Forensic genetics goes large

As we heard in our previous podcast about forensic genetics, conventional forensic DNA analysis relies on looking at around 17 specific sites in the genome, which vary in size between individual people. But new techniques are allowing researchers to look at much more information from the whole genome, including the epigenetic information that reflects when genes are switched on and off.

So what can this kind of so-called big data tell us about populations and individual people, and how might it be useful to forensic scientists? Kat Arney spoke to one person who's trying to figure it out: Ed Schwalbe, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Northumbria University in Newcastle.