Texas Forensic Panel to Take Up a DNA Software Flaw That Could Reach Old Cases

The Texas Forensic Science Commission will take up Oct. 23 what it should publish about a reported flaw in DNA analysis software — one researchers say could let someone alter digital evidence files without leaving a mark.

The flaw, which the agenda calls DNA Forge and its discoverers write as DNAForge, was described in a four-author white paper dated Aug. 1, 2026, among them a University of New Haven forensic science professor. Trade reporting that month said it affects forensic DNA software made by Thermo Fisher Scientific and used by major American crime labs, and that an artificial intelligence model could be used to change digital scans of DNA evidence going back to 1995 in ways the researchers said they could not detect without a pre-existing integrity record such as a file hash or chain-of-custody documentation. Thermo Fisher has said there are no known instances of anyone exploiting it and is issuing an update that adds digital signatures so labs can verify files going forward. The Dispatch has not independently tested any of these claims.

The commission is not being asked to rule on the software. Its agenda item is narrower and, for Texas courts, more immediate: what the commission itself should publish to help the community understand the issue. Texas gave this nine-member body the job of accrediting crime labs, licensing analysts and investigating when forensic work goes wrong, so what it says tends to set the floor for how Texas labs respond.

The same meeting works through 31 complaints and laboratory self-disclosures, the largest block on the agenda. They reach state police labs in Austin, El Paso, Houston, Garland and Tyler, county and city labs in Harris, Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant and Nueces counties, and private and out-of-state laboratories as well, covering DNA, firearms and toolmark comparison, seized drugs, toxicology, latent prints, digital evidence, autopsy, crime scene work and sexual assault examinations, among other disciplines. Staff recommends dismissing five. No findings have been made in any of them, and a complaint or self-disclosure is a matter opened, not a conclusion reached.

Two rule votes of note follow. One would create a way to discipline laboratories that do not join the state police crime lab data portal. Another would sharpen the analysts’ code of conduct on the duty to deal honestly and fully with the commission itself. The commission will try to livestream from its website; there is no way to comment remotely.

Meeting at a glance

Commission members

• Jeffrey J. Barnard — presiding officer; Dallas; retired medical examiner.
• Patrick Buzzini — Spring; professor, Sam Houston State University.
• Michael Coble — Fort Worth; director, UNT Center for Human Identification.
• Mark Daniel — Fort Worth; defense attorney.
• Jasmine Drake — Conroe; professor, Texas Southern University.
• Sarah Kerrigan — The Woodlands; forensic research director, Sam Houston State.
• Stacey Mitchell — Magnolia; forensic nursing director, Texas A&M.
• Jarvis Parsons — Bryan; district attorney, Brazos County.
• Erika Ziemak — Aledo; special projects director, UNT Center for Human Identification.

Roster from the commission’s members page, checked October 14, which lists nine members and names Barnard as presiding officer. An older item on the same site refers to Barnard retiring from his medical examiner post; nothing found there indicates he has left the commission or the chair, and the members page still lists him in it. The page carries no last-updated stamp, and no 2026 minutes were posted to cross-check attendance, so the roster was not confirmed against a roll call.