Recent Developments in DNA Analysis will Render all Other Forensic Techniques of Identification Redundant–A Critical Analysis

Science is not just about facts, figures and statistics. It is also about vision and dreams. The fast pace at which the forensic DNA technology has emerged from a sapling 20 years ago to a full fledged tree with a lot of branches of the most recent techniques and scientific fruits to savour, can lead to anyone and everyone to expect more and wonders from it. The use of DNA in forensic science began in the 1980s in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Dr. Alec Jeffreys in 1985 found that some regions of DNA were highly variable or polymorphic. Analysis of these regions produces a ‘DNA profile’. Various techniques including single-locus probe and multi-locus probe RFLP methods and more recently PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)-based assays have been and are being used by the human identity testing community. In this article we are going to critically analyze the recent developments in DNA analysis.