Human ID and Forensics

Young Investigator Lindsay Kotchey on education and evaluating emerging technologies for challenging samples

November 16, 2023

Lindsay Kotchey talks about evaluating the FORCE panel for hair and fingernails and her work as a mentor and educator

Young Investigator Meghna Swayambhu on body fluid identification for forensic applications

October 16, 2023

Meghna Swayambhu talks about forensic applications of body fluid identification using microbiome and metabolome analyses

Young Investigator Haley Omeasoo on repatriating unidentified indigenous remains

August 29, 2023

Haley Omeasoo talks about working with the Blackfeet Tribe to return ancestors’ remains to the Blackfeet Reservation.

Young Investigator Sally Wasef on NGS to identify fallen Australian soldiers

June 26, 2023

Sally Wasef talks about NGS and Whole Genome target enrichment of degraded DNA to identify Unrecovered War Casualties

Young Investigator Julia Wang on an alternative analysis of sexual assault evidence

April 27, 2023

Julia Wang talks about analyzing sexual assault evidence using differences between male and female genital microbiomes

Young Investigators are vital to the future of forensic science

June 01, 2022

Professor Walther Parson talks about new Investigators and their contribution to advancing forensic science practice.

Young Investigator Annica Gosch on trace evidence and the transcriptome

April  26, 2022

Annica Gosch talks about her research using forensic mRNA analysis to give greater context to forensic trace evidence.

Young Investigator Sara Casado on DNA methylation

January 18, 2022

Sarah Casado talks about her research in epigenomics. Learn how she uses DNA methylation for improving age-at-death forensic assessment. Sarah analyzes genes relevant to DNA aging from dental pulp and dentin. Follow her story and get inspired.

Young Investigator Catarina Xavier on DNA phenotyping

November 25, 2021

This new Investigator blog introduces Catarina Xavier, a young researcher a student in Professor Parson’s lab at the Institute for Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck. Catarina Xavier talks about her research using DNA phenotyping to enable greater insight for no-suspect forensic samples. Follow her story and get inspired.

Young Investigator Josephin Heinrich on canine genetic makers

June 8, 2021

Josephin Heinrich talks about using MPS to develop a bioinformatically-based model as a forensic molecular genetics tool to predict canine phenotypes...

Young Investigator Adam Staadig on forensic genetics

April 20, 2021

Adam Staadig talks about increasing the information available to forensic investigations through analysis and evaluation of methods of acquiring DNA evidence...

Young Investigator Christina Amory on ancient mtDNA

March 18, 2021

Christina talks about analysis of mitochondrial DNA from archaeological and cold case bone samples...

Young Investigator Athina Vidaki on DNA methylation profiling

February 01, 2021 

The new Investigator blog spotlights these young researchers and graduate students as they talk about the excitement of starting a career in forensics and human identification...

Donna-Lee Martin on MPS and allele frequency

November 13, 2020 

The new Investigator blog shines a personal spotlight on young scientists and graduate students as they talk about the exciting early stages of a career in human identification and forensics. The passion and commitment revealed in their stories are an inspiration to all in our community...

Laura Heathfield on identification of human remains

October 20, 2020

This new Investigator blog introduces Dr. Laura Heathfield, a researcher in the Division of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the University of Cape Town. Laura’s current work on methods for identification of severely decomposed human remains builds on her...

New Investigator Amy-Leigh Whittaker on assisting medico-legal investigations in complex inheritance disputes

September 3, 2020

This new Investigator blog introduces Amy-Leigh Whittaker, a graduate student in the Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town. Amy is working on forensic human identification using X-STRs...

New Investigator Sofia Antão Sousa on MPS analysis of familial genetic data

July 08, 2020

This new Investigator blog is an invitation to meet Sofia Antão Sousa, a Ph.D. candidate working on uncovering mutational mechanisms through MPS analyses at the Faculty of Science at the University of Porto and IPATIMUP/i3S...

What’s Your Story?

June 19, 2020

This chapter in the series introduces Zachary Goecker, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis. Zachary is working in the specialized area of proteomic genotyping, with reference to the hair shaft proteome...

Meet Mirna Ghemrawi

May 11, 2020

This chapter in the series introduces Mirna Ghemrawi, a doctoral student at Florida International University. Mirna has traveled a long distance from Lebanon to FIU where she is working on species identification with a particular focus on...

Recapping 2019s top HID stories

March 01, 2020

Balance your quarantine reading time with some useful content from the field of human ID and forensics. Between child care and mobile working, we want you to take a moment to grab a cup of tea and catch up on what you may have missed in 2019...

Young Investigator Felix Bittner on developing an MPSplex assay for missing persons identification

November 11, 2019

Continuing our interview series, we have Felix Bittner, DNA Analyst at the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), The Hague, Netherlands. His work focuses on developing a large massively parallel sequencing SNP...

Navigating justice for sexual assault survivors

March 29, 2019

Investigating and prosecuting sexual assault crimes is much more challenging than merely performing DNA testing. Moreover, a vast majority of perpetrators of sexual violence walk away scot-free, either because of a large number of...

Young Investigator Jan Fleckhaus discusses his research on age estimation

November 27, 2018

Our Young Investigator series allows us to acknowledge rising scientists in the forensic field. We hope that they inspire you with their story, as they are our future! Continuing our blog series, next we have Jan Fleckhaus, Ph.D. student at the...

Young Investigator Lisa Dierig discusses her research on forensic ‘touch DNA’ evidence

August 6, 2018

Our Young Investigator series allows us to acknowledge rising scientists in the forensic field. We hope that they inspire you with their story, as they are our future! Next in the series, we have Lisa Dierig, Ph.D. student at the Institute of Legal Medicine...

Young Investigator Michelle Peck discusses her collaborative work on MPS

July 22, 2018

As a part of this series, we have Michelle Peck, DNA Validation and Development Coordinator at the International Commission on Missing Persons, The Hague, Netherlands. Her focus is on Massively Parallel Sequencing...

Young Investigator Amy Holmes discusses her DVI research

June 25, 2018

Dr. Amy S. Holmes recently graduated from the Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX where she received her PhD. Her research focused on exploring solutions to the problem of sub-optimal disaster victim identification (DVI) methods for...