Advances in the research of predicting the time since deposition of evidentiary stains / 中国法医学杂志

In addition to obtaining DNA-STR typing of an evidentiary stain for individual identification and paternity tests, knowing the time since deposition (TSD) is also highly desired in forensics. To provide a reference for the research of predicting the TSD, this article reviews the reported optical, cell biological and molecular biological methods of determining the age of bloodstains domestic and overseas, and also introduces the application of microbial forensics, a new field of forensic science, to provide space-time clues of evidentiary stains.

Microbial forensics: An upcoming investigative discipline.

Microorganisms make good weapons and bioterorism has been known to exist since centuries. This has most recently been highlighted by the terrorist attack using anthrax in the fall of 2001 in U.S. Although such attacks of bioterrorism are few, forensic evidence to criminally prosecute the perpetrator is necessary. To strengthen defence against bio crimes, a comprehensive technological network involving various fields needs to be developed. Microbial forensics is one such new discipline combining microbiology and forensic science. It uses advanced molecular techniques like microarray analysis and DNA fingerprinting etc. to associate the source of the causative agent with a specific individual or group by measuring variations between related strains. High quality assurance and quality control standards for microbial forensics will ensure highly reliable results that will stand up in the court of law. The more precise and refined a microbial system becomes, the more proper guidelines for investigations will be defined. An integrated approach towards developing this field of microbial forensics needs to be followed, to meet the challenges of bioterrorism more effectively.

Microbial forensics: a new forensic discipline.

In microbial forensics, researchers work to track down the source of a microbe, whether in a criminal investigation of bioterrorism attacks or a study of naturally occurring disease outbreak. It is interplay of classical microbiology, microbial genomics, phylogenetics and bioinformatics. Although microbes have been used as weapons for centuries, the anthrax letter attacks of 2001 generated great terror in the public and revealed the need to establish "attribution." The benefit is that it might deter at least some potential terrorists and also help in tracing natural outbreaks of disease. Microbial forensic data must hold up not only to the scrutiny of scientists in the health care community, but also to the scrutiny of judges and juries and national policy and decision makers. It poses a great challenge to develop newer techniques as the present techniques like gene sequencing, hybridization, microarray, spectrophotometry, PCR etc. are inadequate. A national microbial forensics plan needs to be developed.