Forensic DNA Profiling

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DNA profiling technologies have had a considerable impact on how forensic science and criminal investigation have been understood, carried out, and regulated in the last 25 years. Current methods of forensic DNA profiling (known also as DNA fingerprinting and DNA typing), based on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplifications of a varying number of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci found at different locations on the human genome, are regularly described as constituting the “gold standard for identification” in contemporary society. Prior to the implementation of PCR based extraction and amplification methods in the 1990’s, the initial uses of DNA fingerprinting (based on Multiple and Single Locus Probes) were largely confined to reactive forensic …show more content…
In addition, as a result of growing transnational mobility and the global use of information and communication technologies, crime and crime prevention issues are increasingly being addressed by agencies and policy actors beyond the nation state. At a time when criminal justice systems in Europe and North America increasingly seek to utilize the epistemic authority of a variety of sciences in support of the apprehension and prosecution of suspects and offenders, genetic science and recombinant DNA technology are often singled out for particular approbation. In the European context, the so-called Pru¨m regime obliges law enforcement authorities in all EU countries to render their forensic DNA databases searchable for other member states. Member states which do not have centralized forensic DNA databases are legally obliged to establish them in the near future. In sum, the importance of forensic DNA databasing will continue to increase in the political and public arenas across …show more content…
"The sooner you can get a DNA profile done, the sooner you can take action.” Tom Brown, a chemist at the University of Southampton, UK, is working with London-based DNA analysis company LGC to develop a technique that instead uses the temperature at which the STRs unwind to deduce their length. The process can be carried out in one tube, is potentially faster and does not require forensic expertise, he says. Brown created a synthetic stretch of DNA and tagged it with a fluorescent molecule that emits a bright green colour when it binds to another strand of DNA, but only a weak colour when unbound. He then mixed the labelled synthetic strand with the STR strands. By heating and cooling the mixture, he forced the STRs to first unwind and then to rebind to the fluorescently labelled strands instead of their original partners. When they were heated again slowly, he recorded the temperature at which green light faded, signifying that the double strand had separated. As the chemical forces holding the two strands together depend on the length of the strands, longer strands unwind at higher temperatures. An STR with seven repeats unwinds at 53 degrees, one with eight at 57 degrees and one with nine at 60 degrees. However, as STR strands get longer, the temperatures at which they unwind
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