Patent ID: 8412463

Claim:
A method of identifying an unknown biological specimen as likely related to a family comprising at least a first and a second family member, comprising steps of: (a) comparing via a computer processor a first DNA profile from a first biological specimen to a second DNA profile from a second biological specimen, wherein the first biological specimen is unknown and the second biological specimen is either known or unknown; (b) calculating a likelihood function value via the computer processor that the first and the second biological specimens are genetically related; (c) using the calculated likelihood function value to determine whether a hypothetical relationship between the first biological specimen and the second biological specimen should be recorded in memory of the computer processor responsive to the calculated likelihood function value exceeding a threshold value; (d) creating a first directed graph comprising a first node representing the first biological specimen, a second node representing the second biological specimen, and an edge which records a hypothetical genetic relationship between the first and the second biological specimens responsive to the calculated likelihood function value exceeding the threshold value; (e) comparing the first directed graph to a structure and information of a second directed graph, wherein the second directed graph represents a structure of a genetic relationship between the first and second members of the family and the information comprises a DNA profile of one of the first and the second family members; (f) identifying and recording the first unknown biological specimen as likely related to the second biological specimen in memory by the calculated likelihood function value exceeding the threshold value and (g) outputting that the first biological specimen is genetically related to the family responsive to at least a portion of the structure of the first directed graph corresponding to the structure and information of the second directed graph.