USE OF MICROBIOMES AS A TOOL IN FORENSIC SCIENCE.
For more than a century, as a part of physical evidence microbes were been used. Specifically in parts of clandestine graves location, PMIs estimation, and location of pieces of trace evidence like the skin and soil. In forensic science, for the microbiome technologies, there are many new opportunities due to several advances. For the criminal justice systems, improving the ability to predict has a high potential where the metabolomic information and integration of microbiomes so as to decrease the error rates which is the main key for the new methods to be established. Technologies that allow and also help us to collect pieces of information as quickly as possible, models which are built generalized, and algorithms that are sophisticated machine learning must be with high technologies and also of low cos
Present for over a century, it is noted that microbes are present at the scenes of every crime and are always used as a piece of physical evidence. Innovations in Incorporating microbiome and metabolomic data, in particular, offer great potential for enhancing microbial forensics. Pathogens have long been recognized as significant in domains like pharmacy, ecology, and fermentation research, but forensic scientists have mostly overlooked them. Bacteria, in particular, can have an impact on forensic investigations. Humans have an incredibly diverse microbiome,’ which may be beneficial in detecting nationality, the nation of birth, postmortem periods, and individual identity. Recent breakthroughs in the study of complex microbial populations (microbiome) have led to scientific discoveries in the application of microbiome approaches to digital forensics, especially in the development of forecasting post-mortem interval training (PMIs), trying to locate decomposing bodies, and trying to obtain soil and epidermis trace evidence. Low-cost, high-throughput technologies enable us to swiftly collect molecular data and apply advanced machine-learning
algorithms to create generalizable predictive models for application in the criminal justice system. Incorporating microbiome and metabolomics data, in particular, holds a lot of promise for advancing
microbial forensics.
Microbes are microscopic observers of our lives. The possibility of someone using human and ecological microbial data in the investigative toolbox has broadened the options for examining a scene of the crime, the decomposing of a patient’s psyche, human smuggling, and other scenarios, as well as offering substantial new potential. When DNA evidence is insufficient, it is plausible to foresee a future where microbiome samples collected at a crime scene can be utilized as evidence for where a perpetrator had been most recently, the ethnicity, or genealogical origin of the victim. Microbiomes linked to human trafficking, contraband, drugs, and other crimes could have been used to determine who was engaged in a crime. Microbiomes and their related metabolites can now be used in the criminal system because of recent breakthroughs in genetic and computational approaches. Importantly, current large-scale efforts to incorporate microbial, metabolic engineering, and other genomics research will increase their forensic science potential.
References:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28366290/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167779917300550
http://advancesinlifesciencesjournal.com/upload/03-10172_(Ajay_Kumar)_REVIEW_PA.pdf
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/microbiome-tools-forensic-science
https://www.researchtrend.net/ijet/pdf/Advances%20in%20Human%20Microbiome%20as%20an%20
Emerging%20Tool%20in%20Forensics%20Mayssa%20Hachem%202381%20REVISEDj6.pdf
https://read.qxmd.com/read/28366290/microbiome-tools-for-forensic-science
– By: ANCY GEORGE.