How can a tiny amount of DNA be used to identify one person out of a billion?
This was the question posed to the participants of the 2017 Outreach Summer School, in the form of a gripping real-life crime scene investigation, organised and run by Dr Argita Zalli and Dr Luisa Garcia-Haro, Teaching Fellows on the BSc Medical Biosciences (BMB) programme.
The crime…
A classic case of ‘whodunnit’, the exciting scenario started with Dr Garcia-Haro explaining to students the importance of statistics which quickly took a dark turn when the session was interrupted by police officers who notified everyone that a famous model had been murdered! The scene was further set by Dr Zalli, who read out a newspaper article about the murder, while a video was used to summarise the key details of the gruesome crime. Participants were split into 5 groups and introduced to the handcuffed suspects, whom they interrogated using a real interrogation sheet, and went on to gather evidence from the crime scene. Each group was also allocated a suspect they had to defend in a mock court trial – the finale of their investigation. (more…)