Briefings in Bioinformatics Advance Access first published online on March 24, 2007
This version published online on April 20, 2007
Briefings in Bioinformatics, doi:10.1093/bib/bbm006
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Original Papers |
Forensic DNA and bioinformatics
Corresponding author. Pietro Lio, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 15 JJ Thomson Avenue, CB3 0FD, Cambridge, UK. E-mail: luciagbianchi{at}gmail.com
The field of forensic science is increasingly based on biomolecular data and many European countries are establishing forensic databases to store DNA profiles of crime scenes of known offenders and apply DNA testing. The field is boosted by statistical and technological advances such as DNA microarray sequencing, TFT biosensors, machine learning algorithms, in particular Bayesian networks, which provide an effective way of evidence organization and inference. The aim of this article is to discuss the state of art potentialities of bioinformatics in forensic DNA science. We also discuss how bioinformatics will address issues related to privacy rights such as those raised from large scale integration of crime, public health and population genetic susceptibility-to-diseases databases.
Keywords: forensic science, DNA testing, CODIS, Bayesian networks, DNA microarray
Figure 1 has been corrected