Forensic Age Assessment
Group leader
Age assessment is of vital importance as people from many parts of the world are unaware of or cannot document their birth date. In our modern society a status as a minor brings forth specific rights for protection. Age can also be an important question in cases connected to child labor, human trafficking and unaccompanied asylum seekers. Today, common methods in use are based on development of skeleton and teeth which have limitations due to substantial biological variation. Our group’s main goal is to develop better and more accurate biological tools to assess chronological age. Our main focus is on the development of DNA methylation analysis as a method for assessing age of adolescents and young adults.
