Peter M. Vallone received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1999. In 1999 he was awarded a NRC postdoctoral fellowship that brought him to the Biotechnology Division at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). After completing his postdoctoral work in 2001 Dr. Vallone became a permanent staff scientist at NIST. During the last 8 years Dr. Vallone has worked in the DNA technologies group at NIST with Dr. John Butler developing multiplex assays for the detection of genetic variation within the human genome. Dr. Vallone has developed forensic tests for the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located on the Y chromosome and in the mitochondrial genome for forensic evaluation. Newly developed forensic tests are evaluated on various instrumental platforms such as mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, real-time PCR and chip-based hybridization. In addition, Dr. Vallone has also developed various bioinformatic software tools for the design of nucleic acid based assays. Dr. Vallone has published over 25 peer-reviewed articles in the area of DNA thermodynamics and forensic DNA testing.
Awards
2008 Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award.
For research and measurement services in the area of human identity testing to support the criminal justice, legal, and disaster recovery communities.
1999 NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship
Selected Publications
Vallone, P.M., Hill, C.R., Butler, J.M. (2008) Demonstration of rapid multiplex PCR amplification involving 16 genetic loci. FSI Genetics 3: 42-45.
Vallone, P.M., Jakupciak, J.P., Coble, M.D. (2007) Forensic application of the Affymetrix human mitochondrial resequencing array. FSI Genetics 1: 196-198.
Butler, J.M., Coble, M.D., Vallone, P.M. (2007) STRs vs SNPs: thoughts on the future of forensic DNA testing. Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology 3: 200-205.
Vallone, P.M., Decker, A.E. and Butler J.M. (2005) Allele Frequencies for 70 Autosomal SNP Loci with U.S. Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic Samples Forensic Science International 149: 279-86.
Vallone, P.M. and Butler, J.M. (2004) AutoDimer: a screening tool for primer-dimer and hairpin structures. Biotechniques, 37: 226-231.
Vallone, P.M., Just, R.S., Coble, M.D., Butler, J.M., Parsons, T.J. (2004) A multiplex allele-specific primer extension assay for forensically informative SNPs distributed throughout the mitochondrial genome. Int. J. Legal Med., 118: 137-146.
Vallone, P.M. and Butler, J.M. (2004) Y-SNP typing of U.S. African American and Caucasian samples using allele-specific hybridization and primer extension. J. Forensic Sci. 49(4): 723-732.
Butler, J.M., Schoske, R., Vallone, P.M., Kline, M.C., Redd, A.J., and Hammer, M.F. (2002) A Novel Multiplex for Simultaneous Amplification of 20 Y Chromosome STR Markers Forensic Sci Int. 129: 10-24.
Benight, A.S., Pancoska P., Owczarzy, R., Vallone, P.M., Nesetril, J., and Riccelli, P.V. (2001) Calculating sequence-dependent melting stability of duplex DNA oligomers and multiplex sequence analysis by graphs. Methods Enzymol 340:165-92.
Owczarzy, R., Vallone, P.M., Gallo, F.J., Paner, T.M., Lane, M.J., and Benight, A.S. (1997) Predicting sequence-dependent melting stability of short duplex DNA oligomers. Biopolymers 44: 217-239.
