We cannot resist introducing this month's special reviews on the biotechniques of human identification by citing the most famous passage from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. The stanza begins Know then thyself, presume not God to scan The proper study of Mankind is Man
and closes with this assessment of the study subject: Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all, Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd; The glory, jest and riddle of the world.
Systematic analysis of short tandem repeats in microsatellite DNA did not really begin until the early 1990s. By 1997, a reviewer could confidently write, “DNA analysis has become the standard method in forensic stain typing…. The typing results are usually recorded as DNA fragment lengths or ‘alleles’ indicating the number of core repeat elements for short tandem repeat systems” (1).
The range of tests has grown from four STR loci, yielding a 1:10,000 probability of a match between unrelated individuals, to panels of 10 loci (with a random-match probability of about 1:10,000,000,000,000), to the current 13-locus standard, where even full siblings have only a 1:40,000 chance of matching each others' profiles (2). And now, as our authors point out here, new technologies are expanding our capabilities even further.
When we study our genetic profiles, we hold a mirror up to ourselves. In this technical literature, we see the darkness of our times along with their light: we employ this self-knowledge to identify predator and prey, slayer and slain. Search the literature and you will find that about one paper out of every twenty on forensic genetic fingerprinting has appeared in the Croatian Medical Journal. This is puzzling for the briefest second, and then suddenly it isn't. That is the riddle, that we as a species can invent the exquisite science to see ourselves so clearly, and commit the crimes that make them necessary.
Short tandem repeat typing technologies used in human identity testing
John M. Butler…ii
Forensic DNA fingerprinting by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry
Herbert Oberacher and Walther Parson…vii
BioTechniques Staff
Editorial Director: Douglas McCormick
Managing Editor: Colleen M. Smith
Research Editor: Patrick C.H. Lo, Ph.D.
Contributing Editor: Kevin Ahern, Ph.D.
Copy Editor: Leslie Ann Weekes
Editorial Assistant: Natalie Goode
Production Manager: Sarah J. Craven
Production Coordinators: Tavares Jones, Yusef Ramelize
Advertising Production Coordinator: Pamela Ferrer
Production Designer: Edward B. Hamel
Marketing Director, Life Sciences: Phillip A. Lofaso
Circulation Manager: John E. Azua
Managing Director, Life Sciences Publishing: Philip Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Director: Tim Budgen
Advertising Sales Representatives
Sales Director: Robert A. D'Angelo
Account Manager Inside Sales: Gail Tavelman
Advertising Sales Coordinator: Christine Briglia
East Coast/Mid Atlantic Representative:
Cheryl Wall, 617-482-0445
Midwest Representative:
Bob Zander, 312-925-7648
West Coast Representative:
Colleen Doran, 510-832-6551
Europe, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan:
Roger Gonçalves, +41 43 243 13 58
List Rental:
Jessie McNair, 212-520-2729
Reprints:
