(MENAFN) A team of European researchers, including specialists from Poland’s Jagiellonian University and the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Police in Warsaw, has contributed to developing a groundbreaking forensic tool capable of predicting a person’s age and other traits from DNA with impressive accuracy, according to reports.

The initiative, known as VISAGE (Visible Attributes through Genomics), brought together experts from over a dozen institutions across Europe. Dr. Ewelina Pospiech, a professor at Poland’s Pomeranian Medical University and former Jagiellonian University researcher, called the project a “major success for Poland.” She added, “The tool it generated is currently being tested and validated worldwide. This is truly a significant achievement.”

Pospiech explained that the project’s goal was to create methods capable of predicting human characteristics, including appearance, biogeographical origin, and age, with a high degree of precision based on DNA. The breakthrough relies on DNA methylation, a chemical process in which methyl groups are added to DNA strands to modify gene activity—a process that naturally changes with age.

While similar approaches have been in use since 2011, Pospiech noted that they are not always effective in police investigations due to the small or degraded nature of biological samples. The VISAGE project has refined these methods using laboratory and software analyses, producing a model that can estimate a person’s age with a margin of error of three years or less.

“The more precisely the age of the person from whom the sample originates can be determined, the more the pool of suspects is narrowed,” Pospiech said, highlighting the tool’s potential to enhance forensic investigations.

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