Advanced Research in Forensic Genetics

Dear Colleagues,

There have been significant advances in forensic science in the last several years, and the development and application of genetics have revolutionized approaches to this field.

For the first time, in 1984, the term “DNA fingerprint” was mentioned by Alec Jeffreys, who analyzed polymorphic regions of DNA. Even though the gold-standard method for forensic genotyping is still the analysis of STR polymorphisms through capillary electrophoresis, forensic laboratories are gradually introducing complementary assays based on more advanced technological platforms. Both the scope and scale of DNA analysis in forensic science are set to continue expanding in the foreseeable future. Current research in advanced forensic genetics is aiming to enhance the accuracy, speed, and effectiveness of DNA analysis in legal contexts. Key objectives include improving identification precision, even with degraded, mixed, or limited samples, through advanced technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) and new individual biomarkers such as microhaplotypes. The NGS technique is also applicable to phenotyping, which comprises the prediction of a person's externally visible characteristics regarding appearance, biogeographic ancestry, and age using DNA from crime scene samples, to provide investigative leads to help find unknown perpetrators that cannot be identified through forensic STR profiling. Forensic genetics has become an important field in forensic science, helping in cause-of-death investigations and post-mortem interval estimation and introducing promising biomarkers such as microRNAs (miRNAs), which, with their small size, are a promising tool in various fields in forensic medicine. Another goal is to speed up forensic investigations by using faster, automated techniques, such as AI-assisted data analysis, to reduce turnaround times. This is particularly valuable in resolving cold cases. Lastly, the evaluation of the results of forensic genetic analyses is vital, given that activity level propositions represent an emerging discipline in forensic genetics; today, this is considered a critically important topic for the field of forensics. The increasing sensitivity of analysis techniques and advances in data interpretation using probabilistic models ('probabilistic genotyping') is increasing the demands on forensic biologists to share specialized knowledge to help recipients of expert information to address the mode and timing of the transfer and persistence of traces in court.

In launching this Special Issue, we aim to gather the most advanced research currently available in forensic genetics, to showcase the most interesting work in our field.

Dr. Mauro Pesaresi
Guest Editor

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