Serology, forensic

Forensic science laboratories are generally divided into separate specialty areas. These typically include forensic toxicology, soHd-dose dmg testing, forensic serology, trace evidence analysis, firearms and tool mark examination, questioned documents examination, and latent fingerprint examination. Laboratories principally employ chemists, biochemists, and biologists at various degree levels. In some specialty areas, eg, firearms examination, questioned... 

Forensic Serology. Blood, often associated with crimes of violence, is powerfiil physical evidence. Its presence suggests association with the criminal act and blood can be used to associate suspects and locations with the bleeder. Blood is a complex mixture of cellular material, proteins, and enzymes and several tests are available for suspected bloody evidence. A typical test protocol involves (/) determining whether blood is present, (2) determining if it is human blood, (J) typing the blood, and (4) when appHcable, performing DNA typing. 

R. E. Gaensslen, Sourcebook in Forensic Serology, Immunology andBiochemisty, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1983. 

Blood and bloodstain analysis. The Aerospace Corporation has completed a survey and technical assessment of the state-of-the-art of forensic serological practices in the United States. Problems have been defined which currently limit the utilization of blood characterization techniques, and approaches have been identified which have the potential of solving these problems. This assessment was accomplished primarily through contacts with criminalistics laboratories, blood banks, industrial organizations which manufacture instrumentation and reagents for blood identification, and through an extensive search of the literature. 

From what has been learned over the past year during this assessment phase, The Aerospace Corporation and its subcontractors will be concentrating now on the development of better blood identification methodologies. Improved immunological and electrophoretic methods, as well as combinations of these and other new methods, are being explored for application to the forensic serology problem. Other new blood systems with even higher discrimination capabilities are known but have yet to be adapted for use with dried blood. 

The goal of forensic serology is to individualize blood stains by identifying genetic markers whose population frequencies have been established. 

In conclusion, forensic serology has made great advances during the past 2-3 years and the next few years promise to be even more worthwhile. Since blood is so complex, it presents so many avenues for investigation that it will continue to be a fertile area for meaningful forensic research. 

In a previous review on the applications of isoelectric focusing in forensic serology by Murch and Budowle ULPAGIF for typing the... 

Isoelectric focusing, particularly ULPAGIF, offers advantages over previous electrophoretic methods used in forensic serology. These include increased resolution of protein bands, increased sensitivity of detection, the possibility of subtyping existing phenotypes, the counteraction of diffusion effects, reduction of time of analysis, and reduced cost. 

Capillary Electrophoresis Slab-gel techniques were used in forensic serology until the late 1980s to separate and detect polymorphic serum proteins found in blood and body fluids. Around the time that DNA began to supplant traditional blood group typing in forensic serology, capillary electrophoresis (CE) was introduced to separate small molecules. Ironically, by the turn of the century, CE-based instruments dominated DNA typing. 

Restricted electives provide the student with a measure of flexibility to reflect a special interest (e.g., serological individualization of body fluids) or a special area of forensic science (e.g., toxicology). 

Morphological, serological, and chemical examination of human hair for forensic and medical purposes was initiated several years ago. A single hiunan hair is sometimes the only remnant at the scene of a crime. In many cases, it serves to confirm or exclude a possible suspect. 

Serologic tests are not helpful in suspected outbreaks of tularemia. Serum antibody levels typically reach diagnostic levels 10 or more days after illness onset, far too late for identifying or managing an outbreak. However, serologic studies may be useful for forensic or epidemiologic purposes. Most laboratory tests detect... 

Widely used fiuorophore. Finds use in microscopy, as a laser dye in forensics and serology to detect latent blood stains, and in dye tracing. When substituted with reactive groups can be used to covalently label proteins. The excitation maximum (494 nm) is conveniently close to the spectral line of the argon-ion laser (488 nm) which makes fiuorescein an important fiuorophore for confocal scanning laser microscopy [123]. A common donor for FRET applications. 

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