Department of Genetics and Evolution, Jagiellonian University Krakow

Department of Genetics and Evolution, Jagiellonian University Krakow
Gronostajowa 9
30-387 Krakow
Poland

http://www.uj.edu.pl/en_GB

Scientific Lead

Ass. Prof. Wojciech Branicki
Phone: +48 (0) 124228755
Fax: +48 (0) 126645101

Contact

PubMed
ResearchGate

 

Project Staff

PhD Tomasz Kupiec
+48124228755
+48124223850

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Institute Presentation

The Jagiellonian University (JU) and the Institute of Forensic Research in Krakow (IFR) have a long tradition of cooperation. Common activities include both educational and scientific tasks. Institutions formally declared collaboration in the field of chemistry, biology, psychology and criminalistics. Wojciech Branicki is a researcher in the Department of Genetics and Evolution at the JU and DNA expert in the IFR. He is interested in development of new molecular methods and their application in forensic sciences. He has contributed to several projects in basic population genetics and phylogeography investigating various model organisms. Currently his main area of interest is development of genetic markers applied for prediction of human visible traits. The common research project of JU/IFR concerning pigmentation provided evidence that the genes HERC2 and OCA2 constitute the best known predictors of iris colour, defined most relevant SNPs within MC1R involved in determination of red hair colour and contributed to a research which led to selection of DNA variants which enable accurate model based prediction of hair colour. Research carried out in Kraków implies exploration of a role of epistasis in determination of complex traits and significance of gene-gene interactions for genetic prediction of phenotype. We also evaluate various prediction models including logistic regression and Bayesian approach and their use in forensic genetics. Other physical traits under stady include androgenetic alopecia and hair morphology.

IFR and JU apart from joint project concerning determination of visible traits in humans continue research in other areas like development of new markers for species identification, population genetics and application of Bayesian networks for evidence evaluation in forensic sciences. Epigenetics, particularly DNA methylation represent one of main areas of research presently conducted in the Department of Genetics and Evolution of JU.