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Forensic Biotechnology

Forensic Biotechnology is a discipline or sub genre of Forensic science, where the use of technology that uses or manipulates biological systems in order to provide evidence for use in conjunction with legal activity or the law. This discipline is new to Forensics and is continuously growing as technology continues to advance. Biotechnology has grown the field of forensics by processes' like Polymerase chain reaction, DNA Fingerprinting, Microarray analysis, Whole genome sequencing, 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and High throughput sequencing (Massive parallel sequencing).

Forensic biotechnology applications are often thought about when it comes to blood and bodily fluids. The techniques, however, can also be helpful in Forensic Microbiology applications. Microbes can give insight on forensic investigation by providing information on cause of death, time of death, identification, and place of death, all of which are aided by biotechnology applications.

Drowning deaths have been given insight by forensic microbiology and biotechnology applications. This is done using 16S rRNA sequencing or MPS (Massive parallel sequencing) of the microbes inhabiting certain locations on the body (lungs, blood, and closed organs). Those associated with drowning deaths will have specific microbes inhabiting that area that has found to be significant and persistent compared to that of a death not involved in drowning.

SIDS (Sudden infant death syndrome) has recently been discovered to be associated with microbes and infections with viruses or bacteria resulting in a high concentration of endotoxins. Microorganisms usually associated with SIDS includes Herpes simplex virus, Epstein–Barr virus, Bordetella pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and others. Legal investigation is often associated with SIDS being that it is often mistaken for Shaken baby syndrome (SBS). The presence of these microbes at the time of autopsy can help move a legal investigation away from legal charges. The ability to perform serological tests and PCR at the time of autopsy can provide evidence of these microbes. The direction of this is heading more towards uses of MPS for identification of the microbial assay at autopsy.

Currently insects are the main focus for Post-mortem interval (PMI) when looking at death investigations. However, with the growth of technology there is a move to start taking PMI into account from the succession of microbes on a decaying carcass. This information would be provided via the use of MPS.

The human skin microbiome is a significant marker of identification as each person has their own unique colonization of microbes. Since the skin of a person can be transferred on to objects their skin has had contact with it is possible and a future step for forensics to be able to identify and type skin microbes as a fingerprint. This can allow forensic investigators to link someone to evidence or a crime scene due to the presence of their unique microbiome. This technique can be done with the use of MPS to determine the fingerprint and to compare it to the collected sample.

Hair is evidence that is often found at crime scenes but often useless due to it lacking the root which contains the DNA. Instead, the field is shifting to look at the microbial fingerprint present on the hair, similar to the skin microbiome, the hair microbiome is also unique and individualizing, allowing to be useful in identification of forensic applications. These microbes can be identified and configured using MPS.

The soil is a good marker for microbial fingerprints for use in forensics. By using Next- Generation sequencing (MPS) of the 16s rRNA gene of microbial compositions of soils, the fingerprint for soils was created. Each soil sample/ lotion was shown to have specific identities in the composition of microbes present. By determining which microbes are present in which soil locations there is the ability to type evidence or suspects and link them back to the scene of a crime. It was noted that using more than one bacterial analysis technique would be beneficial to forensic applications. One problem of the use of soil is that out of context of the site of origin the soil microbe fingerprint would begin to change. However, the soil microbe samples shown to age in the same way, so if a shovel used for digging in soil was stored in a trunk for a week and then sequenced via MPS and then another shovel digging in the same area of soil was then stored in the same conditions in a trunk for a week also then sequenced, would exhibit a similar change in microbial composition that was similar and significant enough to still be able to link that shovel back to the original soil source, therefore still making the soil microbiome fingerprint a useful tool for forensics.