Light It Up: A Nanotechnology Approach for the Acquisition of Forensic Evidence

想象一下，你正在看一档侦破犯罪的电视节目。法医科学家在犯罪现场发现了一条牛仔裤。他们向它们喷洒一种溶液，照亮他们的“手电筒”，嘿，很快，血液、精液和唾液就会呈现出各自不同颜色的明亮光点。科学家们能够识别出存在什么，然后分别从每一种体液中提取样本，以获得存放每种体液的人的DNA图谱。这是现实吗？不，远非如此。目前，进行不同的分析(每种分析需要不同的化学品和设备)来检测和识别每一种体液。当警察等待可能帮助他们破案的结果时，这是一个非常耗时的重要因素。目前的方法也很难检测到非常少量的体液。鉴于现在可以从一个或几个细胞中获取DNA图谱，在犯罪现场收集DNA痕迹是至关重要的。我们提议的研究旨在通过生产一种解决方案，使电视小说成为现实，当喷洒在法医证据项目上时，任何血液、精液或唾液的痕迹都会发出荧光，这样法医科学家就能够容易地识别体液的位置(重要的是，哪些体液存在)，以便他们可以取出它们进行DNA图谱分析。我们的解决方案被称为“照亮它”，它是基于被称为纳米颗粒的非常小的颗粒。每个纳米颗粒将被一种生物分子覆盖，该生物分子可以识别并结合到另一种伙伴分子上。生物纳米颗粒结合物上将有荧光标签，因此当专门的法医光源照射到物品上时，体液所在的区域将发出不同颜色的荧光，每种颜色代表一种特定的目标液体。例如，精液是蓝色的，唾液是绿色的，血液是红色的。知道存在哪些体液可以为警方调查提供重要的佐证，帮助支持或驳斥嫌疑人、受害者或证人的陈述。“点亮”将随时提供这些信息。我们的目标也是开发一种“点亮”的解决方案，它将直接在原位检测DNA。法医科学家在搜索体液时真正寻找的是DNA(尽管他们也想要关于体液类型的信息，以帮助警方进行调查)。最后，我们希望确定‘照亮它’的普遍适用性，为警方提供信息，指导他们进行调查。例如，我们可以从犯罪现场留下的指纹中发现哪些其他材料，可能有助于警方为他们的调查指明正确的方向？

Imagine you are watching a crime-solving TV programme. The forensic scientists have found a pair of jeans at a crime scene. They spray them with a solution, shine their 'torches' and, hey presto, blood, semen and saliva show up as brightly glowing spots each of a different colour. The scientists are able to identify what is present and then take a sample of each body fluid separately to obtain the DNA profile of the person who deposited each fluid. Is this reality? No, far from it. Currently, a different analysis (each requiring different chemicals and equipment) is carried out to detect and identify each of these body fluids. This is very time consuming an important factor when police are waiting for results which may help them solve a crime. The current methods also struggle to detect very small traces of body fluids. Given that it is now possible to obtain a DNA profile from one or a few cells, collecting traces of DNA at crime scenes is vital.Our proposed research aims to make TV fiction a reality by producing a solution which, when sprayed on items of forensic evidence, will cause any traces of blood, semen or saliva to fluoresce, so that forensic scientists are readily able to identify where the body fluids are located (and importantly, which ones are present) so that they can remove them for DNA profiling. 'Light It Up', as our solution is called, is based on very small particles called nanoparticles. Each nanoparticle will be coated with a biological molecule which recognizes and binds to another partner molecule. The bio-nanoparticle conjugates will have fluorescent tags on them so that when the specialist forensic light sources are shone on the item, the area where the body fluid is located will fluoresce with different colours, each colour representing a particular target fluid. For example, semen will show up as blue, saliva as green and blood as red. Knowing which body fluid is present can provide vital corroborative evidence for police investigations helping to support or refute suspect, victim or witness statements. 'Light It Up' will readily provide this information.We also aim to develop a solution of 'Light It Up' which will detect DNA directly in situ. It's the DNA that forensic scientists are really looking for when they search for biological fluids (although they also want information on the type of body fluid to help the police in their investigations). Finally, we wish to determine the generic applicability of 'Light It Up' to provide the police with information which can guide them in their investigations. For example, what other materials can we detect from fingerprints left at a crime scene which might help point the police in the right direction for their investigations?