built a single plastic microchip, roughly the size and thickness of a 96-well plate, that performed all three steps without ever moving the sample off the device. Reagent reservoirs for enzymatic extraction, PCR amplification, and electrophoretic separation sat side by side on the same piece of plastic.

The chip generated complete genetic profiles in approximately two hours, matching results from the same samples run through conventional, separate-instrument processes.

The extraction reservoir relied on our thermostable enzyme system developed in New Zealand, the same underlying chemistry behind every Exymes kit today, repurposed here as one module in a much larger integrated device.