Fingerprints have been used in forensic investigations for the identification of individuals since the late 19th century. However, it is now clear that fingerprints can provide significantly more information about an individual. Here, we highlight the considerable advances in fingerprinting technology that can simultaneously provide chemical information regarding the drugs ingested and the explosives and drugs handled by a person as well as the identity of that individual.
Switchable formation of materials: DNA‐modified gold nanoparticles can aggregate reversibly by the employment of “fueling” oligomers that hybridize with the linker oligomers within the aggregated nanoparticles (see scheme). This approach paves the way to the generation of programmable functional materials.
Magnetic particles functionalised with anti-cotinine antibody have been used to image latent fingermarks through the detection of the cotinine antigen in the sweat deposited within the fingerprints of smokers. The antibody–magnetic particle conjugates are readily applied to latent fingerprints while excess reagents are removed through the use of a magnetic wand. The results have shown that drug metabolites, such as cotinine, can be detected and used to image the fingermark to establish the identity of an individual within 15 minutes
An immunoassay based technique is used for the detection of psychoactive substances in the sweat deposited within fingermarks of a narcotic drug user. Magnetic particles functionalized with antimorphine and antibenzoylecgonine antibodies were used for the detection of a metabolite of heroin (morphine) and a metabolite of cocaine (benzoylecgonine), respectively. The drug metabolites were detected individually as well as simultaneously from a single fingermark. The images of the fingermarks obtained using brightfield and fluorescence microscopy were of high evidential quality with resolution to enable identification of an individual in addition to providing information on drug usage.
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