Getting DNA to bear witness
Genetic tests can reveal ancestry, giving police a new source of clues
The very idea of measuring race--an effort long associated with bad science and bigotry--makes many people uncomfortable. DNAPrint, however, argues that the biogeographical ancestry its test measures is different from "race" and that the results confirm how little racial categories actually mean. "By showing the continuum of genetic variation among people, our test dispels race as a scientific way of categorizing people," says Mark Shriver, an expert on human population genetics at Pennsylvania State University and the developer of the DNAPrint test. And in response to worries about medical privacy, the company says the sequences it analyzes for ancestry are not known to be linked to disease-related genes.
The controversy is about to heat up as more criminal investigators turn to the technology and it becomes more powerful. "We'd like to push the limits," says Frudakis. His lab and others are closing in on genes that affect traits including skin pigmentation and iris and hair color. Tests for those genes might give better clues to suspects' appearance, and Frudakis projects that they could be available later this year. On the horizon are screens for genetic variations that affect height and the shape of facial features. Frudakis says these are all fair game for DNA testing. He points out that they are, after all, the same traits police ask about when they have a human eyewitness.
Three Faces, Three Ancestral Backgrounds
European 11 percent
East-Asian 61 percent
Native American 28 percent
European 31 percent
African 69 percent
East-Asian 28 percent
European 36 percent
Native American 36 percent
DNAPrint Genomics Inc.
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