Kin-X: A Software System for Rapid and Distant Kinship Inference and Automated Pedigree Reconstruction

The goal of the proposed project is to create Kin-X, a novel software system to generate both rapid and deep intelligence from a wide variety of DNA types by inferring distant kinship relationships between individuals and reconstructing familial pedigrees. Kinship inference and pedigree reconstruction are both computationally intensive processes, and our proposed system is designed to achieve both stringency and efficiency in a large-scale, distributed database while also handling the fact that different data types will be available from different individuals. Such a system will have significant utility for any analytical group seeking a way to generate connections among individuals from DNA, such as the intelligence, law enforcement, and defense communities. The proposed work will build on the proposing team’s extensive forensic casework experience and existing kinship inference tools, pedigree reconstruction algorithms, and forensic DNA analysis software. In Phase I, we designed the Kin-X system architecture, demonstrated proofs-of-concept for rapid and deep kinship, and enhanced our existing pedigree reconstruction capability to handle multiple DNA marker types.  In Phase II, we will develop the software platform and significantly advance the DNA profile generation, kinship, and pedigree reconstruction capabilities, ensure their applicability to challenging forensic samples and validate their performance.