Criminal profiling through MALDI MS based technologies – breaking barriers towards border-free forensic science

ABSTRACT

The theme of the 2018 ANZFSS symposium, ‘Forensic Science without borders’ is probably the key to Forensic Science progress. Advocating the need for ‘no borders’ acknowledges the existence of barriers to break and this can only be achieved through the delivery of research that is impactful. Certainly, every researcher values their research but not every research generates impact; the first border to cross for research implementation is that of the laboratory in which the research takes place. This transition requires strategic planning through the design of the pathways to impact the beneficiaries of the research. The 2018 ANZFSS symposium theme offered a good opportunity for reflection on the several meanings of ‘forensic science without borders’ and the barriers to break. This article will be a reflection from a personal perspective in developing, alongside other researchers, a new discipline which the author has named ‘chemical criminal profiling’ through fingermark analysis. Here, glimpses into the journey of developing this research area will be provided, highlighting the barriers that need to be broken in order to make the technology operational and available with no borders.

KEYWORDS:

• MALDI MSI
• fingermarks
• offender
• profiling
• networking

Acknowledgements

Drs Robert Bradshaw and Lisa Deininger are gratefully acknowledged for the unpublished data acquired in 2014 and 2016, respectively, under the supervision of Simona Francese and shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [Case studensthip “Using ion mobility mass spectrometry to investigate the distribution and affect of dosed compounds on endogenous molecules”]; Home Office UK [Innovation fund 2014-2015, PhD Studentship “Integration of MALDI MSI into the Home Office operational fingermark examination workflow” 2011-2014, PhD studentship “Multi-informative and specific detection of blood in fingermarks via MALDI MS based strategies” 2014-2017].