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Fingerprint Molecular Identification
Created by ArroGen scientists, a forensic solution company based in North Carolina and the U.K., the Fingerprint Molecular Identification, or FMID, will decrease the time and cost for criminals to be caught, making this an important innovation for forensic investigators. Before FMID, there was IAFIS, or Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which involved running fingerprints through a database. That process, along with other costly DNA testing, could- but not always- identify whose fingerprint belongs to who, and in the case of having multiple fingerprints at a crime scene, whichever fingerprint belongs to the perpetrator will be even more uncertain.
FMID can reveal things about the owner of a fingerprint that IAFIS could not: it can determine what gender someone is, if that person was a smoker, if he or she had handled drugs, explosives, or guns recently, and additional information.
This technology has the potential to be used not only in crime scenes but also in other places where there is zero tolerance for drugs, such as in the transportation field or in correctional facilities. In addition, it can be used to screen airline passengers for explosives and pilots for drugs use.
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It uses a powder with sub-micron particles that attach to the amino and fatty acids in fingerprint residue. The new materials produce images that are high contrast and have better clarity than the older powder methods.
At the crime scene, scientists would sprinkle the powder onto fingerprints, then remove it using lift tape. Then the samples are brought to the lab where a mass spectrometer scans the prints with a laser. The machine vaporizes and ionizes the molecules in the fingerprint residue, allowing for it to detect molecular profiles in the residue, determining information such as gender and other helpful information. In addition, the machine can read prints from up to a month ago. They are now testing if the machine can read fingerprints from over a year ago.