Why Is DNA Profiling Important In Forensic Investigation

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Biology Assignment Name: Tan Lee Fei ID Number: I14005878 DNA Profiling Has Provided Evidence in Many Forensic Investigation Introduction Forensic science has become a hot topic among human all around the world due to CSI in US television shows. Forensic scientists will do indispensable work, for instance fingerprints, DNA, injuries, drugs and computer data in order to link evidence from crime scenes. They also help to solve crimes by studying dead bodies to find out the cause and time of death, reconstructing faces from skulls and virtually ageing them. In 1984, Professor Sir Alec John Jeffreys has developed techniques for DNA profiling and DNA fingerprinting which use variations in the genetic code to identify individuals are now used worldwide …show more content…

Forensic scientists will collect a crime scene sample and extract its DNA and use PCR to make copies of the sample’s telltale DNA district. Specifically, STR which is composed of four or five bases long that are repeated many times in a row of short units of DNA will be formed. The number of repeats they contain varies widely from person to person makes the region telltale. During PCR, all the STR copies are attached to the fluorescent dyes. Make sure one type of dye for each STR region to ensure that all of the specific region of DNA copies can be eliminated from the others in the mix. Separation of various DNA fragments by size will be done using a capillary electrophoresis machine by forensic scientists. By doing this, it is quite easy to calculate the number of repetitive units at each site and the length of each STR region. One’s STR repeats must match with the crime scene sample in order to convict a suspect (Winconsin Magazine, 2013). If they are perfectly matched, it is roughly guaranteed that he has got his culprit. Even though there is a single STR mismatch, it is enough to exonerate a suspect (Eugene Garfield, 1989). Therefore, this case drives the investigators to look for the nation’s database of DNA profiles- CODIS to solve the crime in a short period of time (Winconsin Magazine, 2013). In my point of view, DNA profiling helps much in solving criminal investigations as it is an effective way to identify criminals. It is a high accuracy technique to interpret the results of

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