This week I wanted to change gears and talk a little bit about my research with Dr. Hughes-Stamm from the forensic department at SHSU, so let me know what you think!
Disaster victim identification (DVI) scenarios can result from man-made disasters (transportation vehicles, war, biological/chemical warfare) or natural disasters (floods, tsunamis, tornados and earthquakes), resulting in a high number of casualties in short periods of time. Forensic personnel can experience significant challenges when tasked with the identification of bodily remains from these disasters. The number of casualties, degree of impact, accessibility of bodies, lack of resources, electricity, and difficult environmental factors, such as remote terrain and hot climates, can all have a negative effect on the human identification process.
Traditional methods of identification include fingerprint, dental, skeletal and visual identification. However, these methods are often inadequate in mass disaster scenarios because bodies can become highly fragmented and/or decomposed, making it impossible to visually identify a person or take fingerprints. Most often in these situations, the only reliable method of identification is genetic profiling. One possible solution may be to preserve tissues in the field to stop the decomposition and DNA degradation without the need for refrigeration. A liquid preservative has the ability to lyse (break) the DNA and can promote leaching of the DNA into the solution. This technique can ultimately improve DNA typing methods by eliminating the need for digestion and extraction of DNA, which in many cases can be time consuming.
Disaster victim identification (DVI) scenarios can result from man-made disasters (transportation vehicles, war, biological/chemical warfare) or natural disasters (floods, tsunamis, tornados and earthquakes), resulting in a high number of casualties in short periods of time. Forensic personnel can experience significant challenges when tasked with the identification of bodily remains from these disasters. The number of casualties, degree of impact, accessibility of bodies, lack of resources, electricity, and difficult environmental factors, such as remote terrain and hot climates, can all have a negative effect on the human identification process.
Traditional methods of identification include fingerprint, dental, skeletal and visual identification. However, these methods are often inadequate in mass disaster scenarios because bodies can become highly fragmented and/or decomposed, making it impossible to visually identify a person or take fingerprints. Most often in these situations, the only reliable method of identification is genetic profiling. One possible solution may be to preserve tissues in the field to stop the decomposition and DNA degradation without the need for refrigeration. A liquid preservative has the ability to lyse (break) the DNA and can promote leaching of the DNA into the solution. This technique can ultimately improve DNA typing methods by eliminating the need for digestion and extraction of DNA, which in many cases can be time consuming.
So this is where my research comes in! I took skin
and muscle samples from human cadavers, provided by the Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science
Facility (STAFS), added different preservative solutions (buffers, commercial preservatives, salt solution, ect.), and incubated them at 35C for up to 6 weeks. DNA
extractions were performed on tissues samples and the surrounding fluid (preservative), followed by DNA quantitation (using qPCR) and genotyping (DNA profiling).
So what did the results look like? GREAT!! I found several solutions that were capable of preserving both the tissue and surrounding liquid preservative for up to 6 weeks. September 18th we received a National Institute of Justice grant based on my data/results so that we can continue to refine and enhance this technique. I will be presenting this research at the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) this year and cannot wait!
I did a blog this week on the article about this grant in the Forensic Science magazine! That's awesome to know that you were involved with this! Good luck with your future research and presentation!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
DeleteI'm just curious, since you guys are working on preserving DNA but are their any new methods out there that will enhance the time it takes to profile each DNA sample? I can just imagine the number of samples in that kind of situation due to the number of casualties
ReplyDeleteActually that is one of the benefits of using this method. Forensic personnel are faced with the daunting task of identifying hundreds of thousands of victims in these mass disasters, and without resources like refrigeration this can be very difficult. So we identified different preservative solutions that were capable of leeching the DNA from skin and muscle tissues, then extracted the DNA from the surrounding liquid. This step allows for much faster analysis and throughput time of samples.
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