Forensic Epigenetics Methods and Applications

Forensic epigenetics is the use of epigenetics techniques to address questions of interests to the courts of law and the criminal investigator. Current efforts to develop forensic epigenetic techniques are surrounding four issues in the criminal investigation; body fluid identification (targeting microRNA and DNA methylation), individual age prediction (targeting DNA methylation), differentiating between monozygotic twins, and potentially stain age prediction (targeting a range of markers). Here, the forensic challenges are discussed alongside current capability, and current research efforts to help improve the capability of the forensic investigator. The use of microRNA and DNA methylation has been used to great success to improve the identification of forensically relevant body fluids, with DNA methylation-based techniques already in use in casework. There has been a substantial development of the use of DNA methylation to predict the age of individuals, with prediction models available in open access format. A range of different techniques has been used to differentiate between monozygotic twins, including Massively Parallel Sequencing and High-Resolution Melting Curve Analysis. Little work has been on predicting the age of body fluid stains, but the environmentally sensitive DNA methylation profiling should be of use.