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Rapid method makes forensic science less hairy

Analyzing hair recovered at a crime scene and assist with investigations into who may have been the victim or the person responsible for a murder. If forensic scientists can dissolve protein molecules from two hairs, the genetic material can be analyzed and compared, and such information can prove invaluable to law enforcement.

The peptides contained with strands of hair can be used as a source of evidence. Hair is useful because it is commonly found (people shed 50–150 hairs per day). Furthermore, hair is relatively stable, being relatively resistant to degradation.

Analyzing hair samples is part of the field of science called proteomics, which concerns the study of all the proteins in an organism or part of an organism.

However, the quantities of hair required, by mass, is relatively high and often the amount of hair recovered from a crime scene is often not sufficient to permit analysis using current methods. Standard protocols for dissolving hair keratins need about 10 milligrams of hair, which is the approximately the same as 100 by 5-centimeter strands.

A new rapid method aims to address this, requiring a far smaller sample size. This comes from researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The novel method only needs a single 5-cm strand of hair to dissolve hair protein.

According to lead researcher Zheng Zhan, speaking with Laboratory Manager magazine: “Our method yields enough keratin for analysis even when starting with a very small amount of hair.”

The new method is a single-step technique that requires heating hair in a solution with a detergent. The single-step method allows for a greater quantity of protein to be recovered. The extracted keratins can be analyzed using methods for proteomic analysis, based on a mass spectrometer.

The research has been published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. The research paper is headed: “Sensitive Method for the Confident Identification of Genetically Variant Peptides in Human Hair Keratin.”

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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