26-1858: Jeffreys is a surname that may refer to the following notable people: Alec Jeffreys (born 1950), British biologist and discoverer of DNA fingerprinting Anne Jeffreys (1923–2017), American actress and singer Arthur Frederick Jeffreys (1848–1906), British politician Bertha Jeffreys (1903–1999), British physicist a.k.a. Bertha Swirles Charles Jeffreys (1877 – unknown), South African shooter Edmund Jeffreys (1846–1925), British Royal Navy admiral Elizabeth Jeffreys (1941–2023), British Byzantinist Ellen Penelope Jeffreys (1827–1904), New Zealand artist Garland Jeffreys (born 1943), American musician George Jeffreys (composer) (c.1610–1685), composer and organist to Charles I George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys (1645–1689), British jurist & politician George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys (British Army officer) (1878–1960), British soldier & politician George Jeffreys (pastor) (1889–1962), British religious leader Gina Jeffreys (born 1968), Australian singer Harold Jeffreys (1891–1989), British mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer J. G. Jeffreys (1893–1977), Australian-born educator John Gwyn Jeffreys (1809–1885), British malacologist John R. F. Jeffreys (1918–1944), British mathematician Julius Jeffreys (1800–1877), British physician Paul Jeffreys (1952–1988), English rock musician and bassist Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (born 1942), British historian Robin Jeffreys (1890–1963), British Olympic fencer Sheila Jeffreys (born 1948), British-born political scientist, academic, & activist Stephen Jeffreys (1950–2018), British playwright See also [ edit ] Baron Jeffreys ,
52-909: A " eureka moment " in his lab in Leicester after looking at the X-ray film image of a DNA experiment on 10 September 1984, which unexpectedly showed both similarities and differences between the DNA of different members of his technician's family. Within about half an hour, he continued, he realised the possible scope of DNA fingerprinting, which uses variations in the genetic information to identify individuals. The method has become important in forensic science to assist police detective work, and it has also proved useful in resolving paternity and immigration disputes. The method can also be applied to non-human species, for example in wildlife population genetics studies. Before his methods were commercialised in 1987, his laboratory
78-463: A New Zealand soprano, was given the award in 2018 and Canadian author Margaret Atwood was given the award in 2019. Sebastian Coe , Baron Coe CH represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation . The insignia of the order is in the form of an oval medallion, surmounted by a royal crown (but, until recently, surmounted by an imperial crown ), and with a rectangular panel within, depicting on it an oak tree,
104-415: A foul smell throughout the house after he ruptured its intestines. Jeffreys was a pupil at Luton Grammar School and then Luton Sixth Form College . He won a scholarship to study at Merton College, Oxford on a four-year course, where he graduated in 1971 with first-class honours in biochemistry . Jeffreys completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree on the mitochondria of cultured mammalian cells, as
130-683: A major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time". The first recipients of the order were all decorated for "services in connection with the war " and were listed in The London Gazette . The order consists of the monarch of the Commonwealth realms, who is the Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and a maximum of 65 members. Additionally, foreigners or Commonwealth citizens from outside
156-498: A number of patents. When he was eight, his father gave him a chemistry set , which he enhanced over the next few years with extra chemicals, even including a small bottle of sulphuric acid . He says he liked making small explosions, but an accidental splash of the sulphuric acid caused a burn, which left a permanent scar on his chin (now under his beard). His father also bought him a Victorian-era brass microscope , which he used to examine biological specimens. At about 12, he made
182-592: A postgraduate student at the Genetics Laboratory at the University of Oxford. After finishing his doctorate, he moved to the University of Amsterdam , where he worked on mammalian genes as a research fellow, and then to the University of Leicester in 1977, where in 1984 he discovered a method of showing variations between individuals' DNA, inventing and developing genetic fingerprinting . Jeffreys says he had
208-541: A reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire . The order was originally intended to be conferred upon a limited number of persons for whom this special distinction seemed to be the most appropriate form of recognition, constituting an honour dissociated from either the acceptance of title or the classification of merit. It is now described as being "awarded for having
234-635: A shield with the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom hanging from one branch, and, on the left, a mounted knight in armour. The insignia's blue border bears in gold letters the motto IN ACTION FAITHFUL AND IN HONOUR CLEAR , Alexander Pope 's description (in iambic pentameter ) in his Epistle to Mr Addison of James Craggs the Younger , later used on Craggs's monument in Westminster Abbey . Men wear
260-416: A small dissecting kit (including a scalpel, crafted from a flattened pin) which he used to dissect a bumblebee , but he got into trouble with his parents when he progressed to dissecting a larger specimen. One Sunday morning he found a deceased cat on the road while doing his paper round and took it home in his bag. He relates that he started to dissect it on the dining room table before Sunday lunch, causing
286-749: A title in the English and UK peerages Jeffreys prior Jefferies (disambiguation) Jeffrey (disambiguation) Jefferys [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with the surname Jeffreys . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeffreys&oldid=1189172797 " Categories : Surnames English-language surnames Patronymic surnames Surnames from given names Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
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#1732852298538312-453: A youth club in the centre of Luton , Bedfordshire, before he became a university student, and they married on 28 August 1971. Jeffreys has one brother and one sister; he and his wife have two daughters, born in 1979 and 1983. Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms . It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as
