Stacie L. Patterson Law Blog

Colorado scientists think that bacteria may be helpful in identifying people.  Every human being has hundreds of different kinds of bacteria growing on them.  Noah Fierer, University of Colorado, Boulder scientist is quick to point out that some of that bacteria may be beneficial and most are harmless.  Studying bacteria is what he does though, and Fierer says that "each of us have bacterial communities that are unique to us".  Knowing this, gave him the idea that maybe this bacteria could be used to identify people; much like the fingerprint.  

After running tests, Fierer found that he could match bacteria to the person it belonged to.  In one test, he used computer keyboards.  After swabbing the keys, he and his colleagues were able to pull the bacterial DNA off of that swab and identify which people worked on each keyboard.  The team ran a similar test with computer mice.  The scientists even found that they could positively identify an individual's bacteria two weeks after it was left on the item.  

Even though Noah has had a few informal meetings with some law enforcement agencies, he admits that the technique is not quite ready for the courtroom.  He will continue to work on accuracy and finding limitations, if there are any, but in the mean time he says he is encouraged that bacterial qualities may actually work in identifying people.

Click here to read the complete article.