 | |
| Company type | Privately owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | 1945 |
| Headquarters | Baltimore, MD, United States |
Key people | Robert E. Wenk, MD |
| Website | brtlabs.com |
BRT Laboratories, Inc. is a Baltimore, Maryland-based biotechnology company that performs DNA testing. The company has three divisions: Relationship Testing, Forensics, and Clinical Services. It is a privately held, wholly owned subsidiary of Baltimore RH Typing Laboratory, Inc.
BRT Laboratories, Inc., with its parent company Baltimore RH Typing Laboratory, has been a provider of products and services to the medical, research, and commercial communities since 1945. In April 2000, BRT Laboratories, Inc. was established as an independent and wholly owned subsidiary of Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory, Inc., for the purpose of continuing commercial testing and service activities. [ citation needed ]
BRT's Relationship Testing division offers services in Paternity Testing and Family reunification Immigration Testing. DNA testing can identify relationships between parent and child, full or half siblings, grandparent and grandchild, uncles or aunts and nieces or nephews, as well as identical and non-identical twins. The Laboratory is accredited by the AABB (formerly, American Association of Blood Banks). [1] Testing can be performed for submission in legal proceedings (court admissible) or for personal knowledge.
Application for immigration to the United States and Canada often requires documentation of biological relationship between a petitioner and his or her beneficiary. DNA testing can be used to prove a relationship if documents are absent or challenged. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices accept DNA testing results from AABB accredited laboratories only. [2]
BRT's Forensics division offers services in serology screening, DNA profiling, and case review. These services are contracted by government agencies, defense counsel, and private citizens or organizations for several applications.
Government agencies contract BRT’s Forensic division for criminal and “no-suspect” casework. The Laboratory offers STR analysis and Y-STR analysis with each of the commercial kits commonly used in the US. The Forensic division is accredited by ASCLD/Lab – International [3] and meets the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025. BRT has also received accreditation from the Texas Department of Public Safety and has been approved by the Maryland State Police Forensic Science Division for analysis of casework that can be uploaded to CODIS. The Laboratory adheres to current Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) and FBI DNA Advisory Board (DAB) guidelines.
Defense counsel contract BRT Laboratories to perform case reviews, which may include assistance with the interpretation of subpoena documents, sample retesting, and/or expert witness testimony.
The Forensic division also provides serology and DNA profiling services to private citizens for infidelity testing and to private organizations or medical professionals for sample identity verification.
BRT's Clinical Services division is licensed by the State of Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for Molecular Biology and Molecular Genetics and is registered under the US Department of Health and Human Services' Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. Test offerings include Tuberculosis testing and Bone Marrow Engraftment (chimerism) monitoring.
BRT’s tuberculosis (TB) testing is performed using the Interferon-gamma release assay T-SPOT.TB. This assay is recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a special TB blood test [4] with an accuracy of diagnosing active TB >80%. [5]
Bone Marrow Engraftment monitoring assesses the relative ratio of donor and recipient cell populations in the post-transplant peripheral blood or bone marrow of the patient. BRT performs this test using STR analysis, the current "gold standard," [6] yielding a sensitivity of 95–98%.
BRT is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, with an extensive network of sample collection centers located across the United States and throughout the world.
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. Around 10% of latent infections progress to active disease that, if left untreated, kill about half of those affected. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.
The Mantoux test or Mendel–Mantoux test is a tool for screening for tuberculosis (TB) and for tuberculosis diagnosis. It is one of the major tuberculin skin tests used around the world, largely replacing multiple-puncture tests such as the tine test. The Heaf test, a form of tine test, was used until 2005 in the UK, when it was replaced by the Mantoux test. The Mantoux test is endorsed by the American Thoracic Society and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was also used in the USSR and is now prevalent in most of the post-Soviet states, although Soviet mantoux produced many false positives due to children's allergic reaction.
DNA paternity testing is the use of DNA profiles to determine whether an individual is the biological parent of another individual. Paternity testing can be especially important when the rights and duties of the father are in issue and a child's paternity is in doubt. Tests can also determine the likelihood of someone being a biological grandparent. Though genetic testing is the most reliable standard, older methods also exist, including ABO blood group typing, analysis of various other proteins and enzymes, or using human leukocyte antigen antigens. The current techniques for paternity testing are using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Paternity testing can now also be performed while the woman is still pregnant from a blood draw.
