Sunday, March 8, 2015

Constructing Faces from DNA Evidence

        Criminal investigations can run cold very quickly if detectives don't find the right clues or get the right leads in a certain amount of time.  The most convincing form of evidence is a positive DNA match, and a close second is a picture of the suspect's face.  In the near future, scientists may be able to reconstruct a suspect's face using 24 variants in 20 different genes in a DNA sample.  
        These 3D facial models are surprisingly accurate and have been tested on over 600 volunteers of different descent and gender.  The models can distinguish between male and female, they can determine ancestry, and they can potentially reconstruct a mugshot of a suspect if DNA was left at the scene of a crime.  The scientists started by scanning the volunteers' faces at over 7000 unique points and they developed a mathematical model to determine how different aspects of a person's genetic ancestry affect the positions of certain facial features and the overall shape of someone's face.  
        Previous studies have found how to determine a person's hair color and eye color using DNA and there have been attempts to reconstruct facial features, but this procedure is much more effective and accurate because scientists have isolated the specific genes associated with facial features.  I plan on studying forensic science in the future and this article was particularly interesting to me because it's all about forensics.  The field of forensic science is changing constantly with new technologies and new studies, and those are some of the main reasons why I'm so interested in the subject.  

1 comment:

  1. It's interesting to see how this study can change the way law enforcement find suspects to a crime. Also, this can solve cold cases by giving detectives a face to find when one's DNA is not in the system.

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