Forensic touch DNA recovery from metal surfaces - A review.

Trace evidence such as touch (also known as contact) DNA has probative value as a vital forensic investigative tool that can lead to the identification and apprehension of a criminal. While the volume of touch DNA evidence items submitted to forensic laboratories has significantly increased, recovery and amplification of DNA from these items, especially from metal surfaces, remains challenging. Currently little is understood with regards to the underlying mechanisms of metal-DNA interactions in the context of forensic science and how this may impact on DNA recovery. An increased understanding of these mechanisms would allow optimisation of methods to improve outcomes when sampling these materials. This paper reviews the basis of DNA binding to metal substrates, the merits and limitations of current methods and future perspectives of improving recovery and amplification of touch DNA from metal surfaces of forensic interest.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Science & justice : journal of the Forensic Science Society

• Publication date

  2020-05-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Materials Science, Chemistry, Computer Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.scijus.2020.01.002PMID 32381237
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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