Alumni College speaker Dan Krane

Dan E. Krane is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio where he has been a faculty member since 1993 and where he currently serves as the President of the Faculty. He also serves as the chair of the Ohio Faculty Council which represents the faculty at all 13 of the four-year public universities in Ohio and has been named a fellow of the American Council of Education.  He graduated with a Bachelor's degree for a double major in Biology and Chemistry from John Carroll University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Cell and Molecular Biology Department at the Pennsylvania State University in 1990. He has also done post-doctoral studies in the Genetics Department of the Washington University's Medical School and in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

He has published over fifty peer-reviewed papers in the areas of population genetics and molecular evolution and is the lead author of the best selling undergraduate textbook in the field of bioinformatics ("Fundamental Concepts in Bioinformatics"). His research group has developed techniques that allow quick and precise measurement of the amount of genetic diversity that populations harbor at the molecular level. Many of his publications are directly related to forensic DNA testing, particularly in the areas of using DNA profiles to generate investigative leads (i.e. familial searching) and increasing the objectivity and sensitivity of current DNA typing methodologies. He has testified in more than 100 criminal cases (in more than 23 different states as well as in Australia, in Belfast Crown Court, in Oxford Crown Court and in the Central Criminal Court of London – also known as the "Old Bailey") since 1991 as an expert for both the prosecution and defense in the areas of population genetics, molecular biology and bioinformatics.

Krane is also the president and a co-founder of Forensic Bioinformatic Services, Inc (www.bioforensics.com) where he has overseen the development and implementation of software designed to automatically and objectively review STR DNA testing results. Two different governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia have appointed him to Virginia's Scientific Advisory Committee – a blue-ribbon panel of 12 experts that oversees the policies and practices of Virginia's full-service Department of Forensic Science. In that capacity he has chaired the Virginia's subcommittees on familial searching and Y-STR validation and testing protocols.