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NicheVision modernizes DNA-based forensics

RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter

Published: June 7, 2016

In 1998, it was very unusual for one undergraduate student at The Ohio State University to be interested in both microbiology and computers.

But not to Luigi Armogida, founder of the DNA testing company NicheVision, who graduated that year with a microbiology degree and a “strong interest in computers.”

Armogida, who just turned 40, hails from Canton. His father came to this country from southern Italy at age 21.

Nobody back then could figure out the connection between biology and computing, said Armogida.

“It was interesting,” he said. “In the bio lab people asked me why I spent so much time in the computer lab. And the computer folks wanted to know why I was in the bio lab all the time.”

So it was not at all unusual for Armogida to found a company in 2005 that combined his two interests. The result, which he said he called NicheVision, “because this was truly a niche product.” The company has developed radically new DNA analysis techniques that have helped solve numerous crimes and has even been featured on the television program CSI: Las Vegas.

The product called “Armedxpert,” is “the gold standard in forensic DNA analysis,” said Terry Martell, chief operating officer of the Akron Global Business Accelerator, home of NicheVision since its inception.

From very humble Akron beginnings, the company has become a major player in DNA forensics throughout the world. Armogida said that he has traveled so extensively around the country and around the world selling, installing and training that he feels a need to slow down a bit.

“I do travel a lot,” said Armogida. “But we have young kids at home now so I may have to cut down on that.” He added that he “does a lot of WebEx” online meetings.

Armedxpert is capable of analyzing small samples that contain the DNA of multiple people to determine who contributed DNA to that sample. The product completely computerizes the forensic DNA sequencing process.

Prior to Armedxpert, that sequencing was done by hand, said Armogida, who was inspired to try his hand at introducing computerization to DNA sequencing after a visit to the Ohio forensic crime laboratory in Richfield, where he watched the lab workers struggling to sequence the DNA if fluid and tissue samples by hand, writing them out on paper.

NicheVision’s first product developed in 2007 to 2008 was “Sperm Finder,” a completely automated machine solution programmed to identify hard-to-find sperm cells.

Business was slow at the beginning, he said. But then, fortune intervened in the form of the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC).

Acording to the organization’s website, the MRMC has the responsibility within the Army for “medical research, development and acquisition and medical logistics management.”

Beyond the battlefield, MRMC works on everything from vaccine and therapeutic research and development for such pathogens as Zika and Ebola to “helping to keep the warfighter safe and healthy,” said Barry M. Datlof, the civilian who heads MRMC’s medical technology transfer program from its home at Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

“We have a very large patent and future product portfolio,” said Datlof. “Fundamentally our responsibility is to field solutions. When we have an invention we seek partners who can further develop and make the products that we ultimately wind up buying back.”

In this case, MRMC had developed a product which was “early stage,” said Datlof but which had the potential to extract the DNA of individuals from a fluid sample that may have contained the DNA of multiple individuals, a forensics problem that Datlof said was “always difficult especially in cases of rape or incest.”

The new software development “was a big step forward,” he said, “but we needed to field a better version of it. That’s where Luigi stepped in.”

Or rather, that’s where he began what was to be a two-year series of proposals to the Army competing with the likes of billion-dollar companies and other companies in the field.

In the end, NicheVision was selected as the best licensee, said Datlof, and Armedxpert was born.

Armedexpert’s primary use has been in forensics and particularly in rape cases, finding the DNA of potential perpetrators in a small and mixed “smear sample.”

For instance, as Armogida explains, a doorknob may have been used by a number of people over a short period of time. Before Armedxpert, that sample would have been contaminated to the point that it was unusable. In one such case, Armedxpert found the DNA of three people, including the victim, a relative of the victim and the potential perpetrator.

In that case, a rapist was subsequently arrested and found guilty using that DNA evidence to prove that he had been in the house.

Armedxpert took DNA sequencing that would normally take days and reduced the analysis time to minutes, he said. It also made the capability of finding individual DNA from a sample containing multiple contributors much easier.

Today, Armedxpert is used in DNA testing by law enforcement offices in “49 states and the federal government,” said Armogida. The product is also used in a number of other countries.

It was on a journey to New Zealand, partnering with the U.S. Army, that Armogida met up with, and eventually partnered up with, John Buckleton, a world-renowned expert on forensic DNA sequencing. It is a partnership that may completely change the way that DNA is used in forensics around the world, he said.

“John is a world leader in forensic DNA,” said Armogida. “We partnered with him to distribute,” a new statistical analysis developed by Buckleton.

NicheVision’s staff has also been used as expert witnesses in DNA cases. “We testify for both sides,” said Armogida.

In addition to forensics, NicheVision has DNA testing software applicable to the medical field, although Armogida said that that part of the business has been slow to take off.

Like many software startups beginning to grow larger, NicheVision also spends considerable time and resources in training DNA analysts and other members of forensics teams. The company, Armogida said, is only now creating training software, although it has always supplied user manuals.

At the same time, Armogida also said that each installation is “configured to the needs of the customer” so individualized training is always required to some extent.

Because of this, he said, and the company’s expansion altogether, NicheVision is adding trainers and other experts to its staff, including a trainer who works the western part of the country from Colorado.

Datlof said that the continued successful partnership between the Army and NicheVision may expand to include other projects as well.

“Luigi was an absolute pleasure to work with,” said Datlof. “We needed him to scale up and improve the product and NicheVision did just that. And that should not be a ‘one and done.’ Our goal is to be able to go back to successful licensees who have gained out trust and license more of our inventions.”


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