Forensic Software Resources

The forensim package for the open source R statistical software is dedicated to forensic DNA mixtures interpretation. It provides tools to simulate mixture cases, and analytical tools to interpret data. The codes have been developed by Hinda Haned (Lyon). http://forensim.r-forge.r-project.org/ Recently, a paper has been published by H. Haned: Forensim: An open-source initiative for the evaluation of statistical methods in forensic genetics FSI Genetics 5, 265-268 (2010) DOI Link ISFG Educational Workshop ­– Vienna 2011: the course material is available here: http://forensim.r-forge.r-project.org/isfg.html MixtureCalc v1.2 (Freeware version): A free Excel solution to aid the interpretation of mixtures based on both qualitative and quantitative information using data from an exported GeneMapper file (Copyright: Scottish Police Services Authority – submitted by Ben Mallinder). Demonstrated at the Copenhagen Course in Forensic Genetics - June 2010.

• MixtureCalc v1.2 Excel sheet
• License Agreement
• Standard Operation Procedures
• Workshop Examples

Mixture Analysis: A freeware solution to aid the interpretation of mixtures using peak height / or area information using an Excel spreadsheet (Copyright P.D. Gill, Glasgow)

• Excel sheet
• Documentation

David Balding's software described in

• Balding DJ, Buckleton J, Interpreting low template DNA profiles FSI Genetics, 4: 1-10, 2009 DOI Link

has been updated. The software is written in R. The software can be downloaded from a new web site https://sites.google.com/site/baldingstatisticalgenetics/software/likeltd-r-forensic-dna-r-code. The software has been expanded with facilities to calculate the weight of the evidence when relatives of the alleged contributor are considered, with up to 3 unprofiled contributors, any number of profiled contributors, each of whom can be analysed as subject to dropout, in which case relative amounts of DNA are estimated, or not subject to dropout, separate dropout rates for each replicate. An extension to allow dropout rate to increase with fragment length is expected to be released soon. Torben Tvedebrink's online mixture interpretation tool Torben Tvedebrink's thesis contains a remarkable collection of original publications on population genetics, mixture analysis, and interpretation of results including drop-out events. He has created a DNA Mixture Separator which has been designed to deconvolute 2-person and 3-person mixtures. The algorithms are described in his thesis (link as above) as well as in two publications:

• Evaluating the weight of evidence by using quantitative short tandem repeat data in DNA mixtures. T. Tvedebrink, PS Eriksen, HS Mogensen and N. Morling. Applied Statistics 59(5): 855-874
• Identifying contributors of DNA mixtures by means of quantitative information of STR typing. T. Tvedebrink, PS Eriksen, HS Mogensen and N. Morling. Journal of Computational Biology (in press) (2010)

30.11.2010: Torben's mixture separation software has now been released as a R-package: "mixsep". The package is available at CRAN http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mixsep/ including a user manual. Bruce Weir's DNA mixture calculation software DNAMIX3 DNAMIX is a computer program that will calculate likelihood ratios as they pertain to mixed DNA samples encountered in forensic science. Calculations are based on: Curran JM, Triggs CM, Buckleton J. Weir B.S. Interpreting DNA mixtures in structured populations. Journal of Forensic Science 1999;44(5);987-995, and are appropriate for complex mixtures as well as single-contributor stains. http://www.biostat.washington.edu/~bsweir/DNAMIX3/webpage/