title: Establishing evidence of contact transfer in criminal investigation by a novel 'peptide coding' reagent.
abstract: Forensic investigators are often faced with the challenge of forming a logical association between a suspect, object or location and a particular crime. This article documents the development of a novel reagent that may be used to establish evidence of physical contact between items and individuals as a result of criminal activity. Consisting of a fluorescent compound suspended within an oil-based medium, this reagent utilises the addition of short customisable peptide molecules of a specific known sequence as unique owner-registered 'codes'. This product may be applied onto goods or premises of criminal interest and subsequently transferred onto objects that contact target surfaces. Visualisation of the reagent is then achieved via fluorophore excitation, subsequently allowing rapid peptide recovery and analysis. Simple liquid-liquid extraction methods were devised to rapidly isolate the peptide from other reagent components prior to analysis by ESI-MS.
authors.affiliation: Analytical & Environmental Sciences Division, King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gooch
authors.affiliation: Analytical & Environmental Sciences Division, King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Clarissa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.affiliation: Analytical & Environmental Sciences Division, King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Abbate
authors.affiliation: Analytical & Environmental Sciences Division, King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK. Electronic address: nunzianda.frascione@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nunzianda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Frascione
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D057237:Criminals; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D044707:Forensic Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D007202:Indicators and Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D010455:Peptides
keywords: Coding reagent; Fluorophore; Forensic; Mass spectrometry; Peptide; Taggants