Eighteenth Annual Darwin College Lecture Series 2003
Changing Science and Society
Lecture 1 : 17 January 2003
Genetic Fingerprinting
Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys
Department of Genetics, University of Leicester
DNA fingerprinting, accidentally invented in 1984, has had a
major impact on many areas of biology, most notably in forensic and legal
medicine. I will describe how DNA typing can be used to solve casework and
will review the latest developments, including the creation of major
national DNA databases that are already proving extraordinarily effective
in the fight against crime. I will discuss how this work also led to the
discovery of some of the most unstable regions of human DNA, and how these
can be used to study human evolution in real time and to explore the
effects of environmental exposure to agents such as radiation on heritable
mutations in human DNA.
The lectures are given at 5.30 p.m. in The Lady Mitchell Hall,
Sidgwick Avenue, with an adjacent overflow theatre with live TV
coverage. Each lecture is typically attended by 600 people so you
must arrive early to ensure a place.
