Toward DNA-based facial composites: Preliminary results and validation

Establishing a Multidisciplinary Context for Modeling 3D Facial Shape from DNA

“…Visualizing the effects also opens the door for systematic transformations of particular faces, which could be useful in experiments on the psychology of facial perception. Finally, without a means of visualizing the effects of genes and other factors, methods for assembling composite faces, like the one explored in our recent paper [3], would not be possible.…”

“…” This concluding sentence clearly emphasizes that additional work is required and that we only claim to have provided a methodological framework and motivation. In a recent paper [3], we investigated a means of combining the effects of independent factors (namely, sex, genomics ancestry, and genotypes for the 24 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from Claes et al) into a single predicted face. We also explored considerations for how to judge the accuracy of these predicted faces.…”

Forensic DNA Phenotyping: Predicting human appearance from crime scene material for investigative purposes

“…With this specific approach, the authors identified 24 SNPs from 20 genes with nominal significant facial association (p<0.1) of which three (SLC35D1, FGFR1, and LRP6) were particularly highlighted by the authors [89]. In a subsequent paper apparently using the same data, Claes et al [90] emphasized that sex and genetic ancestry provided most of the DNA-based facial composites, while the effect of the 24 "facial" SNPs was marginal (e.g. 1% accuracy increase).…”

Forensic DNA Phenotyping: A Review in Korean Perspective

“…Also, more recent studies concentrate on predicting facial morphology; to this point about 50 genes that contribute to facial morphology have been discovered and of those, 24 markers in 20 different genes were distinguished to explain the various patterns in facial shape and morphology [19,22,23]. The continuous research and development will allow these genes to be used as robust prediction markers, providing and differentiating the highly polymorphic and polygenic physical traits as well as biogeographical backgrounds [10,24].…”