UC Davis

Identification of subjects, including perpetrators, is one of the most crucial goals of forensic science. Saliva is among the most common biological fluids found at crime scenes containing identifiable components. DNA has been the most prominent identifier to date, but its analysis can be complex due to low DNA yields and issues preserving its integrity at the crime scene. Proteins are emerging as viable candidates for subject identification. Previous work has shown that the salivary proteome of the least abundant proteins may be helpful for subject identification, but more optimized techniques are needed. Among them, is the removal of the most abundant proteins, such as salivary α-amylase. We will test the hypothesis that the saliva proteome profile depleted of α-amylase and enriched with the least abundant proteins allows a more nuanced subject identification.