A secret algorithm is transforming DNA evidence. This defendant could be the first to scrutinize it.
By Justin Jouvenal,
Boston Globe
| 07. 13. 2021
The Exxon clerk never got a good look at the assailants who robbed him at gunpoint in Fairfax County, so investigators hoped to bolster their case with the smallest of clues: the minuscule number of skin cells one perpetrator left behind when he grabbed the victim’s shirt.
Crime labs that have long pulled DNA from blood or semen have been pushing the frontiers of forensics by teasing genetic material from ever tinier and more challenging samples, such as sneaker sweat. But this time, the Virginia crime lab could not make a match because of a ubiquitous problem: DNA from too many people was on the shirt.
So authorities turned to advanced software that its creator promises will sort complex DNA mixtures much like a prism breaks down white light. The software doesn’t provide a direct “match” but assesses the probability that a suspect’s DNA is included in the sample. In the Fairfax case, police had a tip about one suspected robber’s name, and the software backed it up.
TrueAllele is reshaping DNA analysis, providing key evidence in thousands of homicides...
Related Articles
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.19.2025
Human eggs are incredibly rare cells. The ovary typically produces only 400 mature eggs across a woman’s life. But biologists in George Church’s lab at Harvard University — a group that’s never content with nature’s limits — just got a...
By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025
Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute
Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on children born from pronuclear genome transfer (sometimes called “3-parent IVF,” “mitochondrial donation” or “mitochondrial replacement therapy”) at Newcastle Fertility Center...
By Nicky Hudson, The Conversation | 08.12.2025