Fall 8 Microbiome group

 

Today the super microbiome group met to discuss some new research and technology. One of the topics was determining if you could identify a person by the bacteria left behind with their fingerprints, and how long ago those prints were made, primarily for forensics. 

Unlike fingerprints themselves, the skins microbiome is constantly changing. This makes positive identification of the person it belongs to a challenge. Every time you touch something, you are picking up new microbes, thus changing your personal composition, at least briefly. A small study conducted showed that this would not be an accurate way to identify a person due to variability. 

A second study was conducted to determine if you could tell when a person left the fingerprint by looking at bacterial growth and death rates. For example, if bacteria X reproduced 10 times, could they estimate that it took 4 days to do so. Once again there was not enough consistency for this to be an effective tool.

One last point made was the cost of testing and experts. The tests themselves are currently much more expensive than other identification methods. Also, lawyers may not be knowledgeable enough about this new technology to be able to properly discuss it in court. Experts would have to be hired, which many people can not afford.

The presenter did state that the tests were done with small sample sizes, and more testing should be done to confirm the results, but seemed to believe a change in outcome was unlikely. Although both topics were interesting, neither seemed to be feasible. The negative results were none the less a step forward in understanding microbiomes.