法医学研究前沿之一是案件现场检材的族源推断。用生物检材中发现的信息缩小嫌疑人范围，指导案件调查至关重要。祖先信息标记（AIM）的提出为此问题的解决带来了福音，通过AIM可以分析个体的生物地域来源或揭示多种地域起源所占组分。我们首次将含有两个以上紧密相邻的InDel设计为一种新遗传标记，称为多重插入缺失（Multi-InDel）。本课题旨在以我们提出的Multi-InDel为基础，开展Multi-InDel作为新型祖先信息标记（AIM）的法医学探索研究，包括：1) 全基因组探索和寻找适合作为祖先信息标记的Multi-InDel。2) 阐明AIM-Multi-InDel在人类不同群体的分布和非洲、欧洲、亚洲群体结构以及我国不同民族、地区人群的亚群结构。3) 建立基于新的AIM-Multi-InDel的分析体系，为追溯个体的生物地域来源提供新信息，为法医生物检材个体地域来源或族源推断提供新技术。

One of the cutting-edge of science research for forensic genetics is to infer ethnic origin or bio-geographical ancestry of DNA samples in the scene of a crime. It is important to guide crime investigation. Ancestry informative markers (AIMs) are receiving attention from the forensic genetics because individuals can be assigned to their population or territory of origin based on their analysis. Recently, two to three InDel loci that were very tightly linked in physical position were combined into a specific multi-InDel marker (Multi- InDel) was developed by us. The aims of this project are exploring Multi-InDels as novel ancestry information markers for forensic genetics, including: 1) To explore new Multi-InDels in whole genome as candidates of AIMs. 2) To clarify not only the population structure of Africans, Europeans and Asians but also the substructure of different Chinese ethnic or geographical populations based on AIM-Multi-InDels. 3) To develop novel panel based on new AIM-Multi-InDels to infer ethnic origin or bio-geographical ancestry of DNA samples for forensic purpose.