Leiden University’s Peter de Knijff humbly declines being called a guru, but, as a pioneer in forensic DNA, his contributions to the field have been plentiful.
Dr. de Knijff is a full professor in population genetics and evolutionary genetics at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), where he has lead the Forensic Laboratory for DNA Research since 1994. Among his favorite accomplishments, which he describes in more detail in the video below, is introducing the forensic DNA world to Y-chromosomal microsatellites for forensic genetic and population genetic applications, which he did in tandem with Professor Lutz Roewer and Professor Manfred Kayser.
In December 2015, Dr. de Knijff’s lab was the first forensic laboratory worldwide to receive formal ISO 17025 accreditation to use MPS for forensic case-work. In addition, he is actively involved in explaining forensic science to the general public, students and criminal justice professionals. He does this by means of popular lectures, courses, contributions to books and journals written in Dutch, newspaper articles and interviews for radio. He also regularly appears in court as a forensic DNA expert.
In the interview below, Lotte Downey of Promega, asks Dr. de Knijff how he first became involved in the field of forensic DNA, what it was like being involved in the first case where massively parallel sequencing was used to secure a criminal conviction in a criminal court, and what he foresees for the future of the technology.
