Difference between revisions of "Team:Dundee/Practices"

 
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<h1>Overview</h1>
<h3>Overview</h3>
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<h3>News Reel</h3>
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<h3>Ethics</h3>
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<h1><highlight class="highlight">Overview</highlight></h1>
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<br>
 
<br>
<p>Over the course of our project we have spoken to a wide range of experts, from the crime scene to the court room,  
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<p>Over the course of our project we have spoken to a wide range of experts, from the crime scene to the court room,  
 
to help develop our forensic toolkit into something we hope will have useful real world applications.</p>
 
to help develop our forensic toolkit into something we hope will have useful real world applications.</p>
<p>This outreach has included meeting some of the world’s best forensic researchers to discuss ideas, defence lawyers to  
+
<p>This outreach has included meeting some of the world’s best forensic researchers to discuss ideas, defence lawyers to  
 
find out what criteria our toolkit would need to meet to be used in a court of law, we even met with an award winning crime
 
find out what criteria our toolkit would need to meet to be used in a court of law, we even met with an award winning crime
 
author to hear his thoughts on the importance of the public perception of forensic science. We were very lucky to chat with a  
 
author to hear his thoughts on the importance of the public perception of forensic science. We were very lucky to chat with a  
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useful, practical, and an improvement on current techniques. Finally, we met with manufacturers to find out a bit more about
 
useful, practical, and an improvement on current techniques. Finally, we met with manufacturers to find out a bit more about
 
that side of designing a forensic toolkit.</p>
 
that side of designing a forensic toolkit.</p>
<p>Towards the tail end of our project we gained a spot on BBC Radio Scotland and on Scottish TV News (STV) to promote our project,  
+
<p>Towards the tail end of our project we gained a spot on BBC Radio Scotland and on Scottish TV News (STV) to promote our project,  
 
iGEM and synthetic biology to a wider audience. </p>
 
iGEM and synthetic biology to a wider audience. </p>
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</section>
 
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<a class='anchor' id='section2'></a>
 
<section id="about3">
 
<div class="row3">
 
 
<div class = "row">
 
<div class = "row">
<h1><highlight class="highlight">News Reel</highlight></h1>
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<br>
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<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/2/2b/11733710_10153697861090348_1767182127_o.jpg">
 
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/2/2b/11733710_10153697861090348_1767182127_o.jpg">
 
</div>
 
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<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with Professor Sue Black </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with Professor Sue Black</h1></div>
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 28 May </div>
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<div class="subjectdate">Thurs 28 May</div>
 
<div class="subjectcontent">
 
<div class="subjectcontent">
 
<p>Professor Sue Black, OBE FRSE, is a Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology as well as the director of CAHID (Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at University of Dundee).  
 
<p>Professor Sue Black, OBE FRSE, is a Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology as well as the director of CAHID (Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at University of Dundee).  
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/d/d5/11759510_10153697861060348_1332589482_n.jpg">
 
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/d/d5/11759510_10153697861060348_1332589482_n.jpg">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with Professor Niamh Nic Daéid </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with Professor Niamh Nic Daéid</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 1 June </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 1 June </div>
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<p>One of our very first meetings was with Professor Niamh Nic Daeid who works at CAHID.
 +
She was very helpful and extremely enthusiastic about our project. And gave us some background information on current techniques used in the field and their limitations.
 +
One thing we picked up on was that the current methods for body fluid detection are not sensitive enough to identify low concentrations of blood for example. And some can also react positively with bleach.
 +
It can also be a very slow process at the crime scene, with different ‘crime lights’, which are essentially fancy torches, being used one at a time on all surfaces to try and identify any body fluid present.
 +
So our idea is to create an all in one solution which can detect different body fluids.</p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c3/Conner_sulsa.jpg">
 
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c3/Conner_sulsa.jpg">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> SULSA Talks </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>SULSA Talks</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 8 June </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 8 June </div>
<div class="subjectcontent"> This was our very first opportunity to pitch our project idea,  
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<div class="subjectcontent">
 +
<p>This was our very first opportunity to pitch our project idea,  
 
which we delivered to the other two Scottish iGEM teams. It was great to see what the other  
 
