Establishing evidence of contact transfer in criminal investigation by a novel 'peptide coding' reagent

TY - JOUR

T1 - Establishing evidence of contact transfer in criminal investigation by a novel 'peptide coding' reagent

AU - Gooch, James

AU - Koh, Clarissa

AU - Daniel, Barbara

AU - Abbate, Vincenzo

AU - Frascione, Nunzianda

PY - 2015/11/1

Y1 - 2015/11/1

N2 - Forensic investigators are often faced with the challenge of forming a logical association between a suspect, object or location and a particular crime. This article documents the development of a novel reagent that may be used to establish evidence of physical contact between items and individuals as a result of criminal activity. Consisting of a fluorescent compound suspended within an oil-based medium, this reagent utilises the addition of short customisable peptide molecules of a specific known sequence as unique owner-registered 'codes'. This product may be applied onto goods or premises of criminal interest and subsequently transferred onto objects that contact target surfaces. Visualisation of the reagent is then achieved via fluorophore excitation, subsequently allowing rapid peptide recovery and analysis. Simple liquid-liquid extraction methods were devised to rapidly isolate the peptide from other reagent components prior to analysis by ESI-MS.

AB - Forensic investigators are often faced with the challenge of forming a logical association between a suspect, object or location and a particular crime. This article documents the development of a novel reagent that may be used to establish evidence of physical contact between items and individuals as a result of criminal activity. Consisting of a fluorescent compound suspended within an oil-based medium, this reagent utilises the addition of short customisable peptide molecules of a specific known sequence as unique owner-registered 'codes'. This product may be applied onto goods or premises of criminal interest and subsequently transferred onto objects that contact target surfaces. Visualisation of the reagent is then achieved via fluorophore excitation, subsequently allowing rapid peptide recovery and analysis. Simple liquid-liquid extraction methods were devised to rapidly isolate the peptide from other reagent components prior to analysis by ESI-MS.

KW - Coding reagent

KW - Fluorophore

KW - Forensic

KW - Mass spectrometry

KW - Peptide

KW - Taggants

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938356304&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.talanta.2015.07.014

DO - 10.1016/j.talanta.2015.07.014

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84938356304

SN - 0039-9140

VL - 144

SP - 1065

EP - 1069

JO - TALANTA

JF - TALANTA

ER -