MAIES: A Tool for DNA Mixture Analysis

Abstract

We describe an expert system, MAIES, developed for analysing forensic identification problems involving DNA mixture traces using quantitative peak area information. Peak area information is represented by conditional Gaussian distributions, and inference based on exact junction tree propagation ascertains whether individuals, whose profiles have been measured, have contributed to the mixture. The system can also be used to predict DNA profiles of unknown contributors by separating the mixture into its individual components. The use of the system is illustrated with an application to a real world example. The system implements a novel MAP (maximum a posteriori) search algorithm that is described in an appendix.