A team of Belgian and American researchers have devised a system that could use DNA from a crime scene in order to generate an image of the suspect's face.An international team led by KU Leuven, published in Nature Communications, found that ur physical appearance, including our face, is hardwired into our genetic material.Peter Claes of KU Leuven, the senior and corresponding author of the study, said in a statement: “We believe that the shape of our face is determined by thousands of genes, but also by the food we eat and other living conditions. Therefore, it is unlikely that we will ever be able to accurately predict a lifelike face from DNA alone.”The team noted that scientists have already identified multiple genes that determine the shape of our face-from the distance between our nostrils to the shape of our chin.However, they added that it was not accurate to identify people.”This method mostly helps rule people out,” Claes said. “In practice, we don't usually get any further than a sort of reference face, such as 'a European male.' That's not much use to a forensic investigator.”
Researchers mix DNA with face recognition
