Past Event: Babuška Forum

How Much DNA Do You Share with Your Grandfather? (And What About Your Uncle?)

Prof. William H. Press, Professor, Computer Science, Oden Institute, UT Austin

Abstract

In the idealized Morgan model of crossover, we revisit the classical problem of the probability distributions of shared DNA between individuals having various family relationships, a problem of immediate importance to the growing field of forensic genealogy (e.g., finding murderers and identifying their victims). Direct simulation easily shows that some classical results by famous statisticians are simply wrong. We explain why and derive some more accurate analytical results. We then ask, more generally, what is the role for analytical analysis in phenomena that are readily simulated?

Biography

William H. Press is the Leslie Surginer Professor of Computer Science and Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT, his affiliations include membership in the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and in the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology. Press is also a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. From 2009 to 2017, Press was a member of President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). He is a past (2012-2013) president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is currently the elected Treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the Governing Board of the National Research Council.