which we delivered to the other two Scottish iGEM teams. It was great to see what the other  
teams were doing and take part in some fun team building activities!</div>
+
teams were doing and take part in some fun team building activities!</p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/3/3c/Kenny_laing.jpg">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/f/fe/Kenny_laing.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with Kenny Laing </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with Kenny Laing</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 15 June </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 15 June </div>
<div class="subjectcontent">Kenny Laing works for the Scottish Police Services Authority  
+
<div class="subjectcontent">
in Forensic Services where he is team manager overseeing four Mark Enhancement laboratories.
+
<p>Kenny Laing works for the Scottish Police Services Authority in Forensic Services where he is team manager overseeing four Mark Enhancement laboratories. He highlighted was that it is not possible to determine how long a fingerprint has been left at the crime scene and explained to us why fingerprint ageing is such a challenge, namely due to the sheer amount of factors which can affect fingerprint composition both between individuals and within the same individual at different times of the day. He also stressed how incredibly useful a technique with that capability would be in an investigation, to help narrow down suspects to only those present at the scene at the time of the crime. We wanted to try and tackle this by first finding a component integral to all fingerprints that can be targeted to estimate its age using mathematical modelling techniques, and then create a detector for that component.</p>
He highlighted to us why fingerprint ageing is so difficult, namely due to the sheer amount of  
+
</div>
factors which can affect fingerprint composition, but also stressed how useful a tool with such
+
capabilities would be.</div>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/f/fc/Drew_logo.jpg">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/a/a2/Outreacheampic.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
<br>
 
<br>
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Photoshoot at Mr Drew Photography!</div>
+
<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Photoshoot at Mr Drew Photography!</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Sat 20 June </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Sat 20 June </div>
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<p>The team had a fantastic weekend at the wonderful Mr Drew’s Photography. We donned our detective gear and got right into character for the occasion! </p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/e/e1/Stuart_macbride.jpg">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/6/6c/Stuart_macbride.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with Stuart Macbride</div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with Stuart MacBride</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 25 July </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 25 July </div>
<div class="subjectcontent">Award-winning, crime author Stuart Macbride was kind enough to spare some
+
<div class="subjectcontent">
 +
<p>Award-winning, crime author Stuart MacBride was kind enough to spare some
 
of his time before receiving his honorary degree at the University of Dundee. He was able to give us
 
of his time before receiving his honorary degree at the University of Dundee. He was able to give us
 
an exciting insight into the workings of the criminal mind and his intriguing writing process but  
 
an exciting insight into the workings of the criminal mind and his intriguing writing process but  
also explained how important it is to manage public expectations of Forensic Science.</div>
+
also explained how important it is to manage public expectations of Forensic Science.</p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/9/99/P7020232.JPG">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/f/fc/Lawyers.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with lawyers </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with lawyers</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 2 July </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 2 July </div>
<div class="subjectcontent"> Mark Stewart QC and Brian McConnachie QC both operate in the High Court  
+
<div class="subjectcontent">
of Justiciary and James Laverty is a solicitor and module organiser of Criminal Procedure and Advocacy
+
<p>Mark Stewart QC and Brian McConnachie QC both operate in the High Court of Justice and James Laverty is a solicitor and module organiser of Criminal Procedure and Advocacy Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Dundee. All three gentlemen unanimously agreed that each element of our toolkit would be of most value being used in an investigative sense. This showed that although they may not necessarily be used for providing evidence that would be presented in a court of law, there is real potential for our devices to play key roles in the earlier stages of investigations. They suggested our devices would be very useful to the police and crime scene investigators in narrowing down suspects. This is key in cases as it will help the police allocate their resources and start questioning suspects sooner. This meeting was great for shaping our project, as it shows where our ‘forensic toolkit’ would be most useful and applicable. </p>
Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Dundee. All three gentlemen unanimously agreed that  
+
</div>
each element of our tool kit would be of most value being used in an investigative sense. This showed
+
that although they may not necessarily be used for providing evidence that would be presented in a  
+
court of law, there is real potential for our devices to play key roles in the earlier stages of  
+
investigations.</div>
+
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/b/be/11747407_10153692538065348_2147150595_o.jpg">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/b/b2/Crimelite.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with CSI guy </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with a scenes of crime officer</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 2 July </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 2 July </div>
<div class="subjectcontent">We were fortunate enough to speak with a Scenes of Crime Officer  
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<div class="subjectcontent">
who has experience working in a variety of environments. He was very enthusiastic about our BioSpray  
+
<p>We were fortunate enough to speak with a Scenes of Crime Officer who has experience working in a variety of environments. He was very enthusiastic about our BioSpray idea, saying that an all in one tool such as ours would markedly improve the efficiency of crime scene investigation, since it would significantly reduce the time needed to perform a thorough examination as well as the potential for contamination. The current technique used is ‘Crime-lite’ which is a set of different torches that need to be taken in and used at the crime scene one at a time. This means that there is more chance of introducing contamination to the scene. Our FluID spray is an all-in-one solution so the crime scene would only needed to be entered once. </p>
idea, saying that an all in one tool such as ours would markedly improve the efficiency of crime  
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</div>
scene investigation since it would significantly reduce the time needed to perform a thorough  
+
examination as well as the potential for contamination.</div>
+
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/5/5c/11733848_10153692538055348_747370272_o.jpg">
 
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/5/5c/11733848_10153692538055348_747370272_o.jpg">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with Dr Lucina Hackman </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with Dr Lucina Hackman</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 9 July </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 9 July </div>
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<p>We also met with Dr Lucina Hackman who is a forensic anthropologist at CAHID and her main focus is on the analysis of skeletal and dismembered remains. She explained to us that most cut marks on bone are analysed visually by looking at the different striations left behind by different tools. So we discussed with her our idea of a chromate detector to help detect traces of stainless steel left on bone, for example and how it could best be used. She suggested that we broaden our view on the application of the chromate sensor as it could also be used to find metal fragments from blunt force trauma injuries. </p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
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</div>
 
</div>
 
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<br>
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<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/d/da/CAST_meeting.jpg">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/a/ab/CAST_meeting.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with CAST rep </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with CAST representative</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Wed 15 July </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Wed 15 July </div>
<div class="subjectcontent"> We met with Rory Downham a chemist from the Home Office Centre  
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<div class="subjectcontent">
for Applied Science and Technology (CAST),
+
<p>We met with Rory Downham, a chemist from the Home Office Centre  
carrying out work on fingermark detection and drugs detection methods,  
+
for Applied Science and Technology (CAST).
 +
He carries out work on fingermark detection and drug detection methods,  
 
including in-house original research and collaboration with academic and  
 
including in-house original research and collaboration with academic and  
industrial partners.
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industrial partners.</p>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
</div>
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<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="col-md-4">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
 
<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/0/09/Selex.jpg">
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/cf/Selexrep.png">
 
</div>
 
</div>
<br>
 
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> Meeting with SelEx </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>Meeting with manufacturers</h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 3 Aug </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Mon 3 Aug </div>
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<p>SELEX ES is a company which aids in the development of a range of products including biological sensors. The representative that we met mainly works with new technologies and taking them to market. He explained to us that in order for our toolkit to be successful, all possibilities for error must be investigated and tested, so that the product is consistent and rigorously tested. We would also need to market the final product in a way that meets everybody’s needs, for example the police/scenes of crime officers will want an easy to apply and use technique. While forensic scientists will be more concerned with whether the method will damage or contaminate evidence as well as its accuracy and robustness. He also suggested we look into whether our FluID spray can be adapted to be used for anything else. Because it is able to detect body fluid, it may also be useful in hospitals and/or restaurants to assess cleanliness. </p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
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</div>
 
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<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
<video class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/f/ff/STV.mov" type="video/quicktime" controls >
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<img class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/6/6c/Stuart_macbride.png">
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</div>
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<div class="newscontentcontainer">
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<div class="subjecttitle"> <h1>Press release</h1></div>
 +
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 6 Aug </div>
 +
<div class="subjectcontent">
 +
<p>The University of Dundee released a press article about our project. A few members of the team were interviewed and the photo of the meeting with crime author Stuart MacBride was used. Click <a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/1/1e/Dundee_Igem_Team_To_Develop_Forensic_Toolkit_News_University_of_Dundee.pdf">here</a> to read the article.</p>
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<audio id="player" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/cd/Radio_Scotland_2015_4_iGEM.mp4" controls="controls" style="border:5px solid DimGray"></audio>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
<br>
 
<br>
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
 
<div class="newscontentcontainer">
<div class="subjecttitle"> iGEM on the telly! </div>
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1> Radio Scotland interview</h1></div>
 +
<div class="subjectdate"> Thurs 6 Aug </div>
 +
<div class="subjectcontent">
 +
<p>Manuel and Tracy, one of our supervisors, were interviewed by Radio Scotland. Click on the play button to hear the questions asked about our project.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="col-md-4">
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<div class="newsimagecontainer center">
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<video class="newsimagecontainer" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/f/ff/STV.mov" type="video/quicktime" controls >
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<div class="newscontentcontainer">
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<div class="subjecttitle"><h1>CSI:Dundee on the telly! </h1></div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Fri 7 Aug </div>
 
<div class="subjectdate"> Fri 7 Aug </div>
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<p>We were filmed and interviewed by Scottish Television (STV) News, and the clip above was shown on local television. Hannah, from the dry team, demonstrated her bone incision experiment techniques and described the project as a whole. Tracy Palmer, one of our supervisors, was also interviewed. Click on play to watch the short video clip.</p>
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</div>
 
</div>
 
</section>
 
</section>
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<a class="anchor" id="section3"></a>
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</body>
<section id="about3">
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<h1><highlight class="highlight">Ethics</highlight></h1>
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<p>One reason why ethics is so important in the field of forensic science is because the criminal justice system relies so heavily on forensic evidence.
+
Forensic evidence can make or break a case and in doing so, have a great impact on the lives of others. If one piece of evidence is mishandled or misinterpreted,
+
it could lead to a person's life being changed dramatically or prevent justice from being served. Because the general public make up the jury, the public’s
+
perception of forensic science is incredibly important as it can have a big impact on the outcome of a court case. Some people in the general public may see
+
forensic evidence as absolute truth, without taking into consideration the error present in all scientific methods. Forensic scientists call this the ‘CSI effect’
+
because TV shows like this tend to overstate the capabilities of forensic techniques. In reality sometimes the evidence collected and presented is down to expert
+
interpretation rather than scientifically robust analysis. For example, blood spatter patterns, hair and fibre analysis, firearm and tool marks are commonly depicted
+
on CSI. These techniques rely on the judgment of individual experts and can’t really be validated with statistics. In other words, these techniques are not
+
particularly scientifically robust.  So of course, results from tests such as these which can sway the jury are actually not reliable and this can lead to miscarriages
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of justice which could happen to anyone. This is where the innocence project comes in. The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that is committed
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to exonerating wrongly convicted people. So far over 300 cases have been exonerated in the USA, of which 18 were on death row. And they state that 47% of the
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exonerated cases were due to improper forensic science. This is one of the reasons we became so passionate about our project. We decided that we wanted to take
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a different approach to forensics and put science first. We came up with the idea of creating a robust, useful and easy to use set of techniques for crime scene
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analysis - our forensic toolkit, which we hope, can help prevent these wrongful convictions and bring perpetrators to justice. </p>
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Latest revision as of 23:24, 18 September 2015

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Human Practices

From Crime Scene to Court Room


Overview


Over the course of our project we have spoken to a wide range of experts, from the crime scene to the court room, to help develop our forensic toolkit into something we hope will have useful real world applications.

This outreach has included meeting some of the world’s best forensic researchers to discuss ideas, defence lawyers to find out what criteria our toolkit would need to meet to be used in a court of law, we even met with an award winning crime author to hear his thoughts on the importance of the public perception of forensic science. We were very lucky to chat with a crime scene investigator, to draw from his years of experience in the field and find out whether he thought our toolkit would be useful, practical, and an improvement on current techniques. Finally, we met with manufacturers to find out a bit more about that side of designing a forensic toolkit.

Towards the tail end of our project we gained a spot on BBC Radio Scotland and on Scottish TV News (STV) to promote our project, iGEM and synthetic biology to a wider audience.

Meeting with Professor Sue Black

Thurs 28 May

Professor Sue Black, OBE FRSE, is a Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology as well as the director of CAHID (Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at University of Dundee). We met with Sue early on to discuss the basis of our project, the forensic toolkit. She was very supportive and offered to help us in any way she could. She stated that “there is science and then there is forensics”. Her view is that forensics is only the communication of science in the courtroom to a particular end and forensics needs a more scientific background. Over the years many forms of evidence such as hair, fibre and even DNA analysis have been discredited or discarded. A rigorous and robust technique, especially dating of evidence, would strengthen the basis of forensics. This highlighted the lack of scientific rigour within the field and encouraged us to do our best to meet this real need for techniques that can stand up to peer review.

Meeting with Professor Niamh Nic Daéid

Mon 1 June

One of our very first meetings was with Professor Niamh Nic Daeid who works at CAHID. She was very helpful and extremely enthusiastic about our project. And gave us some background information on current techniques used in the field and their limitations. One thing we picked up on was that the current methods for body fluid detection are not sensitive enough to identify low concentrations of blood for example. And some can also react positively with bleach. It can also be a very slow process at the crime scene, with different ‘crime lights’, which are essentially fancy torches, being used one at a time on all surfaces to try and identify any body fluid present. So our idea is to create an all in one solution which can detect different body fluids.

SULSA Talks

Mon 8 June

This was our very first opportunity to pitch our project idea, which we delivered to the other two Scottish iGEM teams. It was great to see what the other teams were doing and take part in some fun team building activities!


