Research activities

The Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands (FGCN) respresents the strategic alliance of three genetic research laboratories: the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), the Forensic Laboratory for DNA Research of Leiden University Medical Center (FLDO-LUMC) and the Department for Forensic Molecular Biology of the Erasmus Medical Center (FMB-EMC). By means of the NGI support, FGCN will substantially improve routine forensic genetic research in the coming period.

Forensic genetic research is the highly specialized field of science that focuses on the exploration of genetic material (mostly DNA, but recently also RNA) from biological crime scene samples with the purpose of providing information regarding the donor of that biological sample. Based on this information, criminal justice officials can use this information for the identification of victims or suspects. Current forensic genetic methods are extremely inefficient with respect to the total amount of information one could potentially extract from biological samples. FGCN will be able to substantially improve routine forensic genetic research. By means of the alliance FGCN plans to achieve major improvements in the following six forensically relevant research topics:

The FGCN’s research focuses on six specialist genetic areas:

• Improving mixed-stain DNA analyses. read more »
• The relative age of the sample. read more »
• The cellular origin of the biological sample. read more »
• The geographical origin of the cell donor. read more »
• The externally visible characteristics of the cell donor. read more »
  
• Constructing detailed DNA reference databases. read more »