Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical tool that has been contributing to generating knowledge in a vast number of disciplines, from pharmaceutical analysis to environmental science and pathology, particularly in the last decade. Some examples of practical implementation stand out in clinical diagnostics, with mass spectrometers being used in hospitals for microbiological identification, antibiotic resistance detection and intra-operative cancer resection. However, there is only minimal awareness of the contribution that mass spectrometry makes to forensic science. Partly, this is due to viewing mass spectrometry as “just” an enabler for other disciplines; however the slow pace of innovation implementation and insufficient dissemination to other potential users within the community, also play a role.
Mass spectrometry has globally permeated forensic science, addressing investigative hypotheses as well as prosecution/defence scenarios. While some techniques are considered “emerging” and are progressively increasing in technology readiness level, as formally recognised in the UK by the Fingermark Visualisation Manual (Home Office/Dstl, UK), others have already been implemented to support both investigations and judicial debates.
The aim of this book is to disseminate awareness of both “mass spectrometry techniques of the future” and those already integrated within the forensic workflow for the analysis of specific types of evidence. It is important that forensic providers and police investigators recognise the forensic opportunities enabled by these techniques, as well as where to find knowledge around their deployment and application for the provision of forensic intelligence.
Indeed, due to different legislations, policies and research being conducted in silos, these techniques may be implemented in some countries but not in others. For these reasons, academics, industry sector-specific specialists and end users from different parts of the world were invited to contribute to different chapters of this book.
For each technique portrayed, this book aims to inform the reader of the type of forensic query and evidence analysed, the answers sought and provided, the limitations, the applications within the legal system and the instrumentation (and its specifications) enabling the specific type of intelligence that is being sought.
Finally, the last three chapters cover the use of mass spectrometry for the provision of intelligence that may not be directly exploited by the legal and forensic community but still has potential relevance to legal proceedings. This content choice stems from the potential transferability of these methods to support forensic investigations and court cases. After all, forensic science has previously borrowed and adapted the discovery of DNA profiling for the identification of perpetrators (or elimination of suspects).
The editors very much hope that this book will not only be useful reading for investigators and practitioners in all relevant environments, but also for postgraduates and early career investigators, as potential forensic scientists of the future, further developing the number and types of forensic (and more wide ranging) scientific queries that mass spectrometry can address.
Stephen Bleay
London South Bank University, UK
Simona Francese
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
