DNA profiling represents one of the most important and growing techniques currently use in the UK to investigate and fight crime. Established in 1995 the UK data base, which is the world's largest per head of population, currently holds just under 5 million individual profiles, based on short repeating DNA sequences, offering a discriminating power of one in 50 million. At present DNA profiling is being used to solve around 50,000, or one in every 300 recorded crimes per year, in the UK. The effectiveness and use of the technique in supporting police investigations could however be significantly improved if the unit cost and time taken from collecting a sample to obtaining a profile could be shortened from the current days to hours. In July 2006 an ambitious three year project, funded by the EPSRC under its 'Think Crime' initiative (EP/D040930), was undertaken at the University of Hull to develop a micro fluidic based Lab-on-a-chip system which could be used to obtain DNA profiles at the scene of a crime. The work has seen the successful design and fabrication of micro fluidic chips and associated control system, that is able to extract DNA from a range of sample types (note cell lysis performed off chip to release DNA), perform PCR amplification of a multiplex sample and then separate and detect products in approximately 2 hours. The chip used to perform this analysis has no moving parts (reagents and sample are pumped by electric fields) and contains all the reagents in gels on chip, avoiding the possibility of contamination as once the sample is placed on the chip and sealed nothing enters or leaves the device. The micro fluidic device which is the subject of a UK patent application submitted in October 2008 (Application No. 0818609.0) is made of glass (120mm long, 60mm wide and 2 mm deep) and fits into a custom built instrument, about the size of a domestic microwave (60cm long, 30cm wide and 40 cm high), that controls the generation of the DNA profile (movement, amplification and separation/detection). However having reached the proof of principle stage in the current project the applicants are now very keen to make the technology accessible to the police in their fight against crime.Having carried out an initial market and IP evaluation in conjunction with the Forensic Scientific Service the idea of adapting the methodology to provide a custody suite based technology, allowing DNA profiling in under two hours from a buccal (mouth) swab sample, has been identified as a significant need which is realistically achievable following minor modifications to the current control instrument and chips. The DNA profile would be achieved at a competitive price due to the very small amounts of reagents required. An initial evaluation of market competitors and potentially blocking IP has indicated that a good opportunity exists to develop the proposed technology which will address a unique market slot. Accordingly funding will be used to support the technical modifications required to convert the current technology into a demonstrator system for custody based use. The Follow-on proposal will also allow retention of key research personnel with specialised practical skills and technical knowhow, who will gain additional skills in commercialisation and product development. Furthermore a more comprehensive freedom to operate study and business plan will be produced to carry the work forward into a full commercially-based activity. In the context of this proposal it is important to stress that given the current strong emphasis being place on a growing DNA database the UK represents an ideal location in which to launch the proposed new technology. It is clear also that internationally, DNA fingerprinting and biometric analysis represents an emerging field and early market dominance will clearly offer the potential to develop a major UK product base to address a growing global arena for forensic and related applications.

Forensic investigations frequently involve the analysis of body fluids spilled during the commissioning of a crime, leading to deposits on a wide range of surfaces such as carpets, walls, clothing, bedlinen and skin. Testing of, for example, bloodstains for the presence of drugs and drug-related metabolites or other biomarkers can be a highly complex procedure, and the success rate of such analyses can be severely limited due to loss of material during extraction, as well as a lack of absolute sensitivity. Moreover, the inherently destructive nature of these tests - specimens need to be removed from the bulk item before any extraction can be carried out - is a major issue, as is the fact that analysis is invariably carried out at a laboratory remote from the scene. The necessity for remote analysis does also add potentially crucial time to the investigative process, as well as carrying an inherent risk of sample degradation and contamination in transit and subsequent storage. Perhaps most importantly: if it is not feasible to remove a suitable sample from an item, potentially useful information will not be available to investigating officers. Therefore, forensic practitioners have considerable interest in technologies which could potentially overcome at least some of these important limitations.In this proposal we intend to undertake a feasibility study to assess a novel application of the established technique of mass spectrometry in such forensic investigations. Mass spectrometry is a very powerful and well-established technique able to detect minute amounts of materials with very high sensitivity and specificity. Unfortunately, it has some serious drawbacks which severely restrict its applicability. These drawbacks chiefly concern the sampling of the materials under investigation, which have to be capable of being in the gas phase. This tends to be especially difficult from solid substrates, necessitating physical removal and dissolution of the material of interest, bombardment of the sample with highly energetic ions in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber, or illumination of the sample with an intense laser beam after application of a matrix material. All these methods are highly problematic in the field of forensic analysis, where integrity of the subject is of utmost importance. A methodology to volatilise materials of interest for mass spectrometric analysis which is compatible with forensic requirements would thus have great potential.The newly-introduced technique of DESI, short for desorption electrospray ionisation, has such potential, as yet to be realised, to become a fully-fledged routine surface analytical tool, marrying the analytical capabilities of mass spectrometry with a sampling facility convenient for forensic analyses. As opposed to most other such techniques, it is applicable under a wide range of environmental conditions and suitable for a wide array of samples including surfaces of biological, pharmaceutical, polymer, metal and mineral materials. Moreover, current technical capabilities are such that a great deal of miniaturisation is possible, leading to a desktop-sized or potentially even a portable device.The proposed work focuses on the application of the technique to forensically relevant subjects and materials, more specifically the detection of drugs and drug metabolites in body fluid stains found at scenes of crime. Direct comparisons will be made with mass spectra generated using two established mass spectrometry techniques capable of surface analysis available in the School of Pharmacy, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and matrix assisted laser desorption-ionisation (MALDI), which both employ different methods of volatilisation. It should be stressed that whereas this proposal concentrates on a very specific sample type, the technique has the clear potential for application to a much wider range of samples in the forensic science field.

This proposal aims to bring together the use of a combination of conventional, improved and new soil analytical techniques for forensic use on UK The main objective is to increase the range of situations where the normal constituents of soil can be analysed for criminal investigations. This will I achieved through the combined use of improved fingerprinting methods, effective use of available databases and through ensuring that a robust statistical approach is adopted throughout the whole project. Updated conventional soil analysis methods currently used in forensics (e.g. colour, texture, microscopic observations and mineralogy) will be integrated with with state-of-the-art techniques employed in soil science research (e.g. organic analysis, high resolution powder X-ray diffraction and molecular methods). Techniques that are applicable to trace samples (QemSCAN, palynology and molecular approaches) will be correlated to soil attributes measurable on larger sized samples and to those variables held in databt in Scotland, England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The ability to match samples with a defined probability will be greatly improved. Comparison data from a forensic sample with soil and associated data held in several databases will provide important intelligence clues, such as narrowing the geographical location of sample origin and associated vegetation.The main outcomes of the project will be, in collaboration with the National Crime and Operations Faculty (NCOF) and other relevant end users, to provide routes for the development of robust corroborative soil intelligence tools and enhance the provision of reliable evidence. In addition, a meth selector will be designed to assist investigators choose the best methods or indeed help decide which soil characteristic to use, dependant upon sa size, condition and pretreatment.

First, this programme is about developing a new nanotechnology relevant to gun crime control. Second, it is about transferring this nanobioengineering to FSS, coating and ammunition manufacturers. Third, it is about communication of the higher rate of conviction for gun crime using the new technology. We therefore want to increase the amount of surviving and recoverable DNA on cartridges using DNA traps, having measured and modelled the T-t excursions experienced by a cartridge (Al, brass, etc) and tag illegal gun users.