DNA fingerprinting
Huella genética de ADN
- Date
- 1984 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Leicester, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Alec Jeffreys (10 September 1984); first forensic use in the Pitchfork case (1987)
- People
- 👤 Alec Jefreys1950–
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Method for identifying a person by hypervariable regions of their DNA. It transformed criminology, paternity testing and immigration.
What it led to
- Police DNA databases and the exoneration of innocent convicts
- Consumer genetic genealogy (23andMe) and the resolution of cold cases
- Debates over genetic privacy
Built on
- DNA double-helix structure1953
- Restriction enzymes1968-1970
- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)1983
- structure of DNA
- Southern blot
Made possible
- forensic DNA databases
- genetic genealogy
- paternity tests