Hirak Ranjan Dash - Principles and Practices of DNA Analysis: A Laboratory Manual for Forensic DNA Typing

For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8623

This Humana imprint is published by the registered company Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.

DNA fingerprinting is one of the greatest discoveries of science in the century. Since its discovery, the technique is being widely used in varied fields such as deciphering the genetics of an organism, cracking ancestral belongingness, neonatal diagnosis, diagnosis of genetic disorder, and many others. However, it has revolutionized the field of criminal justice system by its uniqueness and individualization capabilities. Currently, DNA fingerprinting is considered to be the most irrefutable evidence to be produced before the court of law.

Since its inception, the technique has undergone tremendous advancements, and the progress is being observed continuously. However, with the advent of time a consensus step-by-step protocol book describing the technology currently used is lacking. Most of the books available in the same field either describe the obsolete technique of RFLP for DNA examination or manual DNA extraction procedures. Currently, the technological advancement has seen DNA extraction through automation, and RAPID DNA technology has also arrived. Hence, we felt the need of a timely updated laboratory manual in the current field.

In this context, the laboratory manual is structured to clear all doubts of the examiners as well as students regarding conventional and advanced forensic DNA typing experiments. It will be handy for the beginners as well as for the experts in the field of DNA fingerprinting for smooth conduction of the experiments, interpretation, and analysis of results. The uniqueness of the manual involves (a) step-by-step protocol for each experiments; (b) description of each chemicals and reagents and their corresponding principal/functional role; (c) separate experiments for DNA extraction from varied types of biological samples of forensic interest; (d) description of advanced automatic and semiautomatic techniques for DNA extraction; (e) inclusion of real case studies and statistical analysis; and (f) precaution and troubleshooting for each experiment.

Every possible effort has been made to present the protocol book in a very simpler form for easy understanding of students, scientists, and DNA examiners. We have tried our best to incorporate all our experience and expertise to bring out the form of this manual. Throughout the writing process, we have faced lots of hurdles and problems; however, all of them have been overcome due to Gods grace, self-belief, and support from family and friends. We are really thankful to each and every one for their support and encouragement during the process of writing. We hope the manual will be of great use for the readers in their career.

Wishing the readers all the best for a successful experiment!!!!