Alec Jeffreys

Jeffreys was born into a middle-class family in Oxford, where he spent the first six years of his life until 1956 when the family moved to Luton, Bedfordshire. He won a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford as an undergraduate of Merton College, Oxford on a four-year course, where he graduated in 1971 with first-class honours in biochemistry. ==Career and research==

After finishing his doctorate, he moved to the University of Amsterdam, where he worked on mammalian genes as a research fellow, Jeffreys's DNA method was first put to use in 1985 when he was asked to help in a disputed immigration case to confirm the identity of a British boy whose family was originally from Ghana. with DNA from his mother and son, in a similar way to paternity testing. with the term (DNA fingerprinting) being retained for the initial test that types many minisatellites simultaneously. By focusing on just a few of these highly variable minisatellites, DNA profiling made the system more sensitive, more reproducible and amenable to computer databases. It soon became the standard forensic DNA system used in criminal case work and paternity testing worldwide. The development of DNA amplification by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) opened up new approaches to forensic DNA testing, allowing automation, greatly increased sensitivity, and a move to alternative marker systems. The most commonly used markers are now variable microsatellites, also known as short tandem repeats (STRs), which Jeffreys first exploited in 1990 in the Mengele case. STR profiling was further refined by a team of scientists led by Peter Gill at the Forensic Science Service in the 1990s, allowing the launch of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) in 1995. With highly automated and sophisticated equipment, modern-day DNA profiling can process hundreds of samples each day. Sixteen microsatellites, plus a marker for sex determination, are used with the current system developed for the NDNAD, giving a discrimination power of one in over a billion. Under British law, anyone arrested in England, Wales or Northern Ireland has their DNA profile taken and stored on the database whether or not they are convicted (different rules apply in Scotland). Jeffreys has opposed the current use of DNA profiling, where the government has access to that database, • 26 November 1992 – Honorary freeman of the City of Leicester and to science and technology • 1995 – Honorary member of the International Society for Forensic Genetics • 1996 – Albert Einstein World Award of Science • 1999 – Sir George Stokes Medal • 2003 – Association for Molecular Pathology Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics • 2004 – Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine elected member • 2006 – Great Briton Award for the Greatest Briton of the year, winner in the category of Science and Innovation, as well as the overall winner • 2006 – Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics • 14 April 2010 – Awarded Edinburgh Medal • 21 February 2011 – Awarded ABRF Annual Award • 2012 – Officially opened the Sir Alec Jeffreys Building in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the scientific support building for West Yorkshire Police and the wider Yorkshire and the Humber region • 2014 – Copley Medal • 2017 – Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour ==Personal life==

Jeffreys met his future wife, Sue Miles, in a youth club in the centre of Luton, Bedfordshire, before he became a university student, Jeffreys has one brother and one sister; he and his wife have two daughters, born in 1979 and 1983. == References ==