Services
Biological traces
LGC Forensics' Biological Trace services cover
the full range of human body fluids and tissues that can be
transferred through contact between people or onto clothing,
weapons and other items. Most commonly encountered are:
- Body fluids – blood, saliva, semen, excretion
products
- Body tissues – hair, skin flakes, nails,
teeth, bone.
Great emphasis is placed on finding the trace
and a range of chemical and physical enhancement techniques are
used to assist with this. These include luminol, a
chemiluminescent substance which glows in the dark on contact with
blood, and whose introduction into routine casework we
pioneered.
Our unique in-house histopathology team is
able to assist in identifying unusual or damaged tissues.
Patterns in blood and other staining are often
critical in establishing how body fluids were
transferred. This can help resolve disputes – for example
whether someone assaulted a victim or they were just going to their
aid.
Pattern analysis is also fundamental to
determining which part of an area of staining might be the best to
sample for DNA analysis in order to establish from whom the body
fluid could have come. This is when our expertise in
recovering different sorts of samples from different kinds of
backgrounds is especially invaluable, allowing us to maximise
testing opportunities from the merest traces of material.
As a full service forensics supplier, LGC
Forensics also has considerable experience of non-human biological
traces, most commonly involving animal hairs and fragments of
vegetation from incidents which occur out of doors.