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'They Can Also Be Spies': Bed Bugs Offer New Forensic Clue for Investigators
Malaysian scientists found that tropical bed bugs retain human DNA for up to 45 days enabling phenotypic profiling for forensic use in tropical crime scenes.
- Two years ago, a Science University of Malaysia team in northern Penang found tropical bed bugs can retain human blood DNA for up to 45 days in a study published in Nature's Scientific Reports.
- Hidden at crime scenes, bed bugs often reside in headboard cracks, mattress seams and pillow covers; unlike mosquitoes, they cannot fly and move only within 20 feet after feeding.
- In the lab, researchers reared bed bugs in containers and ran volunteer feedings, then extracted blood DNA and used STR and SNP markers to identify gender and eye, hair, skin colour.
- Police investigators may one day piece together an offender's full profile from a speck of blood if bed bugs are present, but researchers cautioned the method only works if insects are available and is not a magic fix for cold cases.
- The study recasts loathed household pests as potential crime-busting allies, an unusual forensic innovation by USM researchers after nearly half a decade of lab work.
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These harmful insects may retain human DNA for up to 45 days after sucking the blood of their prey.
·Montreal, Canada
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The bed bugs have bad press and because they are invasive and their bites cause itching. But Malaysian scientists are working to make them detectives or rather witnesses in criminal investigations, at least that's the goal.
·Paris, France
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'Perfect Forensic Tool': How Scientists Use Bed Bugs To Bust Crime
Long-loathed as itchy household pests, the blood-sucking insects have revealed a darker, more intriguing potential as Malaysian scientists have discovered they can be turned into unlikely crime-busting allies.
·New Delhi, India
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Total News Sources55
Leaning Left6Leaning Right12Center14Last UpdatedBias Distribution44% Center
Bias Distribution
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44% Center
L 19%
C 44%
R 37%
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