2018 R&D
Just Genetic Marker Linkages
In the sixth episode of the 2018 R&D Season, Just Science speaks with Dr. Michael Edge of UC Davis about his research with record linkage of CODIS profiles with SNP genotypes.
Can you tell if a set of CODIS markers and a set of SNP genotypes match the same person? Just science discusses with Doc the possibilities of linkages between CODIS and SNPs databases for identity and familial matching, and dispel preconceptions associated with them.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
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Michael “Doc” Edge is a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, where he studies population genetics and quantitative genetics. He is the first author of a recent study on LD-based genetic record linkage (Edge et al., 2017, PNAS), which he conducted while completing a PhD with Noah Rosenberg at Stanford University.
Additional Resources:
Dr. Edge’s 2018 NIJ R&D archive presentation recorded at AAFS
FORENSIC DNA: THE BEGINNING OF THE SNP ERA WEBINAR SERIES
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Just Speak into the Microbe-phone
Just Portable Mass Spectrometer Possibilities
In the fifth episode of the NIJ R&D Season, Just Science speaks with Dr. Jamie Wieland and Dr. Christopher Mulligan of Illinois State University about assessing the impact of implementing portable mass spectrometers for on-site drug evidence processing. Listen along as Just Science explores cross-disciplinary research to determine the analytical, legal, and fiscal impacts of adopting drug screening protocols using portable mass spectrometers in the field.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
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You can also find us on Stitcher or Soundcloud
Jamie R. Wieland is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods at Illinois State University. Dr. Wieland obtained her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University. Her research interests lie in the development and application of statistical methods and probability models for policy and decision analysis, with an expertise in Monte Carlo simulation. Previous publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, and the Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry. Dr. Wieland’s current research involves assessing the operational and economic impact of portable technologies used for on-site analysis of forensic evidence during crime scene investigation processes. This cross-disciplinary project has been funded by the National Institute of Justice (Award Nos. 2015-IJ-CX-K011 and 2017-R2-CX-0022) and was recently featured in the Chicago Tribune.
Christopher Mulligan’s group at Illinois State University develops portable, instrument-based solutions to forensic and environmental monitoring applications. Their current project, ‘Portable MS Systems Featuring Interchangeable, Ambient Ionization Sources for Crime Scene and Law Enforcement Applications.’ seek to provide police practitioners with simple, rugged instrumentation for routine forensic evidence processing in the field.
Additional Resources:
Dr. Wieland’s 2018 NIJ R&D archive presentation recorded at AAFS
Other Podcasts:
Just Field Identification Drug Officer
Just Budgets
Just a Whole-Body CT Image Database
In episode four of the 2018 NIJ R&D Season, Just Science speaks with Dr. Shamsi Berry, from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, about her research with standardizing a large-scale, whole-body CT image database.
In 2010 the Office of the Medical Investigator for New Mexico was awarded an NIJ grant where they did high-resolution whole-body CT scans. Fast forward six years later where another NIJ grant was awarded to create a free-access Decedent CT Database from those whole body CTs. There will be over 15,000 autopsies that captures key data and whole-body CT images, which will be an invaluable resource to forensic researchers when it releases in late 2018.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
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You can also find us on Stitcher or Soundcloud
Dr. Shamsi Daneshvari Berry is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Informatics and Information Management. She is also a biomedical informatics consultant, standardizing and building databases. She received her PhD in Anthropology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Informatics. Dr.Daneshvari Berry’s dissertation focused on determining body mass from skeletal remains to aid in forensic identification and identify social stratification. Her current research focuses on using data collected from medical examiners to improve the health of the living.
Additional Resources:
Dr. Berry’s 2018 NIJ R&D archive presentation recorded at AAFS
Other Podcasts:
Just the State of Pathology
Just Postmortem Interval Estimation Research
Just Dry Bones
Just Skin Microbiomes as Evidence
In the third episode of the 2018 NIJ R&D Season, Just Science speaks with Dr. David Carter, Director and Associate Professor of Forensic Sciences at Chaminade University of Honolulu, about his research, “Evaluating the Skin Microbiome as Trace Evidence on Common Surface Types.”
Microbiome trace evidence samples can be tracked back to individuals with high accuracy and used to narrow pools of suspects even when multiple people have touched a surface. The potential for microorganisms to reveal whether a particular person has touched an object is substantial. Listen along as Dr. Morgan and Dr. Carter discuss the implications of these findings as they apply to forensic science.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
Listen/Download at:
You can also find us on Stitcher or Soundcloud
Dr. David O. Carter is Director and Associate Professor of Forensic Sciences at Chaminade University of Honolulu. He also serves as Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Forensic Taphonomy. His primary research interest is the decomposition of human remains, particularly in tropical environments. Current research projects focus on the structure and function of antemortem and postmortem microbial communities: using microbiomes as spatial and temporal evidence. He is interested in understanding the relationships between decomposing remains, microbial communities, and the environment. Dr. Carter’s ultimate goal is to get quality science and technology in the hands of first responders and investigators.
Dr. Carter is an active member of the forensic science community with a significant interest in undergraduate education. He is a Fellow in the Pathology/Biology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and has recently served as Secretary for the Pathology/Biology Section. Dr. Carter also serves on the Medicolegal Death Investigation Subcommittee in the Organization of Scientific Area Committees, a joint endeavor between the US Department of Justice and US Department of Commerce. He incorporates these experience into undergraduate education where he plays an active role in curriculum development, assessment, academic advising, and recruiting.
