Date of Award

12-2021

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Chemistry

Advisor/Committee Chair

Igor K. Lednev

Abstract

Two critical issues in forensic science are identifying body fluid traces found at crime scenes and preserving them for DNA analysis. However, the majority of current biochemical tests for body fluid identification, which are applicable at the crime scene, are presumptive and destructive to the sample. Raman Spectroscopy provides a suitable alternative to current methods as a nondestructive, confirmatory, and potentially in field method. Our laboratory has developed a chemometric model for the identification of five main body fluids using Raman spectroscopy. This model was developed using samples obtained from healthy donors. Thus, it is of most importance for the forensic application of the method to validate its performance for donors with diseases that might affect the biochemical composition of body fluids. In this study, the developed method was validated using peripheral blood samples acquired from donors with Celiac Disease, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Type 2 Diabetes. It was shown that the method correctly identified all samples as peripheral blood indicating that no false positives could occur because the blood traces were originated from donors suffering from the diseases.

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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