Unique identification of people with the help of hair

Creating a profile from DNA is used as a common method for identifying people in the sciences of DNA and archeology due to the fact that DNA is unique to each and every person. At the same time, environmental and chemical processes may break down the DNA and thus limit its use over time. In contrast, proteins are more stable than DNA molecules and may be unique to an individual

[Translation by Dr. Nachmani Moshe]
Researchers from the USA have discovered that it is possible to use unique protein markers found in human hair, in combination with a DNA profile, to identify people.
Creating a profile from DNA is used as a common method for identifying people in the sciences of DNA and archeology due to the fact that DNA is unique to each and every person. At the same time, environmental and chemical processes may break down the DNA and thus limit its use over time. In contrast, proteins are more stable than DNA molecules and may be unique to an individual. Therefore, the researchers tested whether proteins found in human hair could provide an additional tool for identifying humans in the fields of MZP and archaeology.
The researchers were able to examine bioarchaeological hair samples of six people aged up to 250 years, demonstrating the stability of these proteins. They tested hair samples from seventy-six people of European and African descent. To date, they have found a total of 185 markers of hair proteins, and they believe that these will allow a unique pattern to identify an individual human that will distinguish him from a population of a million people. The researchers hope to find a basic collection of about a hundred unique hair protein markers that will be enough to identify a single person out of the entire world population, with the help of a single hair. The unique identification method using stable proteins offers an additional tool for law enforcement and law enforcement agencies to investigate crime scenes and archaeologists.
"In the field of identification based on proteins, we are in a place similar to the place where the method of identification using a DNA profile was in its early days," said the author of the article who is also the director of the MZF laboratory. "The method could be a breakthrough in the field of MZP sciences, and although we were able to advance the field to a considerable extent, there is still a lot of work left before we can use the full potential of the method."

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