Microbial Forensics: Bioterrorism and Biocrime

Abstract

Microbes and their toxins can be bioweapons that bioterrorists use them to commit bioterrorism and biocrime. Due to the potential and relative ease of the bioattack, life-threat pathogenic agents (bacteria, viruses, and toxins) as bioweapon revealed the need for a new field of microbial forensics. Microbial forensics is a new scientific discipline combining microbiology and forensic science, which is focused on characterization of evidence from a bioterrorism, biocrime, and an inadvertent release of biothreat agents. The sophisticated analytical tool and knowledge of microbial forensics can provide investigative leads and help determine who was responsible for the biocrime, the source of the bioweapon, and how and where the bioweapon was produced. Among the fields of microbial forensics, this paper will briefly describe evidence collection, handling, packaging, transportation, storage, analytical methods of evidence, and review microbial forensics as a response to bioterrorism and biocrime.