Coding or non-coding, that is the question: having solved the last technical hurdles to extract DNA information from virtually any biological material, forensic biologists now have to ponder the ethical and social questions of using information from exonic DNA.

Abstract

Currently, we are witnessing one of the most extensive biological forensic investigations. Private and public laboratories across the USA are using a wide range of techniques to extract DNA from tiny stains in order to identify the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. They try to match the DNA from the crime scene with genetic ‘fingerprints' of the victims' toothbrushes, razor blades and other personal items, or compare it against the DNA of the victims' relatives. Although the World Trade Center investigation is more a logistic than a scientific or technological challenge, the sheer number of victims and the interest of the media following the terrorist attack have drawn reporters’ interest once again to forensic biology including DNA‐based identification techniques (see, for example, Lipton and Glanz, 2002). > In the beginning, it was not only the physical extraction of DNA that limited our access to DNA that limited our access to DNA profiles; we also had to find the best target sequences The latest scientific and technological advances in biological forensic science were presented at this year's meeting of the German‐speaking ‘genetic fingerprint’ community at the University of Bonn in mid‐March. Forensic biologists demonstrated that they have finally solved the technical problems of recovering DNA from nearly any biological sample, no matter how small it is. DNA can now be extracted from practically any biological substance left at a scene of crime or an accident, including teeth, blood, sperm, saliva, bones, hair, urine and faeces. A colleague from the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA)—the German Federal Bureau of Investigation—even presented a recipe for DNA extraction out of telogenic hair shafts, which had previously been thought to be devoid of genetic material. Colleagues from another police laboratory showed that they had mastered extracting DNA from single epithelial cells, …