Meeting with Kenny Laing

Mon 15 June

Kenny Laing works for the Scottish Police Services Authority in Forensic Services where he is team manager overseeing four Mark Enhancement laboratories. He highlighted was that it is not possible to determine how long a fingerprint has been left at the crime scene and explained to us why fingerprint ageing is such a challenge, namely due to the sheer amount of factors which can affect fingerprint composition both between individuals and within the same individual at different times of the day. He also stressed how incredibly useful a technique with that capability would be in an investigation, to help narrow down suspects to only those present at the scene at the time of the crime. We wanted to try and tackle this by first finding a component integral to all fingerprints that can be targeted to estimate its age using mathematical modelling techniques, and then create a detector for that component.


Photoshoot at Mr Drew Photography!

Sat 20 June

The team had a fantastic weekend at the wonderful Mr Drew’s Photography. We donned our detective gear and got right into character for the occasion!

Meeting with Stuart MacBride

Thurs 25 July

Award-winning, crime author Stuart MacBride was kind enough to spare some of his time before receiving his honorary degree at the University of Dundee. He was able to give us an exciting insight into the workings of the criminal mind and his intriguing writing process but also explained how important it is to manage public expectations of Forensic Science.


Meeting with lawyers

Thurs 2 July

Mark Stewart QC and Brian McConnachie QC both operate in the High Court of Justice and James Laverty is a solicitor and module organiser of Criminal Procedure and Advocacy Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Dundee. All three gentlemen unanimously agreed that each element of our toolkit would be of most value being used in an investigative sense. This showed that although they may not necessarily be used for providing evidence that would be presented in a court of law, there is real potential for our devices to play key roles in the earlier stages of investigations. They suggested our devices would be very useful to the police and crime scene investigators in narrowing down suspects. This is key in cases as it will help the police allocate their resources and start questioning suspects sooner. This meeting was great for shaping our project, as it shows where our ‘forensic toolkit’ would be most useful and applicable.

Meeting with a scenes of crime officer

Thurs 2 July

We were fortunate enough to speak with a Scenes of Crime Officer who has experience working in a variety of environments. He was very enthusiastic about our BioSpray idea, saying that an all in one tool such as ours would markedly improve the efficiency of crime scene investigation, since it would significantly reduce the time needed to perform a thorough examination as well as the potential for contamination. The current technique used is ‘Crime-lite’ which is a set of different torches that need to be taken in and used at the crime scene one at a time. This means that there is more chance of introducing contamination to the scene. Our FluID spray is an all-in-one solution so the crime scene would only needed to be entered once.

Meeting with Dr Lucina Hackman

Thurs 9 July

We also met with Dr Lucina Hackman who is a forensic anthropologist at CAHID and her main focus is on the analysis of skeletal and dismembered remains. She explained to us that most cut marks on bone are analysed visually by looking at the different striations left behind by different tools. So we discussed with her our idea of a chromate detector to help detect traces of stainless steel left on bone, for example and how it could best be used. She suggested that we broaden our view on the application of the chromate sensor as it could also be used to find metal fragments from blunt force trauma injuries.


Meeting with CAST representative

Wed 15 July

We met with Rory Downham, a chemist from the Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST). He carries out work on fingermark detection and drug detection methods, including in-house original research and collaboration with academic and industrial partners.

Meeting with manufacturers

Mon 3 Aug

SELEX ES is a company which aids in the development of a range of products including biological sensors. The representative that we met mainly works with new technologies and taking them to market. He explained to us that in order for our toolkit to be successful, all possibilities for error must be investigated and tested, so that the product is consistent and rigorously tested. We would also need to market the final product in a way that meets everybody’s needs, for example the police/scenes of crime officers will want an easy to apply and use technique. While forensic scientists will be more concerned with whether the method will damage or contaminate evidence as well as its accuracy and robustness. He also suggested we look into whether our FluID spray can be adapted to be used for anything else. Because it is able to detect body fluid, it may also be useful in hospitals and/or restaurants to assess cleanliness.

Press release

Thurs 6 Aug

The University of Dundee released a press article about our project. A few members of the team were interviewed and the photo of the meeting with crime author Stuart MacBride was used. Click here to read the article.


Radio Scotland interview

Thurs 6 Aug

Manuel and Tracy, one of our supervisors, were interviewed by Radio Scotland. Click on the play button to hear the questions asked about our project.

CSI:Dundee on the telly!

Fri 7 Aug

We were filmed and interviewed by Scottish Television (STV) News, and the clip above was shown on local television. Hannah, from the dry team, demonstrated her bone incision experiment techniques and described the project as a whole. Tracy Palmer, one of our supervisors, was also interviewed. Click on play to watch the short video clip.