First use of DNA profiling

Sir Alec Jeffreys (UK), who invented the technique of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fingerprinting at Leicester University, UK, and first published a paper on its potential in Nature (vol. 314, 67 - 73; 7 March 1985) first demonstrated its practical use in the Spring of 1985 by determing the paternity of a child involved in an immigration debate. The youngest son of a Ghanaian family resident in the UK had paid a visit to Ghana, but on his return to the UK was deemed to either have been travelling on a fake passport or be someone else entirely. To test whether or not the boy was a substitute trying to enter the country illegally, Sir Alec used DNA reconstruction of known family members to confirm that the boy had the same father.