Elementary, my dear Cameron

Mark A Jobling

doi:10.1186/2041-2223-2-5

Abstract

Elementary, my dear Cameron

Highlights

All science is about creativity and ingenuity: coming up with a good way to answer a tricky question
The question being asked was about the direction of transmission of the virus among a set of infected individuals: in particular, does the phylogenetic evidence support the hypothesis that the defendant was responsible for the infections carried by a number of his sexual partners? Two aspects of HIV-1 biology were exploited in order to address this: first, the virus has a high mutation rate and so, during proliferation within an infected person, a diverse set of HIV-1 sequences arises; and second, when one person infects another, the population of viruses goes through a strong genetic bottleneck, so that three-quarters of new infections are each established by a single virus
In each case the sample identity was blinded and parts of the HIV-1 genome sequenced in the putative offender and victims

Summary

Introduction

All science is about creativity and ingenuity: coming up with a good way to answer a tricky question. The first describes the application of a highly abstract and academic discipline, molecular phylogenetics, to support two convictions for assault [1] and the second the application of a spin-off from immunology to determine the age of a person from a sample of their blood alone [2].

Results

Conclusion