The Center for Forensic Anthropology (CFA) at Northern Michigan University, which includes the Forensic Research Outdoor Station (FROST), recently received a $30,000 National Institute of Justice subaward from Colorado State University to help validate a novel method for estimating human time since death, or postmortem interval. NMU students will be involved in the research.
The research is a collaboration between NMU Associate Professor of Biology Josh Sharp and CFA Director Jane Harris. Their job is to take samples of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa—known as the microbiome—from donors and the surrounding soil to see how human decomposition affects the soil microbiome.
“There's a lot that we don't know about how the decomposition process changes over time,” Sharp said. “That's what the current research is trying to address: what changes over time in the microbe-population during the decomposition process, and are those changes predictable? Are there certain bacteria, for example, that show up at certain times? If there are, those can be clues for forensic investigations. It could add another tool to help make some of those measurements of the time since death more precise.”
NMU was chosen to receive the subaward because FROST is one of only two human taphonomy research facilities in a northern climate. A facility in Quebec, Canada, also received a grant. This is important because the original test sites were in states such as Tennessee and Texas, with much warmer climates than the Upper Peninsula.
“Studies like this are important to carry out in multiple regions in order to ascertain whether what they are seeing in the soil is universal or if it is different in different climates or regions,” Harris said. “Because our facility is located in a region that experiences long periods of cold temperatures and receives substantial annual snow accumulation, it is unique among the U.S.-based taphonomy facilities.”
To help with the research, a machine-learning algorithm will be used in order to find patterns among the thousands of microbes present in a microbiome. This can create millions of data points, something that would take the average human a long time to sift through, and even then would have inaccuracies. Without the pattern-recognition capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the study likely wouldn't be possible.
The $30,000 grant will be used for various research purposes, including the purchase of personal protection equipment such as gloves, gowns and masks, and testing equipment necessary for taking samples over the course of 21 days and across multiple sites.
Some funds will support student research time. There is also a need for traveling to conferences and shipping samples back to CSU, so that the other labs that FROST is collaborating with can easily share their information with each other and streamline the research process.
“One of the goals for FROST and projects like this is to get students involved in research,” Sharp said. “Having money to do that is awesome, so we can provide NMU students with authentic research opportunities.”
Republished courtesy of NMU.