Timeline of Events Chapter 7 – DNA Fingerprinting 1980 – American geneticists discover a region of DNA that does not hold any genetic information and is extremely variable between individuals – Sir Alec Jeffreys discovers a method of identifying individuals from DNA – Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), dubbed DNA Fingerprinting.Sir Alec Jeffreys 1985 – UK police first use forensic DNA profiling.

1986 – Kerry Mullis discovers Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method of replicating particular regions of a DNA molecule – DNA is used for the first time to solve a crime. Jeffreys uses DNA profiling to identify Colin Pitchfork as the murderer of two young girls in the English Midlands – The human genetic group at Cetus Corporation develop the PCR technique for a number of clinical and forensic applications, resulting in the development of the first commercial PCR typing kit specifically for forensic use. Timeline of Events (continued)

1987 – DNA profiling is introduced for the first time in a US criminal court – Thomas Caskey can colleagues publish the first paper suggesting the use of short tandem repeats for forensic DNA analysis – The world’s first national DNA database commences operations in the UK. Timeline of Events (continued)

1996 – The FBI introduce computerized searches of AFIS – Mitochondria DNA evidence is used in court for the first time in the US – Police establish the National Criminal DNA Database in the UK – An FBI DNA database, NIDIS, is put into practice. Timeline of Events (continued)

Related Areas of Science Biology – DNA structure and function Enzymes Chemistry Dyes and other molecules that will bind to specific DNA sequences Math Probability