Additional Resources:
Dr. Carter’s 2018 NIJ R&D archive presentation recorded at AAFS
Other Podcasts:
Just the State of Pathology
Just Postmortem Interval Estimation Research
Just Dry Bones
Just Microhaps Perhaps
In the second episode of our new R&D Season, Just Science host Dr. John Morgan speaks with human population geneticist Dr. Kenneth Kidd, Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University.
With the advent of massively parallel sequencing, microhaplotypes have become a valuable new type of DNA marker for use in forensics. These markers have great potential through MPS not only because their statistical power can greatly exceed that of standard forensic markers typed by capillary electrophoresis, but because they are also excellent at quantifying biologic relationships without having to worry about the high mutation rates.
Listen to the discussion surrounding microhaplotypes, from the history of mapping the human genome and the evolution of population genetics, to the implications on forensics that new research in this field is providing.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
Listen/Download at:
You can also find us on Stitcher or Soundcloud
Kenneth K. Kidd, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University, is a human population geneticist. He has published over 550 scientific papers on a variety of subjects before and during his 44-year career at Yale. His research has included medical genetics, gene mapping, database design, pharmacogenetics, and a variety of molecular methodologies. His long-standing interest in human population genetics has been combined with his laboratory’s expertise in molecular technology to examine human genome diversity at the DNA level. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s his expertise in both population and molecular genetics provided helpful expert testimony in getting DNA accepted in the courts. After serving on the advisory panels for DNA identification of victims of the World Trade Center Attack and of Hurricane Katrina, he began research in his lab on panels of single nucleotide polymorphisms for various uses in forensics as an extension of his active research on human genetic diversity. His lab is now very active in identifying SNPs useful in forensics and in using bioinformatics to make the data available and useful. His group designed and maintains ALFRED, the large ALlele FREquency Database, and is actively enhancing FROGkb, the Forensic Reference/Resource on Genetics knowledge base. Since 2013 he has also been recognized for his development of microhaplotypes as a new type of forensic marker suited for the coming transition from capillary electrophoresis to massively parallel sequencing as a common method in forensic practice.
Additional Resources:
Dr. Kidd’s 2018 NIJ R&D archive presentation recorded at AAFS
The redesigned Forensic Research/Reference on Genetics-knowledge base, FROG-kb
Forensic DNA: The Beginning of the SNP Era Webinar Series
Just Speak into the Microbe-phone
In the first episode of our new R&D Season, Just Science host Dr. John Morgan speaks with Dr. Bruce Budowle, the Executive Director of the Institute of Applied Genetics and Professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
Did you know that if you swab a 1cm square area of skin you’ll recover up to ten thousand bacterial cells? Microbiome profiling for forensic identification complements partial or inconclusive STR profiles to increase resolution for human source attribution. Performance assessment is underway and preliminary data indicate that the candidate panel can characterize human-based selected microbes even at initially low abundant body sites.
Listen along as John and Bruce explore research surrounding human microbiome flora and their implications on forensic science.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
Listen/Download at:
You can also find us on Stitcher or Soundcloud
Dr. Bruce Budowle received a Ph.D. in Genetics in 1979 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. From 1979-1982, Dr. Budowle was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Working under a National Cancer Institute fellowship, he carried out research predominately on genetic risk factors for such diseases as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, melanoma, and acute lymphocytic leukemia.
In 1983, Dr. Budowle joined the research unit at the FBI Laboratory Division to carry out research, development, and validation of methods for forensic biological analyses. Dr. Budowle has contributed to the fundamental sciences as they apply to forensics in analytical development, population genetics, statistical interpretation of evidence, and in quality assurance. Dr. Budowle has worked on laying some of the foundations for the current statistical analyses in forensic biology and defining the parameters of relevant population groups. He has published approximately 600 articles, made more than 720 presentations (many of which were as an invited speaker at national and international meetings), and testified in well over 250 criminal cases in the areas of molecular biology, population genetics, statistics, quality assurance, and forensic biology. In addition, he has authored or co-authored books on molecular biology techniques, electrophoresis, protein detection, and microbial forensics. Dr. Budowle has been directly involved in developing quality assurance (QA) standards for the forensic DNA field. He has been a chair and member of the Scientific Working Group on DNA Methods, Chair of the DNA Commission of the International Society of Forensic Genetics, and a member of the DNA Advisory Board. He was one of the architects of the CODIS National DNA database, which maintains DNA profiles from convicted felons, from evidence in unsolved cases, and from missing persons.
Some of Dr. Budowle’s efforts over the last 15 years also are in counter terrorism, including identification of victims from mass disasters and in efforts involving microbial forensics and bioterrorism. Dr. Budowle was an advisor to New York State in the effort to identify the victims from the WTC attack. In the area of microbial forensics, Dr. Budowle has been the chair of the Scientific Working Group on Microbial Genetics and Forensics, whose mission was to set QA guidelines, develop criteria for biologic and user databases, set criteria for a National Repository, and develop forensic genomic applications. He also has served on the Steering Committee for the Colloquium on Microbial Forensics sponsored by American Society of Microbiology, an organizer of four Microbial Forensics Meetings held at The Banbury Center in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and on steering committees for NAS sponsored meetings.
In 2009 Dr. Budowle became Executive Director of the Institute of Applied Genetics and Professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Texas. He currently directs the Center for Human Identification. His research efforts focus on the areas of human forensic identification, microbial forensics, emerging infectious disease, molecular biology technologies, and pharmacogenetics.
Additional Resources: