About Snipper

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Snipper papers
Reference set tools
Europe-East Asia-Africa-America-Oceania classification Black-intermediate-white skin classification Fair-dark or red-blond-brown-black hair classification Blue-greenhazel-brown eye classification 32 STR classification Europe-East Asia-Africa-America-Oceania Marker Panels Skin, Hair and Eye Marker Panels Download forensic MPS AIMs Panel Reference Population Sets
Custom set tools
Single profile classification Multiple profile classification Single profile haplotype classification Multiple profile haplotype classification Multiple profile general classification Classification using frequencies Population data analysis Offline tools Training/testing set design Snipper↔STRUCTURE file converter
Age tools
Blood, 7 CpGs, EpiTYPER (18-104 years) Blood, 7 CpGs, EpiTYPER (2-104 years) Semen, 3 CpGs, SNaPshot Tissue combined (blood & buccal & saliva), 5 CpGs, SNaPshot Blood, 5 CpGs, SNaPshot Buccal swab, 5 CpGs, SNaPshot Saliva, 5 CpGs, SNaPshot Saliva/Buccal swab, 7 CpGs, SNaPshot Cartilage, 3 CpGs, MiSeq
Tissue tool
Help
Snipper manual Excel input file generator Profile generator
About

About Snipper

The Snipper app suite in its current 4 version offers a smorgasbord of genetic markers, reference populations and prediction algorithms that allows the user flexibility and choice. Obviously, a prediction that is consistent over a range of markers, reference populations and prediction algorithms is going to be more reliable than one where there is no consensus. Snipper 4 allows the user to make such comparisons, using multi-allelic AIMs, including tri- and tetra-allelic SNPs, microhaplotypes, and markers that may have more than 4 alleles.

Below goes a list that records main changes to Snipper over time. We do not document minor revisions in detail as the Snipper suite has always been a work in progress where small improvements are introduced approximately every two weeks, based on feedback and various considerations.

Version 1 (2006)

Europe-East Asia-Africa-America-Oceania classification tool.
Population data analysis tool.

Version 1.5 (2007)

New custom Excel file profile classification tool.
New profile generator tool.
New Europe-East Asia-Africa-America-Oceania training sets.

Version 2 (2010)

Support for .xlsx Excel file format.
New multiple classification tool.
New frequency classifier tool.

Version 2.5 (2015)

New design training set tool.
New age prediction models.
Rewrite of Java applet (density plots) in R.
New skin, hair, and eye colour classifier tools.
Added Genetic Distance algoritm and MLR classifiers.
Added "using genotype frequencies" option to Naive Bayes classifier.
Added PCA graphics to multiple classifier.

Version 2.5b (2020)

New age prediction models.
New forensic MPS AIMs panel reference population sets.

Version 3 (2022)

New rewritten optimised classifiers.
Improved image resolution.
Improved training set design tool.
Anchor links in multiple classifier output for quicker navigation.
Updated AJAX interface.
New PCA graphics.
New 3D PCA graphics.
Microhaplotype support.
New header-clickable marker tables for provided training sets.
New downloadable offline code.
New age prediction models.
New and revised forensic MPS AIMs panel reference population sets.

Version 3b (February 2023)

New and revised forensic MPS AIMs panel reference population sets.
New tool to convert Snipper format to STRUCTURE format and back.

Version 3c (September 2023)

New age prediction model: cartilage, 3 CpGs, MiSeq.
New tissue prediction model: 8 CpGs, MiSeq.

Version 3.5 (March 2025)

New accessible colours for colour blind viewers in links.
New PCA graphs showing population centroids and centroid distances.
Numerous improvements to the frequencies-only classifier.
New faster implementations of age prediction tools.
Age and tissue prediction tools now show parameter ranges.

Version 4 (November 2025)

New site is HTML5-compliant and responsive, optimised for a better user interface experience on your computer, tablet, or mobile phone.
New revamped interface with menus and CSS.
Europe-East Asia-Africa-America-Oceania Marker Panels are now provided in a single page that can be printed or stored for reference. So are Skin, Hair and Eye Marker Panels.
PCA or MCA images, as well as likelihood plots, are now included in output documents, so that you can save self-contained report files.
New faster implementation of reading and writing file routines.
New updated classifiers.
New calculation engine capable of dealing with up to 10,000 markers.
Enhancements to the profile creating tool.
New general classifying tool allowing to process markers with more than 4 alleles.