{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,19]],"date-time":"2026-10-19T13:30:42Z","timestamp":1792416642107,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["World J Biol Chem"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Forensic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) interpretation is limited less by genotyping technology than by the biochemical and inferential effects of mixed, low-template, and environmentally complex traces. Single-cell and single-molecule strategies, including the United Kingdom Research and Innovation-funded single-cell and single-molecule analysis for DNA identification (SCAnDi) program, aim to preserve cellular resolution. They allow investigators to isolate and type individual cells or defined small-cell pools before heterogeneous evidence is converted into a bulk lysate. In selected validation settings, this approach has yielded near-complete diploid short tandem repeat (STR) profiles from small pools, credible genotype sets tightly concentrated on the true genotype across high-order mixtures, and improved access to donor-specific profiles from sexual assault and other complex samples. However, these studies also show important limits. Many operationally successful \u201csingle-cell\u201d workflows are, in practice, single-cell-plus-consensus or few-cell workflows. Stochastic effects remain intrinsic, and cell capture itself becomes a probabilistic sampling step. This opinion review explicitly adopts an evaluative stance: It synthesizes recent validation studies and guidance documents to identify the performance thresholds and reporting boundaries that should be met before targeted forensic deployment of SCAnDi-like workflows. We argue that casework entry should require measured cell-recovery probabilities, phenotype-misclassification rates, locus- and cell-type-specific dropout and stutter models, quantified contamination and drop-in rates, validated minimum cell counts for consensus generation, and explicit database-upload criteria. It should also require strict separation between sub-source reporting and activity-level propositions. If those conditions are met, single-cell typing can complement, rather than replace, bulk STR analysis and probabilistic genotyping in a narrow but important set of high-value forensic scenarios.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4331\/wjbc.v17.i2.121467","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,3]],"date-time":"2026-06-03T00:48:20Z","timestamp":1780447700000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Single-cell deoxyribonucleic acid typing for forensic mixtures and trace evidence: Opportunities, validation requirements, and reporting limits"],"prefix":"10.4331","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Kyriacos","family":"Evangelou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paraskevi","family":"Angeli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andreas","family":"Polydorou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thalia","family":"Petropoulou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2060","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fsisyn.2022.100311"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-86271-6"},{"key":"B3","unstructured":"UK Research and Innovation.   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