Mycobacterium is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae. This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis and leprosy in humans. The Greek prefix myco- means 'fungus', alluding to this genus' mold-like colony surfaces. Since this genus has cell walls with a waxy lipid-rich outer layer that contains high concentrations of mycolic acid, acid-fast staining is used to emphasize their resistance to acids, compared to other cell types.
AABB is an international, not-for-profit organization representing individuals and institutions involved in the field of transfusion medicine and biotherapies.
Tuberculosis is diagnosed by finding Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria in a clinical specimen taken from the patient. While other investigations may strongly suggest tuberculosis as the diagnosis, they cannot confirm it.
This is a list of AIDS-related topics, many of which were originally taken from the public domain U.S. Department of Health Glossary of HIV/AIDS-Related Terms, 4th Edition.
Talaromycosis is a fungal infection that presents with painless skin lesions of the face and neck, as well as an associated fever, anaemia, and enlargement of the lymph glands and liver.
Forensic biology is the application of biological principles and techniques in the investigation of criminal and civil cases. Forensic biology is primarily concerned with analyzing biological and serological evidence in order to obtain a DNA profile, which aids law enforcement in the identification of potential suspects or unidentified remains. This field encompasses various sub-branches, including forensic anthropology, forensic entomology, forensic odontology, forensic pathology, and forensic toxicology.
Transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GvHD) is a rare complication of blood transfusion, in which the immunologically competent donor T lymphocytes mount an immune response against the recipient's lymphoid tissue. These donor lymphocytes engraft, recognize recipient cells as foreign and mount an immune response against recipient tissues. Donor lymphocytes are usually identified as foreign and destroyed by the recipient's immune system. However, in situations where the recipient is severely immunocompromised, or when the donor and recipient HLA type is similar, the recipient's immune system is not able to destroy the donor lymphocytes. This can result in transfusion associated graft-versus-host disease. This is in contrast with organ/tissue transplant associated GvHD, where matching HLA reduces the incident of the complication.
The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Health of the Government of Singapore. It is a multi-disciplinary agency responsible for applying medical, pharmaceutical, and scientific expertise to protect and advance public health and safety.
Orchid Cellmark Ltd is a UK based DNA and forensic testing company with a history of UK and US ownership.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a form of tuberculosis caused by bacteria that are resistant to some of the most effective anti-TB drugs. XDR-TB strains have arisen after the mismanagement of individuals with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).
The National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), earlier known as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), is the Public Health initiative of the Government of India that organizes its anti-Tuberculosis efforts. It functions as a flagship component of the National Health Mission (NHM) and provides technical and managerial leadership to anti-tuberculosis activities in the country. As per the National Strategic Plan 2017–25, the program has a vision of achieving a "TB free India",with a strategies under the broad themes of "Prevent, Detect,Treat and Build pillars for universal coverage and social protection". The program provides, various free of cost, quality tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment services across the country through the government health system.
Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) are diagnostic tools for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). They are surrogate markers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and indicate a cellular immune response to M. tuberculosis if the latter is present.
The Xpert MTB/RIF is a cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) for rapid tuberculosis diagnosis and rapid antibiotic sensitivity test. It is an automated diagnostic test that can identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) DNA and resistance to rifampicin (RIF). It was co-developed by the laboratory of Professor David Alland at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Cepheid Inc. and Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, with additional financial support from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In paternity testing, Paternity Index (PI) is a calculated value generated for a single genetic marker or locus and is associated with the statistical strength or weight of that locus in favor of or against parentage given the phenotypes of the tested participants and the inheritance scenario. Phenotype typically refers to physical characteristics such as body plan, color, behavior, etc. in organisms. However, the term used in the area of DNA paternity testing refers to what is observed directly in the laboratory. Laboratories involved in parentage testing and other fields of human identity employ genetic testing panels that contain a battery of loci each of which is selected due to extensive allelic variations within and between populations. These genetic variations are not assumed to bestow physical and/or behavioral attributes to the person carrying the allelic arrangement(s) and therefore are not subject to selective pressure and follow Hardy Weinberg inheritance patterns.
The Punjab Forensic Science Agency is a government agency under the Home Department, of the provincial Government of Punjab of Pakistan. It provides forensic science services primarily to law enforcement in the province. The Punjab Forensic Science Agency act was passed by the Punjab Assembly on 4 October 2007; assented to by the Governor of Punjab on 29 October 2007; and was published in the Punjab Gazette (Extraordinary), dated 30 October 2007.
Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (INGEB) is a Bosnian public research institute, member of Sarajevo University (UNSA), and affiliate center of International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB).