On site identification of body fluids through mass spectrometry

The Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST), have recently noted that the on-site identification of body fluids at a crime scene is a key imperative, rated "High Priority". This reflects the fact that there is a growing move towards maximising the analysis that can be performed at a scene (instead of, or prior to, transfer of exhibits to a lab setting) and doing so in ways that do not involve excessive chemical contamination (e.g. with the spray reagents that can elucidate blood) or specialist operator expertise. While the current state of the art imaging technologies can identify the potential presence of one of the six key body fluids, rapid determination of the exact nature of that fluid still eludes practitioners.
This project will involve developing new ambient ionisation mass spectrometry approaches to apply to body fluids at crime scenes. Mass spectrometry has the potential to elucidate additional chemical information from biofluids at a crime scene and so aid in the forensic investigation. The PhD students role will involve developing and modifying mass spectrometer ion sources to enable the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from different biofluids from a range of different surfaces using a commercial transportable mass spectrometer. Thermal desorption approaches will be used to extract volatile compounds from the surfaces and these can then be probed to identify key target metabolites that can yield information and also subjected to multivariate data analysis techniques such as principle component analysis. Using tese approaches will look at the volatilomic fingerprint of the biofluid. The student will then explore whether the VOC profiles obtained from biofluids can be used to discern additional information i.e. the sex or age of the suspect.