Background:
In forensic science there is always a drive to improve or develop new methods that can provide additional information about the sequence of events in a criminal case. Microbial genomic analysis is one such field, with a lot of potential. One use of microbiomics is for geolocalization. The microbiomes at different locations are very distinct and can potentially be used as a marker for a specific location. This means that microbiome could help link individuals or objects to locations or guide police to crime scenes based on microbiome from evidence.
The integration of microbiome-based geolocalization into forensic work requires further research on the most optimal methods to use, and we need increased knowledge on the possibilities and the limitations of the method. This study will focus on microbiomes in air and soil, exploring factors that affect the method's accuracy and effectiveness.
Specific research questions that may be explored is how one can best collect and analyze the microbiome in air and how different specific locations are from each other. Or how stable the microbiome of a location is over time, and different factors that may affect this.
The Project:
The project will include literature searches, bioinformatics/coding in Rstudio, and lab work with extraction of DNA and library preparation. The practical work in this project will be performed at the Section for Forensic Biology, Oslo University Hospital (Rikshospitalet).