AST Digital Magazine July 2017 Digital-July | Page 44

Volume 14
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) fund-
ed this exciting innovation and Parabon Nano-
Labs created it. DTRA safeguards Americans
by focusing on combating weapons of mass de-
struction around the clock.
In war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, there
are networks that build improvised explosive de-
vices or IEDs. As such, there has been an urgent
need to provide enhanced tools to help military
teams identify, track, dismantle and defeat terror-
ist networks.
July 2017 Edition
Snapshot can predict the shape of a person’s
face. Within the face, it will predict the terrorist
or criminal’s eye color and hair color. The tech
can reveal skin color, going so far as to add the
degree of freckling or pigmentation.
And it can accurately predict not just the appear-
ance of the criminal, but also biogeographic an-
cestry in great detail as well.
Courtesy of Parabon NanoLabs at left, at right, Parabon
Snapshot with photo of DNA sample provider.
How does it work?
Courtesy of Parabon NanoLabs at left, at right, Parabon
Snapshot with photo of DNA sample provider.
Similarly, terrorist plots such as the recent attacks
in Manchester, Brussels and Paris have involved
explosive devices so investigators immediately
searched for clues to identify the bombmaker or
possible bomb making network.
Snapshot is one very exciting solution for both
the military and law enforcement. If the bomb
maker left any trace of DNA, then the tech can
take it and read the DNA’s code to build a com-
posite image of the bomb maker.
What’s the picture like?
This new technology can build a picture, but how
good is it? Extremely good.
In the simplest terms, the Parabon Snapshot
uses DNA to build a picture of what a criminal
looks like.
Effectively, Snapshot reverse engineers the
DNA to provide a picture. It can do this because
DNA carries genetic instruction that dictates a
person’s physical characteristics. Snapshot un-
derstands how this genetic data translates into
physical appearance.
If you give Snapshot a DNA sample, it can then
read thousands of the genotypes – also known
as genetic variants – and translate them into a
visual image of a perpetrator.
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