Stolorow, Mark

4/28/1946–
AMERICAN
FORENSIC SEROLOGIST

From about the last quarter of the twentieth century to the present, Mark D. Stolorow has provided extensive experience as both a forensic serologist and a forensic laboratory administrator. Because of these qualifications, Stolorow serves as an expert witness in numerous court cases involving forensic science. Earlier in his professional career, Stolorow was credited, along with Brian Wraxall, with developing the multisystem method for simultaneously testing isoenzyme systems in 1978. That same year, Stolorow and Wraxall were also recognized as being the first to develop methods for typing blood serum proteins. Today, Stolorow is the executive director of Orchid Cellmark, an internationally recognized leader in providing forensic DNA analytical services to law enforcement agencies, lawyers, detectives and investigators, companies, and individuals, and in developing new methods to use DNA testing.

Stolorow gained his bachelor's of science degree from the University of Michigan and his master's of science degree in forensic chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. He also earned his master's of business administration degree in management from Eastern Michigan University. After graduation, Stolorow was employed as a training coordinator for the state forensic serology program in Illinois. Later, he was the research program administrator at the Bureau of Forensic Sciences for the Illinois State Police.

After working with the Illinois Police, Stolorow joined Cellmark Diagnostics—a subsidiary of Life-codes Corporation—as a general manager. When Orchid Biosciences acquired Cellmark Diagnostics in December 2001, Stolorow became the executive director of Orchid Cellmark, located in Germantown, Maryland, the forensic strategic business unit. Stolorow has the responsibility of directing Orchid Cell-mark's international network of forensic testing laboratories, which are based in England and the United States. Stolorow and his employees have worked with many of the major U.S. police departments in such cities as New York City, Chicago, and Houston. They have also helped many international law enforcement agencies, including Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England. Stolorow has helped to build Orchid Cellmark into the largest independent supplier of DNA analysis services to English police departments, the world's leading country in forensic DNA testing.

Along with fellow Orchid forensic scientists, Stolorow has played important roles in conducting DNA testing for such high-profile cases as the 1995 criminal investigation of O.J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman; the 1998 murder trial of Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber); the 1996 murder case of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado; the 2002 trial of David Westerfield, the murderer/kidnapper of Danielle van Dam of San Diego, California; and the 1982–1984 homicide investigation and serial murder trial of Gary Ridgway (Green River murderer) near Seattle, Washington. In fact, Stolorow presented the DNA evidence from the O.J. Simpson case to representatives of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., because the case heralded the importance of DNA evidence in crime investigations and courtroom proceedings.

For the identification of the 9–11 victims at the World Trade Center in New York City, traditional DNA methods often failed because the crucial genetic materials had been severely degraded by compressed building materials, bacterial contamination, high temperatures, and water. Fortunately, Stolorow was able to coordinate the development of innovative technologies that were able to overcome these difficulties. This new forensic technology—called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers—helped to identify the damaged DNA material found at the disaster site. By using SNP technology, Stolorow and the Orchid scientists were able to identify many more victims that were previously unidentified. Because of their pioneering SNP work with large-scale forensic DNA analysis, Stolorow and his team of scientists are exploring further uses of SNP tests in other difficult medical and scientific cases.

In 2003, Stolorow launched the DNA Express Service, a premium forensic DNA testing service by Orchid Cellmark that is used to help local U.S. law enforcement agencies analyze the estimated 500,000 backlogged cases of DNA evidence from unsolved "no-suspect" and other criminal crimes. Stolorow and his team of forensic scientists deliver DNA results in five business days as compared to the standard four to five weeks for routine casework. In the future, Stolorow intends to make DNA Express Service a key resource for providing quick, but accurate, DNA analysis of criminal cases.

Stolorow is also involved in providing increased DNA testing services that became available when the new law Justice for All Act of 2004 was signed by President George W. Bush. The legislation is providing about __BODY__ billion between 2004 and 2009 in order to eliminate the backlog of unanalyzed DNA evidence in police departments across the country and to expand the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Stolorow is guiding Orchid Cellmark as a key partner with law enforcement organizations by reducing the DNA backlog, increasing the use of forensic testing, and adding more criminal information to the federal CODIS database. Stolorow has already coordinated Orchid Cellmark's work to implement Biotracks, a pilot program with the New York Police Department to solve burglaries by matching DNA crime samples to DNA databases of convicted criminals.