Glowing with the flow

Efforts to provide forensic scientists with technology for speedy sample analysis will be warmly welcomed by the UK’s crime-fighters, but one of the biggest challenges is actually finding the evidence.

So the Forensic Science Service is investing in other technologies to help police search for DNA at a crime scene.

Researchers at King’s College London and the University of East Anglia are developing a solution that will pick out any traces of blood, semen or saliva at a crime scene in bright fluorescent colours.

Existing techniques for detecting fluids that contain DNA are time-consuming and require different chemicals and equipment for each different fluid.

The so-called Light It Up solution contains minute particles known as nano-particles. Each one of these is coated with biological molecules, which are specially designed to bond with only one type of body fluid. These molecules, known as antibodies, contain a fluorescent ‘tag’ that makes them glow when they are illuminated by a special forensic light.