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Forensic Bioinformatics Staff
PrincipalsForensic Bioinformatics was founded in 2002 by Dr. Dan Krane. Dr. Krane, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Wright State University, is recognized as an authority on DNA analysis. Since 1991, he has testified as an expert witness in more than 60 criminal trials in which DNA evidence was presented, including such high-profile cases as Illinois vs. Heaton, and The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Greineder. He has also been featured on, or served as a technical consultant to, CBS Nightly News, NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, CBS's Sixty Minutes, Court TV, CBS's Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, as well as The Gannette News Service, Weekly Reader Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among others.Joining Dr. Krane are two colleagues who have also gained international recognition for their work in DNA analysis, Drs. William C. Thompson and Simon Ford and three colleagues recognized for their work with computational automation and the use of biological data and Drs. Jason Gilder, Travis Doom, and Michael Raymer. Professor Dan Krane graduated with a Bachelor's degree for a double major in Biology and Chemistry from John Carroll University in 1985 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Penn State University in 1990. From there he did post-doctoral research at Washington University and Harvard before accepting a faculty appointment at Wright State University in 1993. His research interests are primarily in the areas of molecular evolution and the way that gene frequencies change over the course of time in populations of organisms. His research group has recently developed a technique that allows quick and precise measurement of the amount of genetic diversity that a population harbors at a molecular level. Since high levels of genetic diversity better allow groups of organisms to respond to stresses they encounter in their environments it is also an excellent measure of the population's vigor and productivity. Environmental insults such as pollution can significantly diminish a naturally occurring population's genetic diversity however and this methodology is now being used to more closely examine the true impact of such events. Along with Professor Michael Raymer, he is co-author of one of the first primarily undergraduate textbooks in bioinformatics. Since 1991 he has also testified as an expert witness in more than 70 criminal trials in which DNA evidence has been presented. Professor Bill Thompson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is well known for his research on the way people interpret (and sometimes misinterpret) scientific and statistical data and has written extensively about the use and misuse of DNA evidence. Although primarily an academic, he occasionally represents clients in cases involving novel scientific and statistical issues. He argued the first case concerning the admissibility of DNA evidence before the New Mexico Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, and was the first attorney in California to successfully challenge the admissibility of an FBI DNA test. He was a member of the "dream team" that represented O.J. Simpson during his criminal trial. He has consulted with police departments, coroners and lawyers on a variety of cases involving scientific evidence in the US, the UK, and Australia. He served as Reporter for the American Bar Association Standards Committee Study Group on DNA Evidence and was a member of the ABA Task Force on Biological Evidence. He currently co-chairs the Forensic Evidence Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). Dr. Simon Ford is the principal of Lexigen Science and Law Consultants, Inc., in San Francisco. Born in England, Dr. Ford holds a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of Leeds, also in the United Kingdom. He has been working with DNA for twenty-five years as a researcher, teacher, writer, and consultant, specializing in forensic and environmental applications of DNA technology. Simon has worked as a consultant in several hundred cases involving DNA evidence, and his related consulting work has been his primary means of support for over a decade. Dr. Jason Gilder graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from Wright State University in 2001, a Master's degree in Computer Science from Wright State University in 2003, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Wright State University in 2007. His thesis and dissertation were in the area of forensic DNA interpretation. Jason is the first full-time employee of Forensic Bioinformatics and he is the primary author of the Genophiler® automated software analysis system. He has used Genophiler® to analyze the electronic data in more than 800 DNA cases. Jason has provided testimony and gives several talks a year at CLE seminars. Jason continually performs research in the area of forensic DNA interpretation and has published multiple articles in the field. Professor Travis Doom is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Wright State University and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Dr. Doom earned his Ph.D in computer science and engineering from Michigan State University in 1998 with specialization in computing systems. He holds additional degrees in computational mathematics (B.S., 1992) and computer science (B.S., 1992) from Bowling Green State University as well as a degree in computer science (M.S., 1994) from Michigan State University. He is a co-director of the bioinformatics research group at WSU and actively pursues research in the fields of design automation, computational biology, high-performance computer architecture and systems, performance evaluation/operational analysis, distributed/parallel systems, and computational theory. Professor Michael Raymer has seven years of research experience in the field of computational molecular biology. His work in this field has been published in both computer science and biochemistry journals. His research interests include protein structure and function, bioinformatics, evolutionary computation, and pattern recognition. As co-director of the bioinformatics research group at Wright State University, Prof. Raymer is currently conducting investigations in the areas of rational drug design, comparative protein modeling, and quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis. Prof. Raymer is co-author of one of the first primarily undergraduate textbooks in bioinformatics. Questions? Contact help@bioforensics.com. Last modified: 02/17/10 |
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