You are kindly invited to the Meet the jury lecture on ‘Cold case 1833: DNA and the mystery of Kaspar Hauser’ (Prof. Walther Parson) and ‘A cold case inverstigation into the human repetitive (epi)genome’ (Assoc. prof. Athina Vidaki).
Date: 15 October 2026, 13h00-14h30
Venue: Auditorium ON 4 (04.0330), ON 4, Campus Gasthuisberg
Lecture 1:Cold Case 1833: DNA and the Mystery of Kaspar Hauser
Forensic genetics has transformed the investigation of crime, identity and biological relationships by allowing increasingly informative genetic profiles to be obtained from minute and highly degraded biological traces. The mysterious case of Kaspar Hauser provides an illustrative example of both the power and the limitations of DNA analysis. Hauser appeared in Nuremberg in 1828 with an unknown identity, and speculation that he was the kidnapped hereditary Prince of Baden persisted for almost two centuries. Earlier genetic investigations produced conflicting results and left the case unanswered.
Modern massively parallel sequencing and DNA-capture approaches helped resolve this controversy by confirming earlier results obtained from a bloodstain on underwear that Hauser was supposedly wearing when he suffered the stab wound from which he later died in 1833. In an independent set of experiments, we also provide a possible explanation for the conflicting results previously obtained from hair samples.
The Kaspar Hauser investigation illustrates fundamental principles of forensic genetics: the identification and authentication of biological material, comparison with reference samples, statistical evaluation of genetic evidence, and the importance of technological advances for recovering information from challenging traces. At the same time, it demonstrates an equally important principle: DNA can answer specific questions with considerable power, but it does not necessarily reveal the complete story. While genetics can now exclude Kaspar Hauser’s alleged noble origin, his true identity remains unknown.
About the speaker
Walther Parson is a forensic geneticist at the Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, and Adjunct Professor at Penn State University, USA. His research focuses on the development and application of genetic methods for human identification, with a particular interest in mitochondrial DNA and challenging biological samples. Together with his team, he developed and curates the forensic mitochondrial DNA database EMPOP. He has contributed to international human identification efforts and to genetic investigations of historical individuals, including the Romanov family, Friedrich Schiller and Kaspar Hauser. Walther currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Forensic Science International: Genetics and Secretary of the International Society for Forensic Genetics.
Lecture 2: A cold case investigation into the human repetitive (epi)genome
Repetitive DNA constitutes a major and highly polymorphic component of the human genome, yet remains underrepresented in human (epi)genetics research. This is largely due to the limitations of short-read sequencing for resolving long, complex and repeat-rich loci. In the UNIQUE project, we investigate whether tandem and interspersed repeats represent a quantitative layer of human (epi)genomic individuality, with relevance for phenotype inference, gene regulation and forensic genetics. First, we implemented Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) whole-genome sequencing and developed ECHO, a reproducible Snakemake-based workflow for haplotype-aware profiling of sequence variation and DNA methylation, including tandem repeats and transposable elements. Using benchmark datasets, ECHO robustly generated integrated (epi)genomic profiles across diverse repetitive loci. Currently, we are generating ONT whole-genome data for the UNIQUE cohort, spanning unrelated individuals and monozygotic twins, with ongoing expansion across tissues, including blood, buccal cells and sperm, and phenotypes such as ageing and smoking. To date, sperm data from 20 males of diverse ages have revealed cell-type-specific methylation landscapes, structural and repeat-associated variation, and CpG-containing short tandem repeats with allelic and bimodal methylation distributions. In parallel, blood data from four monozygotic twin pairs have revealed candidate twin-discriminating SNPs, structural variants, methylation differences and repeat-associated variants, including putative transposable element insertions with allele-specific or mosaic patterns. Together, these findings show that long-read repeatomics can uncover previously hidden (epi)genomic variation in repetitive DNA. UNIQUE provides a framework to study how repeat-associated variation differs between individuals, tissues and phenotypes, and contribute to applications in individual (epi)genomics, i.e. precision medicine and forensics.
About the speaker
Athina Vidaki is an associate professor of individual and forensic (epi)genomics at Maastricht University and Maastricht UMC+ in the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD in forensic genetics from King’s College London and completed her postdoctoral research at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. Since 2021, she has led a multidisciplinary research group exploring how the (epi)genome contributes to human individuality, at the intersection of epigenomics, forensic genetics and technological innovation. Her research develops novel approaches to extract information beyond the traditional DNA profile, including tissue and cell-type identity, biological age and other personal traits. More fundamentally, her current research focuses on exploring the largely uncharted landscape, variability and translational potential of the repetitive (epi)genome. She is also passionate about translating molecular discoveries and emerging technologies into robust applications for forensic investigations. She currently coordinates a Horizon Europe consortium developing microfluidics and single-cell genomics approaches to tackle sexual violence, while establishing a new forensic DNA casework laboratory at Maastricht UMC+.
Contact info: kristina<dot>fokias<at>kuleuven<dot>be
