The lab detectives

TV crime-scene dramas have raised the profile of the forensic experts supplying what is often ’make or break’ evidence to criminal investigators.

But are real-life forensic laboratories as enthusiastic as their on-screen counterparts when it comes to adopting the latest analysis techniques?

According to Divyaa Ravishankar, a senior life sciences industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, there are a number of barriers preventing the most cutting edge techniques making it into forensic laboratories.

“Next generation sequencing for DNA analysis is rapidly finding its space within pathogen detection in food industry and forensic areas

Frost & Sullivan life sciences analyst Divyaa Ravishankar

“Costs are often cited as an important issue,” Ravishankar says.

“Most tasks in a forensic department are labour intensive, so adopting a technology [would often require] a designated person to monitor this, incurring extra costs,” she says.

She adds that the inherent risk of embracing new technology in a field dominated by strict scientific and legal parameters means all new techniques must be validated in laboratory conditions before they can be adopted for criminal investigations.

Nevertheless, she says some new technologies do find their way through the gauntlet of validation and acceptance, as growing threats such as the rise of terrorism drive demand for more advanced forensic technologies.

“Next generation sequencing for DNA analysis is rapidly finding its space within pathogen detection in food industry and forensic areas,” says Ravishankar.

This is because during forensic research and investigation, the sample quantity can be very limited and must be used judiciously to avoid unnecessary re-run and experimental repeats, she adds.

“This technology can save a lot of time … providing rapid turn around time with minimal sample quantities.”

Yet another area where innovative products such as lateral flow immunoassays are being developed is for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) toxicology, says Ravishankar.

She says these include oral saliva testing in both the field and laboratory and which can offer the “utmost sensitivity and specificity”.

Of course, all of these new technologies must be properly tested in laboratory conditions before they can be adopted for criminal investigations.

Kevin Farrugia, a forensic science researcher at the University of Abertay in Scotland, is one of those involved in this process.

“We talk to colleagues who work within the police labs and seek out what issues they are having which in turn leads to project ideas for students or for bigger ones run by staff,” he says.

“Everyone is trying to find better laboratory techniques but we need to be sure these techniques are as good as the old ones.”

At the moment Farrugia is assessing the effectiveness of different fingerprint analysis techniques based on acrylate - which is the substance commonly used in superglue.

The technique he has been investigating seeks to enhance the clarity of fingerprints on plastic carrier bags by adding a layer of polymer which settles where a fingerprint has been left, and once treated with a fluorescent stain, can reveal a better-quality sample.

However, a new product has been developed based on this method which already has a stain embedded in the glue, offering the potential to save time, money, and lab space, so Farrugia is putting it through its paces in the lab.

“Everyone is trying to find better laboratory techniques but we need to be sure these techniques are as good as the old ones

Forensic science researcher Kevin Farrugia

His research is based on what he calls a ’pseudo operation trial’ to compare an example of this one-step fluorescent cyanoacrylate product, Lumicyano, with comparative techniques for plastic carrier bags.

“I am doing a lot of trials with this product because it needs to be validated before police and crime labs will adopt it. We are finding we are getting very good results with it,” he says.

Previous research conducted by Farrugia has helped to improve techniques for recovering invisible prints left on fabric by the sole of a person’s shoe, and he is also conducting research on blood detection methods.

When it comes to investigating drug-related crimes, there are still considerable challenges for forensic toxicologists, says Tony Drury, manager of Applied Markets at Bruker Daltonics.

“We are continuing to see a large demand for reliable, comprehensive forensic toxicological analysis from both government and private commercial laboratories,” says Drury.

Bruker, which offers forensic screening and quantitation solutions to both sectors, says this is primarily being driven by the ’designer drug’ boom.

“Every month, several new psychoactive substances including synthetic cannabinoids, cathinones and other ’designer’ drugs are surfacing onto the illicit drug market,” says Drury.

Issues arise because traditional immunoassay technologies are unable to detect many of these substances and are effectively blind to ever-emergent designer drugs.

“The challenge for the forensic toxicologist is to detect these new compounds as soon as they appear,” says Drury, using irrefutable evidence from detection technologies that “can stand up to scrutiny in a court of law”.

For this purpose, Bruker has developed LC-Ion trap and high-resolution LC-quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-ToF) mass spectrometry systems, such as the Bruker Toxtyper and ToxScreener systems, for drugs-of-abuse screening.

After detection and confirmation, quantitation can then be undertaken with tools such as the Bruker Scion GC and EVOQ LC triple quadrupole mass spectrometry systems, says Drury.

Another company that is becoming increasingly involved in the detection of unknown substances is distributor Quantitech, which is supplying high-end, portable detection tools to transform the fieldwork component of forensic analysis.

“Let’s suppose officials are conducting a forensic investigation into a fire and looking for causes such as petrol and solvents,” says Quantitech researcher Andrew Hobson.

“You can imagine that type of person would normally carry around little plastic bags, but if you have portable analysis tools you can begin to do a lot of the work on site.”

These portable tools are designed to be thrown into the back of a van for field monitoring, says Hobson, with the result that “users can undertake laboratory-grade analysis in the field, with accurate results within minutes of a sample being taken.”

For this task, the company recently launched Torion Technology’s Tridion-9 gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) solution in the UK.

It combines a high speed GC with a miniaturised MS in a portable instrument designed to detect a large variety of chemical compounds in liquid, solid or gaseous samples, says Hobson.

“If you suspected someone had been meddling with a water source, you could test it using this tool, he says.

“Or if you had received a shipment of coffee, it would allow you to test it to verify that you had received what you had actually ordered. It also has a role in illicit drug identification and detection of chemical warfare agents.”

In addition to GC-MS tools, the company also distributes Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy tools from Gasmet (Finland) for monitoring a wide range of compounds.

This range includes a portable FTIR instrument (DX4040) that can provide live simultaneous readings for up to 25 compounds from a library of many hundreds.

As a result, this instrument has been widely adopted for site investigations, says Hobson, particularly when it is necessary to identify unknown chemicals.

Typical forensic applications include first response to major incidents such as explosions or chemical spills or identification and quantification of toxic industrial chemicals or chemical warfare agents. It is also used in a range of industrial applications.

According to Hobson, the biggest value of onsite monitoring equipment in forensic investigations is speed.

“If you are going to take someone to court, a portable instrument won’t provide the evidence, but it does enable you to conduct a survey on the site, find out where you think you have a problem, and then take a sample back to the lab for evidence.

“If you can conduct analysis onsite in matter of minutes, it will save a lot of time and money.”