Response to Lander’s response to the ANZFSS Council Statement on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Report

Recently, Eric Lander wrote to this journal 1 outlining the view of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) that empirical testing is required to ensure that the functioning of a technique is understood. We discuss this here only in the context of DNA profile interpretation and specifically with regard to the software STRmix. For clarity, STRmix is not a John Buckleton product, as could have been inferred from Lander’s letter, but is a joint venture between Forensic Science South Australia and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR, New Zealand). The developers initially were Duncan Taylor, Jo-Anne Bright and John Buckleton but it now contains input from a much wider group.