Abstract
In forensic casework, identifying the donor of a biological trace regularly needs to be complemented with additional intelligence regarding the context of trace deposition to reconstruct the true course of events. A complex body of information on the trace's nature and condition is encoded in the transcriptome even of minute biological stains recovered from crime scenes. In this talk, I will present data from a recent project exploring the potential of analyzing the transcriptome to estimate the time-of-day of bloodstain deposition.

Biosketch
Annica Gosch studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Kiel, Germany. She now works as a Forensic Molecular Biologist and researcher at the Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne. Her research focuses on theccontextualization of forensic trace evidence, particularly utilizing RNA and gene expression analyses to provide deeper insights into crime scene evidence—such as the identification of body fluid(s) present in a biological trace, estimating the time of deposition of biological traces or the age of a trace donor.