Evidence

DNA Can Be Faked, Say Scientists Who Created Test to Detect Fraud

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Those who know what they’re doing can readily fake DNA evidence, fabricating genetic material to masquerade as someone other than the actual donor and creating a “match” to a known DNA profile, according to a recent academic article by Israeli scientists.

“You can just engineer a crime scene,” says Dan Frumkin, lead author of the FSI: Genetics article, “Authentication of forensic DNA samples.”

“Any biology undergraduate could perform this,” Frumkin says.

Frumkin is a founder of an Israel-based company, Nucleix, that has developed a test to identify fake DNA samples, the New York Times notes.

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