Democratizing DNA Fingerprinting

We report a rapid, inexpensive, and portable strategy to re-identify human DNA using the MinION, a miniature sequencing sensor by Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Our strategy requires only 10-30 minutes of MinION sequencing, works with low input DNA, and enables familial searches. We also show that it can re-identify individuals from Direct-to-Consumer genomic datasets that are publicly available. We discuss potential forensic applications as well as the legal and ethical implications of a democratized DNA fingerprinting strategy available to the public.

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