338-590: Is Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester , and became an honorary freeman of the City of Leicester on 26 November 1992. In 1994, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to genetics. Jeffreys was born into a middle-class family in Oxford , where he spent the first six years of his life until 1956 when the family moved to Luton , Bedfordshire . He says he inherited his curiosity and inventiveness from his father and paternal grandfather, who held
364-421: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Alec Jeffreys Sir Alec John Jeffreys , CH FRS MAE (born 9 January 1950) is a British geneticist known for developing techniques for genetic fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used worldwide in forensic science to assist police detective work and to resolve paternity and immigration disputes. Jeffreys
390-635: Is told in Joseph Wambaugh 's 1989 best-selling book The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders and the murders and subsequent solving of the crimes was featured in Episode 4 of the first season of the 1996 American TV series Medical Detectives in which Jeffreys himself also appears. A further television mini-series based on these events was released in 2015, Code of a Killer . In 1992, Jeffreys's methods were used to confirm
416-484: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) opened up new approaches to forensic DNA testing, allowing automation, greatly increased sensitivity, and a move to alternative marker systems. The most commonly used markers are now variable microsatellites , also known as short tandem repeats (STRs), which Jeffreys first exploited in 1990 in the Mengele case. STR profiling was further refined by a team of scientists led by Peter Gill at
442-401: The Commonwealth realms may be added as honorary members. Members are organised into a single class and are appointed by the monarch of the Commonwealth realms in their capacity as sovereign of the order. While membership of the order confers no title or precedence , those inducted into the order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH . Appointments to the order are generally made on
468-754: The Forensic Science Service in the 1990s, allowing the launch of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) in 1995. With highly automated and sophisticated equipment, modern-day DNA profiling can process hundreds of samples each day. Sixteen microsatellites, plus a marker for sex determination, are used with the current system developed for the NDNAD, giving a discrimination power of one in over a billion. Under British law, anyone arrested in England, Wales or Northern Ireland has their DNA profile taken and stored on
494-756: The United Kingdom, seven for Australia, two for New Zealand, and nine for other Commonwealth realms. The quota was adjusted again in 1975 by adding two places to the New Zealand quota and reducing the nine for the other countries to seven. Whilst still able to nominate candidates to the order, the Cabinet of Australia has effectively stopped the allocation of this award to that country's citizens in preference to other Australian honours. The last Australian member, Doug Anthony , former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, died on 20 December 2020. Companions from other Commonwealth realms continue to be appointed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ,
520-526: The advice of prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms. For Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials. Originally, the order was limited to 50 ordinary members, but in 1943 it was enlarged to 65, with a quota of 45 members for the United Kingdom , seven for Australia , two each for New Zealand and South Africa , and nine for India , Burma , and the other British colonies . The quota numbers were altered in 1970 to 47 for
546-502: The database whether or not they are convicted (different rules apply in Scotland). The national database in 2020 contained the DNA information of about 5.6 million people. Jeffreys has opposed the current use of DNA profiling, where the government has access to that database, and has instead proposed a database of all people's DNA, access to which would be controlled by an independent third party. Jeffreys met his future wife, Sue Miles, in
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#1732852298538572-402: The identity for German prosecutors of the body of Josef Mengele , who had died in 1979, by comparing DNA obtained from a femur bone of his exhumed skeleton, with DNA from his mother and son, in a similar way to paternity testing. DNA profiling , based on typing individual highly variable minisatellites in the human genome , was also developed by Alec Jeffreys and his team in 1985, with
598-433: The term (DNA fingerprinting) being retained for the initial test that types many minisatellites simultaneously. By focusing on just a few of these highly variable minisatellites, DNA profiling made the system more sensitive, more reproducible and amenable to computer databases. It soon became the standard forensic DNA system used in criminal case work and paternity testing worldwide. The development of DNA amplification by
624-412: The two dead girls. This turned out to be a specifically important identification; British authorities believe that without it an innocent man would have inevitably been convicted. Not only did Jeffreys' work, in this case, prove who the real killer was, but it exonerated Richard Buckland, initially a prime suspect, who likely would have spent his life in prison otherwise. The story behind the investigations
650-592: Was closely related to the other members of the family, and Jeffreys saw the relief in the mother's face when she heard the results. DNA fingerprinting was first used in a police forensic test to identify the killer of two teenagers, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, who had been raped and murdered in Narborough, Leicestershire , in 1983 and 1986 respectively. Colin Pitchfork was identified and convicted of their murders after samples taken from him matched semen samples taken from
676-405: Was the only centre in the world that carried out DNA fingerprinting, and was consequently very busy, receiving inquiries from all over the globe. Jeffreys's DNA method was first put to use in 1985 when he was asked to help in a disputed immigration case to confirm the identity of a British boy whose family was originally from Ghana . The case was resolved when the DNA results proved that the boy
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