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Science & Technology

DNA can help to recreate a criminal's face

By T.K. Randall
August 27, 2016 · Comment icon 5 comments

Your genes determine your facial characteristics. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 CSIRO
Scientists have found a new way to determine a person's appearance by analyzing samples of their DNA.
DNA identification techniques have long proven to be an invaluable part of any forensic scientist's toolkit, but while comparing samples of a perpetrator's DNA with those of a possible suspect can help to conclusively place that person at the scene of a crime, determining the identity of the culprit from their DNA alone can be a lot more challenging.

Now in a renewed effort to get around this problem, researchers are working on a way to use someone's DNA to create a forensic reconstruction of their physical appearance.

The technique is based on new research in to the way many of our facial features, such as the shape or our nose or the width of our face, are controlled by our genes.
"There is a great deal of evidence genes influence facial appearance," said Dr John Shaffer.

"This is perhaps most apparent when we look at our own families, since we are more likely to share facial features in common with our close relatives than with unrelated individuals."

"Our ability to connect specific genetic variants to ubiquitous facial traits can inform our understanding of normal and abnormal craniofacial development, provide potential predictive models of evolutionary changes in human facial features, and improve our ability to create forensic facial reconstructions from DNA."

Source: Telegraph | Comments (5)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Clair 8 years ago
More on the science behind the connections between facial features and genes: http://www.livescience.com/55901-facial-features-genetics.html  
Comment icon #2 Posted by grimsituation6 8 years ago
This is smart, using DNA to reconstruct a potential feature list, which with the help of an artistand computer can than take that list and construct a face. Hair color, height, skin color all to name a few. The only issue is environmental factors like scars or hair dye.
Comment icon #3 Posted by Habitat 8 years ago
Very interesting indeed. 
Comment icon #4 Posted by glorybebe 8 years ago
Sure would put a wrench in a lot of thieves plans.  Can you imagine the number of cold cases that could be solved!?
Comment icon #5 Posted by draco inquisitorem 8 years ago
Wow. I can't believe I haven't thought of this before. With dna, you could recreate someone's natural features. I didn't know they had invented tech that could do that.


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