In forensic science there are many types of crime that involve animals. Therefore, the identification of the species has become an essential investigative tool. The exhibits obtained from such offences are ver...
Authors: Elena Pilli, Rosario Casamassima, Stefania Vai, Antonino Virgili, Filippo Barni, Giancarlo D’Errico, Andrea Berti, Giampietro Lago and David Caramelli
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn famously argued that the progress of scientific knowledge results from periodic ‘paradigm shifts’ during a period of crisis in which new ideas dramatically change the status quo. Although thi...
Authors: Geoffrey K Chambers, Caitlin Curtis, Craig D Millar, Leon Huynen and David M Lambert
Almost three decades ago Alec Jeffreys published his seminal Nature papers on the use of minisatellite probes for DNA fingerprinting of humans (Jeffreys and colleagues Nature 1985, 314:67–73 and Nature 1985, 316:...
Authors: Hilde Nybom, Kurt Weising and Björn Rotter
Wildlife collisions with aircraft cost the airline industry billions of dollars per annum and represent a public safety risk. Clearly, adapting aerodrome habitats to become less attractive to hazardous wildlif...
Authors: Megan L Coghlan, Nicole E White, Dáithí C Murray, Jayne Houston, William Rutherford, Matthew I Bellgard, James Haile and Michael Bunce
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) typing can be a useful aid for identifying people from compromised samples when nuclear DNA is too damaged, degraded or below detection thresholds for routine short tandem repeat (STR...
Authors: Jennifer E L Templeton, Paul M Brotherton, Bastien Llamas, Julien Soubrier, Wolfgang Haak, Alan Cooper and Jeremy J Austin
Patterns of genetic variation in a population carry information about the prehistory of the population, and for the human Y chromosome an especially informative phylogenetic tree has previously been constructe...
Authors: Michael J Sikora, Vincenza Colonna, Yali Xue and Chris Tyler-Smith
DNA fingerprinting, one of the great discoveries of the late 20th century, has revolutionized forensic investigations. This review briefly recapitulates 30 years of progress in forensic DNA analysis which help...
In 1985, Sir Alec Jeffreys developed the variable-number tandem repeat method used to identify individuals and giving researchers the first DNA fingerprints. These initial methods were used in anthropological ...
In this interview we talk with Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys about DNA fingerprinting, his wider scientific career, and the past, present and future of forensic DNA applications.
Teeth are a valuable source of DNA for identification of fragmented and degraded human remains. While the value of dental pulp as a source of DNA is well established, the quantity and presentation of DNA in th...
Authors: Denice Higgins, John Kaidonis, Grant Townsend, Toby Hughes and Jeremy J Austin
The generation of short tandem repeat profiles, also referred to as ‘DNA typing,’ is not currently performed outside the laboratory because the process requires highly skilled technical operators and a control...
Authors: Eugene Tan, Rosemary S Turingan, Catherine Hogan, Sameer Vasantgadkar, Luke Palombo, James W Schumm and Richard F Selden
Accurate determination of genetic ancestry is of high interest for many areas such as biomedical research, personal genomics and forensics. It remains an important topic in genetic association studies, as it h...
Authors: Caroline M Nievergelt, Adam X Maihofer, Tatyana Shekhtman, Ondrej Libiger, Xudong Wang, Kenneth K Kidd and Judith R Kidd
