Cracking Crimes With a New DNA Technique

It's news that will have cold case murder victims smiling in heaven. Israeli scientists have found a way to identify DNA that would otherwise be inadmissible in court - when it comes from a sample of multiple people.

Although forensic DNA analysis is used in less than one percent of all criminal cases, it has helped convict suspects in some of the world's most heinous crimes, including murder and rape.

Providing certainty without a reasonable doubt is not possible when the DNA comes from multiple sources at a crime scene. According to police officials in Israel, this happens in about one in 10 cases, meaning that important evidence for putting a criminal behind bars is lost.

But a new technique developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by a professor and his student takes the uncertainty out of DNA samples, when more than one person's DNA fingerprint is in the mix.

The results were published recently in Forensic Science International: Genetics.

While Prof. Ariel Darvasi from the Department of Genetics doesn't focus on forensics in his day-to-day life, he decided to supervise Lev Voskoboinik's research after hearing Voskoboinik lecture about the problem and declare that there was no solution. Voskoboinik works at the Israel Police Forensic Biology Laboratory and was looking to earn a second degree in DNA analysis.

This article originally appeared on Israel21c and is reprinted with permission. To read the rest, click here.