Team:Dundee/Future1

<!DOCTYPE html>

Dundee iGEM 2015

Future Works

Life After iGEM

Overview

Life after iGEM is an interesting area for many projects. Some flourish into great things, some form a basis for PhD research, but many never find the funding to find their feet. So what is the potential after iGEM for the forensic toolkit?

The future for the forensic toolkit would be heavily based around further research and then creating a product with potential to make it commercial. Much more laboratory research would be needed to prove and test the aspects of the toolkit. After this the research can be used by the respective government to enhance police or it can fall into the business world to create an enterprise.
Synthetic biology is an area with huge growth, and with this follows huge commercial potential. In the UK the Home Office estimates that the forensic market is valued at £70-100 million (2013-14) (1). This is just one country, by thinking about the police forces of the world the worldwide market for forensic science becomes massive. So the main to aspects of future development is research and commercialization.


FLuID:

This part of our protect has great potential after iGEM. If the FluID worked it would be the first spray that could find multiple bodily fluids at a crime scene, using just one type of product, instead of several. Also the ideas and methods behind the FluID spray can be applied in a range of applications, for example in determining how clean hospitals are, thus creating a highly marketable product.

Chromate Biosensor:

With visual detection of residue being the only current method for finding traces on bone for forensic anthropologists, there is a need to have a biosensor that can show traces of stainless steel. This could then help piece together vital evidence that in previous cases has been lost. However the labwork we have done so far has not been successful , so a new approach is needed.

Fingerprint Ageing:

Being the 'holy grail' of forensics, if this was achieved it would be huge achievement in the forensic world. This would give legal systems around the world the ability to put a time frame on a crime scene. Gaining this new and crucial information has not been done before, this would make a great asset to any forensic response officer. Being new would make this unique, but it would need to be robustly tested before use.

Generic Issues

With launching a biological and forensic product there are many normal measures that need to be followed. This includes running toxicology test to see how the product interact with all environments (2) such as domestic and outside crimes scenes. This is too highlight the health hazards it poses to people, animals and the environment.

A second thing is a scientific project can gain lot of bad press and misinformation can around (3), this makes it hard too sell if the public have bad views against it.

The forensic market is very competitive, too make it commercially the product needs to be simple to use and create results, however it needs a good track record and robust data to back up its claims. When trying to sell any forensic product, you need the results to back up the products, otherwise companies and police forces won't buy into your ideas.

References

  1. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Forensic Science: Second Report of session 2013-14. Volume 1: Report, together with formal minuetes, oral and written evidence. 2013 ;1(HC 610). 9
  2. Forensic Science Regualtor . Codes of Practice and Conduct. For forensic Science Providers and Practitioners in the Criminal Justice System 2014; 2(ISBN: 978-1-78246-491-4 ): 9.
  3. Chambers C, Summer P, Boivin J, Vivian-Griffiths S and Williams A. Science and health news hype: where does it come from? http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/dec/10/science-health-news-hype-press-releases-universities (accessed 1/09/2015 (UK date))