Researchers at the University of Huddersfield have solved one of its few limitations by successfully testing a technique for distinguishing between the DNA -- or genetic fingerprint -- of identical twins. The probability of a DNA match between two unrelated individuals is about one in a billion. For two full siblings, the probability drops to one-in-10,000. But identical twins present exactly the same DNA profile as each other and this has created legal conundrums when it was not possible to tell which of the pair was guilty or innocent of a crime.
This has led to prosecutions being dropped, rather than run the risk of convicting the wrong twin. Now Dr Graham Williams and his Forensic Genetics Research Group at the University of Huddersfield have developed a solution to the problem and published their findings in the journal Analytical Biochemistry. Previous methods have been proposed…
