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LLNL-led study finds any single hair from the human body can be used for identification

Any single hair from anywhere on the human body can be used to identify a person. This conclusion is one of the key findings from a nearly year-long study by a team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Forensic Science Center (FSC) and Michigan State University. The team's study, published in Scientific Reports, a journal of Nature Magazine, could provide an important new avenue of evidence for law enforcement authorities in sexual assault cases.

[...] The team discovered that the protein content of pubic hair is significantly higher than head and arm hair, according to Chu, who noted this means more protein markers can be found, making the individual profiles more discriminating.

Through the first few years of the Lab's research (2013-2016) into using protein markers from human hair to identify people, the researchers used multiple hairs for their samples. They were able to find enough markers to provide a unique pattern for an individual that would distinguish that person among a population of 1 million.

Now, six years after starting their research, the Livermore team can use a single one-inch strand of hair to identify one person from among 10 million people.

Hair Proteome Variation at Different Body Locations on Genetically Variant Peptide Detection for Protein-Based Human Identification (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44007-7) (DX)

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