Omics era in forensic medicine: towards a new age

Abstract

Introduction The topic "forensic medicine and sciences" is a subdivision of science which is described as the practice of medical/ paramedical scientific knowledge to establish facts in civil and criminal law [1]. Forensic medicine has a multidisciplinary structure in collaboration with other areas such as forensic chemistry, toxicology, biology, psychiatry, and genetics, etc. Since forensic sciences share a common scientific methodology with other science disciplines it is open to collaborate or benefit from novel technologies appeared in any scientific discipline. Therefore, omics emerges as a revolutionary step in forensic sciences and sure carries it towards a new age. The publications regarding omics in various disciplines have become a rising scientific trend worldwide, during the last decade. Furthermore, the number of forensic studies utilizing the methodology of omics has enormously increased in last years. In order to draw attention of forensic and medical professionals, and encourage new studies; the roles and benefits of omics in forensic medicine and sciences are discussed in this review. 2. Omics Omics is a novel multidisciplinary field of various scientific methodologies. Omics defines the collective technologies that measure some characteristics (roles, relationships, and actions) of certain molecules like metabolites, proteins and genes, ending in-omics, as in metabolomics, proteomics, genomics, etc. In past years, omics technologies were applied to diverse fields, because of the ability to assess little changes in a large-scale data with exhaustive metabolite evaluation [2]. With the development of technology, omics-based strategies become cheaper, faster, and very informative, and offer potent alternatives to conventional technics. Furthermore, sample selection has a key role to success in target study. Various human samples can be used for analysis such as blood [3,4], urine [5], hair [6,7], nail [8-10], faeces[11,12], aqueous humour [13] etc. The interactions of omics with each other have been shown in Figure. 2.1. Metabolomics 2.1.1. Definition of metabolomics Metabolomics comprises the studies that are focused on assessment of metabolites and related markers of an Background/aim: Forensic medicine and sciences is a multidisciplinary branch of science, which frequently benefit from novel technologies. State of the art omics technologies have begun to be performed in forensic medicine and sciences, particularly in postmortem interval, intoxication, drugs of abuse, diagnosis of diseases and cause of death. This review aims to discuss the role and use of great omics (metabolomics, proteomics, genomics and transcriptomics) in forensic sciences, in detail. Materials and methods: A detailed review of related literature was performed, and studies were subdivided as per the type of omics. Results and conclusion: Omics seems as a revolutionary step in forensic science and sure carries it towards a new age. The number of forensic studies utilizing omics steadily increases in last years. Omics strategi...

The Application of Metabolomics in Forensic Science with Focus on Forensic Toxicology and Time-of-Death Estimation

“…Compared with other experimental methods, metabolomics appears to be a new, reasonable, and cost-effective tool in forensic analysis: (1) More diverse biological samples can be analyzed, (2) the cost of analysis per sample is lower than that of other -omics, and (3) the assays are relatively less time consuming. Furthermore, Castillo-Peinado et al [10] emphasized the impact of the inevitably developing aspect of the growing capacity of the data provided using multiple instruments.…”

“…Sample pretreatment and preparation must be considered, as the chemical and physical properties of postmortem material might be marginally but significantly divergent. Recently, a study by Akcan et al [2] investigated the markedly increasing popularity of -omics among medico-legal specialists. Through a comprehensive review of the available literature, they drew a conclusion about the beneficial impact of -omics, especially when more than one approach can be applied.…”

Forens(om)ic medicine: omics in forensic medicine

“…The availability of the minutest amount of sample can help in extracting the information in a timely manner by using omics based technologies that would otherwise have taken months to years to obtain. 2…”

Proteomics in Forensic Analysis: Applications for Human Samples

“…A proteome profile, including proteins and their abundances, provides a better global picture of a sample than static DNA information. In other words, proteomics can determine biological processes that are occurring [5].…”