Microbial Forensics from Bioterrorism and Biocrime to Human Identification

The ANZFSS Queensland Branch is pleased to welcome back Professor Bruce Budowle to present our August seminar.

Bioterrorism and biocrime have been committed by humans for more than two millennia. The field of microbial forensics was developed in response to the anthrax letters attack in 2001 to analyze evidence associated with acts of bioterrorism and biological crimes in which microbes or their toxins are used as weapons with attribution as the ultimate goal. Attribution of microbial evidence is to determine an associated source and perpetrator or group of individuals to the highest degree possible. Microbial forensics combines the practices of epidemiology with the characterization of microbial and microbial-related evidence to assist in determining the specific source of the sample, as individualizing as possible, and/or the methods, means, processes and locations involved to determine the identity of the perpetrator(s) of an attack. There is a wide variety of microbial species or strains that could serve as possible biothreats (human, plant, and animal pathogens). Molecular biology techniques, such as massively parallel sequencing, are suited to meet the challenges of characterization and attribution. The field has progressed to include human identification and postmortem interval.

Featured Speaker: Professor Bruce Budowle

Dr. Budowle worked at the FBI’s Laboratory Division for 26 years and at Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health Science Center for 13 years. He has published more than 750 articles and testified in well over 300 criminal cases in the areas of molecular biology, population genetics, statistics, quality assurance, and forensic biology. He continues research and work in the areas of forensic genomics (particularly in forensic genetic genealogy) and contributes to supporting humanitarian efforts via human identification. He currently is a visiting professor at the University of Helsinki and a consultant with Othram, Inc.