Computer Forensic and Bioinformatics

Description

The field of forensic science is increasingly based on biomolecular data and many European countries are establishing forensic databases to store DNA profiles of crime scenes of known offenders and apply DNA testing. The field is boosted by statistical and technological advances such as DNA microarray sequencing, TFT biosensors, machine learning algorithms, in particular Bayesian networks, which provide an effective way of evidence organization and inference. Mobile device forensics is a branch of digital forensics relating to recovery of digital evidence or data from a mobile device under forensically sound conditions. The phrase mobile device usually refers to mobile phones; however, it can also relate to any digital device that has both internal memory and communication ability, including PDA devices, GPS devices and tablet computers. The recent developments in bioinformatics and particularly in massively parallel sequencing (MPS) for DNA analysis have allowed the extraction of invaluable information without inducing very high costs. Before sequencing the amplified DNA fragments, short sequences are appended to the DNA during library preparation. By doing this, the sequencing process has greater chances to be successful. Bioinformatics was applied in the creation and maintenance of a database to store biological information at the beginning of the “genomic revolution”, such as nucleotide and amino acid sequences. Development of this type of database involved not only design issues but the development of complex interfaces whereby researchers could both access existing data as well as submit new or revised data. The aim of this book is to discuss the state of art potentialities of bioinformatics in forensic DNA science. We also discuss how bioinformatics will address issues related to privacy rights such as those raised from large scale integration of crime, public health and population genetic susceptibility-to-diseases databases.