Creator of DNA fingerprinting joins shortlist for Millennium Technology Prize

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"It is a day that I will never forget”, says Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys from the Department of Genetics, the University of Leicester, UK.
      ”My entire life changed in the space of a few minutes.”
      That day was September 10th 1984, more precisely at 9:05 a.m.
      Sir Alec was in his laboratory, examining the X-ray of some DNA tests he was working on, when he noticed certain similarities and differences in his technician’s family DNA.
     
Jeffreys realised immediately that he had made a remarkable discovery. DNA would help to recognise a person without doubt but also to find out a person’s relatives.
      He decided to name his discovery as DNA fingerprinting, which was at once understood and accepted.
      As the demand was high, the innovation was soon commercialised, and as everybody knows the DNA fingerprint has revolutionized the entire field of criminal investigation.
      Today DNA fingerprinting is also used as a standard procedure in paternity investigations, among others.
      However, Professor Jeffreys's first case was related to an immigration dispute.
      ”Typically, an immigrant wants to bring into his new home country even his wife and children. With a DNA test it is easy to find out whether or not the persons in question are really related to each other”, reports Jeffreys.
     
One of the largest DNA databanks is located in England and Wales, with the DNA of more than four million crime suspects.
      "DNA offers a great clue. If DNA is found on a crime scene in England or Wales, there is a 54% possibility that the criminal in question will be caught”, noted Professor Jeffreys.
     
Criminal investigations would naturally become easier if all citizens’ DNAs would be entered into the police databank. However, this is something that Jeffreys is vehemently opposed to, as information on a person’s genetic inheritance is a highly personal matter and should be accessed by authorities only under exceptional circumstances.
      However, Jeffreys is in favour of a DNA databank for all citizens that could contain information on people’s genetic inheritance in a form of an identification code.
      "It could be only a number without any information about diseases or any other personal details. Such a DNA code would make identification easier for example in catastrophes like the Indian Ocean tsunami”, Jeffreys concluded.
     
Sir Alec Jeffreys is one of the names on the shortlist for the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize, announced on Tuesday.
      The list also includes American inventors Robert Langer, a professor at MIT, and Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi, President of the Viterbi Group and Professor Emeritus from the University of Southern California, as well as Professor David Payne, the director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, UK, and his co-inventors, Professor Emmanuel Desurvire, the director of the Physics Research Group at Thales Corporate Research & Technology, France, and Dr Randy Giles, the director of Optical Networks at Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, New Jersey, USA.
      The Millennium Technology Prize is one of the most prestigious awards for innovation and is given every second year. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, was the first laureate in 2004.
      The EUR 1.15 million prize is awarded by the Finnish Technology Academy, an independent foundation established by Finnish industry, in partnership with the Finnish government.
      The winner of the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize will be announced in June.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Millennium Technology Prize awarded to Tim Berners-Lee (16.6.2004)
  COMMENT: The million-euro technology advertisement (15.6.2004)
  Nakamura collects Millennium Technology Prize (11.9.2006)

Links:
  Millennium Technology Prize (Wikipedia)

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