This is my last blog of 2012, and as it is the festive season, I'm going to write about intestinal micro-organisms!
We humans live with a large population of micro-organisms in our intestines. Collectively known as gut flora, they perform a variety of useful functions, such as extracting nutrients from food, training the immune system to respond only to pathogens and preventing the growth of harmful bacteria.
Now, researchers at Washington School of Medicine in St Louis and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, are suggesting that our gut flora may have an important part to play in forensics. Just as our DNA varies from person to person, so, apparently, does the DNA of the micro-organisms in our intestines. This means that a person may be identifiable from the DNA profile of their gut flora.
Here is an account of the research:
New Genetic Fingerprint lives in your Gut
Clearly, the overall purpose of the research is to improve human health. But advances in forensics often come from unexpected sources. The revolutionary approach to developing invisible indented impressions of writing on paper arose, almost accidentally, from research into latent fingerprint development techniques.
So, if one of your characters leaves a series of anonymous letters smeared in excrement in a number of other characters' mailboxes (it does happen), maybe this new technique could provide a starting point for the police investigation. Just a thought.........
If you celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful time and don't treat your gut flora too badly! Thank you for reading my blog this year, and I hope to connect with you again in 2013.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @forensicswrite.
Now, researchers at Washington School of Medicine in St Louis and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, are suggesting that our gut flora may have an important part to play in forensics. Just as our DNA varies from person to person, so, apparently, does the DNA of the micro-organisms in our intestines. This means that a person may be identifiable from the DNA profile of their gut flora.
Here is an account of the research:
New Genetic Fingerprint lives in your Gut
Clearly, the overall purpose of the research is to improve human health. But advances in forensics often come from unexpected sources. The revolutionary approach to developing invisible indented impressions of writing on paper arose, almost accidentally, from research into latent fingerprint development techniques.
So, if one of your characters leaves a series of anonymous letters smeared in excrement in a number of other characters' mailboxes (it does happen), maybe this new technique could provide a starting point for the police investigation. Just a thought.........
If you celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful time and don't treat your gut flora too badly! Thank you for reading my blog this year, and I hope to connect with you again in 2013.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @forensicswrite.
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