In the 1980s DNA scientists (molecular geneticists) focused on the repeat-sequence polymorphism within DNA. For most researchers these repeat-sequence regions were “road signs” along the sequence of letters (bases) as different laboratories worked on sequencing the entire human DNA. Dr. Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom realized that these polymorphisms provided excellent tools for human identification in affiliation cases, especially when many regions were examined simultaneously. He called these patterns “DNA fingerprints,” a term that has stuck, especially in the popular media. Most forensic scientists dislike the term because it can create confusion between DNA and conventional fingerprints, and because there are some differences between DNA individuality and fingerprint individuality. Jeffreys published several papers on this subject in the prestigious scientific journal Nature in 1985.
Around this same time, in 1983 and in 1986, two teenage girls had been raped and murdered in the small village of Narborough in Leicestershire, England (see sidebar “The Narborough Murders”). Jeffreys and DNA technology would be drawn into this case, and its outcome became the flash point for the development of DNA-typing methods in forensic science laboratories worldwide.
Within a couple of years forensic science laboratories all over the world had acquired the tools to perform the new DNA-typing technique. Jeffreys’s name will be forever linked with this revolution. In 1998, at its 50th anniversary meeting in San Francisco, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences paid special tribute to Jeffreys in recognition of his contributions.
