[Genetic investigations in forensic medicine]

Scientific research of the last decade including the introduction of new molecular biological methods and mapping of the human genome allowed the development of a revolutionary new molecular biological approach in forensic medicine. The traditional serological methods study proteins, the new DNA analysis goes further down to study DNA structures to analyze unique individual features. The two main areas of DNA application in forensic medicine are inheritance studies and personal identification in criminal cases using biological traces. Using this new, reliable and reproducible method we can answer questions they were almost impossible in the past. This article reviews how molecular techniques used to detect genetic polymorphism in forensic medicine.