The Institute of Forensic Medi­cine works on legal problems that can only be solved using medical or natural scientific expert knowledge. The institute consists of an interdisciplinary team with different areas of ex­pertise (forensic genetics, foren­sic and traffic medicine, forensic chemistry and toxicology).

Besides the investigations, ana­lyses and expert reports on behalf of various authorities and tasks in academic teaching, the insti­tute has scientific key areas in fo­rensic imaging, development and validation of analytical methods in toxicology, the analysis of bio­logical traces, as well as in traffic medicine. To date, research activi­ties in forensic imaging are main­ly based on post mortem comput­ed tomography and photography.

Current studies include the evalu­ation of effects of the contrast agent used for pm CT angiography on micromorphology of tissue samples and the investigation of infrared photography for the visua­lization of subcutaneous hemato­mas and tattoos.

Future projects involve MR im­aging in living victims of violence and in deceased persons. In the living, forensic MRI will be ap­plied e.g. to detect traumatic find­ings in the soft tissues of the neck after survived strangulation and in child abuse for the assessment of the time of origin of fractures. Post mortem, main projects in­clude the validation of imaging findings in the central nervous system and the heart by compar­ing them with CT, autopsy and histology, as well as the validation of methodological developments. These projects will be performed in cooperation with other research groups. Please find more information about our research here.