Alec Jeffreys Developed DNA Fingerprinting in 1984
Sir Alec Jeffreys invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984 at the University of Leicester by realizing that certain DNA regions have highly variable repetitive sequences unique to each individual.
Alec Jeffreys developed DNA fingerprinting, now called DNA profiling, in 1984 while working in the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester in England.
Explanation
DNA fingerprinting compares the parts of a person's DNA that differ most from one person to the next. Jeffreys noticed that some stretches of DNA are made of short sequences repeated many times over, and that the number of repeats varies between people. Comparing those patterns shows whether two samples are likely to come from the same person, or from close relatives.
The method soon moved from the laboratory into court. In the Narborough murder case in Leicestershire, it was first used to clear an innocent suspect who had confessed, and then to help identify the real killer, Colin Pitchfork.
Today the police, courts and disaster-victim teams around the world use DNA profiling. Modern tests look at different regions of DNA than Jeffreys did in 1984, but the idea is the same: compare the parts of DNA that vary most between people.
Source and verification
- Source
- Wikipedia: DNA profiling Tier B
- Last verified
- Confidence
- 75 out of 100
- Verified by
- Ali Ahmad Chaudhry