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Workshop: Pedigrees and kinship analysis in forensic genetics

course-alcala2026.Rmd
  • Date: April 28–29, 2026
  • Where: Alcalá de Henares, Spain
  • Teachers: Magnus Dehli Vigeland & Thore Egeland

Description

The study of pedigrees and genetic relatedness is central in forensic genetics. The aim of this workshop is to introduce the statistical foundations of relatedness, and explore several forensic applications. In particular we focus on recent user-friendly apps, that make pedigree analysis more accessible to practitioners. These include QuickPed, KLINK and Diviana, which are all available as online tools.

Parts of the course is based on the book Pedigree Analysis in R (Vigeland ’21), which presents the pedsuite R packages underlying the mentioned apps.

Each day will alternate between lectures and hands-on exercises. Detailed solutions for all exercises are provided at the end of each day, and discussed as needed.

Learning outcome

After completing the course the participants will know:

  • Classical concepts of statistical genetics and relatedness analysis
  • How to create and analyse pedigrees with QuickPed
  • How to perform kinship testing in Familias and KLINK
  • How to perform disaster victim identification with Diviana

Prerequisites

  • Basic knowledge of genetics and probability
  • All participants should bring a laptop on which they have administrative rights
  • A recent version of R should be installed on your computer
  • We strongly recommend running R from RStudio

Schedule

The workshop is run over two days, 28th and 29th of April 2026, each day from 09:00 to 16:00. The following is a tentative schedule:

Day 1 (Tuesday, April 28) – Relatedness and kinship analysis

  • 09:00–10:00 Pedigrees and measures of relatedness (MDV)
  • 10:00–11:00 Exercises I. (Software: QuickPed)
  • 11:00–11.15 Coffee break
  • 11:15–12:15 Forensic kinship testing (TE)
  • 12:15–13:00 Exercises II. (Software: Familias + R)

    13:00–14:00 Lunch

  • 14:00–15:00 Kinship testing with linked markers (MDV)
  • 15:00–16:00 Exercises III. (Software: KLINK)

Day 2 (Wednesday, April 29) – Identification cases

  • 09:00–10:30 Disaster victim identification (TE)
  • 10:30–10.45 Coffee break
  • 10:45–12:00 Exercises IV. (Software: DIVIANA)
  • 12:00–13:00 Realised relatedness and IBD segments (MDV)

    13:00–14:00 Lunch

  • 14:00–15:00 Exercises III. (Software: ibdsim2)
  • 15:00–16:00 Case study: Identifying a victim of the Marcinelle mining disaster

Solutions to the exercises can be requested by email to magnusdv at gmail dot com.