Every living creature has it’s own DNA signature that is unique to it’s species.
However, identifying individuals is not as easy a process as popular crime shows on television would have you believe.
13 DNA regions
To make a positive identification on one particular individual, forensic scientists scan 13 DNA regions that are known to vary between people. This data is then used to construct a DNA profile (or DNA fingerprint as it is more colloquially known). This amount of data is not enough in itself to produce a single result, however - there is a slim chance that this DNA data may be shared by a very small number of other people.
DNA profiling
There are a variety of uses for DNA profiling that will be covered here at ForensicsFAQ.
These include the following -
- Identifying victims of crime and accidents
- Matching suspects to crimes
- Clearing people previously accused or convicted of crimes
- Confirming paternity in cases where fatherhood is disputed
- Discovering good organ donor / recipient matches
- Identifying other non human organic items of evidence at crime scenes
