ArticleScientific reports2023
The invisible witness: air and dust as DNA evidence of human occupancy in indoor premises.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Environmental DNA (eDNA) from humans: Review of recent advancements and forensic implications.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Review
- Impact of face-derived DNA on touch DNA deposition on cell phone screens.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Effect of long-lasting antimicrobial surface sprays in real-life environment.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- STR analysis of human DNA recovered from bathwater and other water samples for forensic identification.PloS one · 2026Article
- Impact of liquid antibacterial soap and hand sanitizer on DNA transfer in forensic investigations: an experimental study.Forensic sciences research · 2025Article
- Forensic identification using airDNA: a preliminary study on the collection, isolation, amplification and sequencing of human DNA from air samples.Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Trace DNA Transfer in Co-Working Spaces: The Importance of Background DNA Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans constantly shed deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into the surrounding environment. This DNA may either remain suspended in the air or it settles onto surfaces as indoor dust. In this study, we explored the potential use of human DNA recovered from air and dust to investigate crimes where there are no visible traces available-for example, from a recently vacated drugs factory where multiple workers had been present. Samples were collected from three indoor locations (offices, meeting rooms and laboratories) characterized by different occupancy types and cleaning regimes. The resultant DNA profiles were compared with the reference profiles of 55 occupants of the premises. Our findings showed that indoor dust samples are rich sources of DNA and provide an historical record of occupants within the specific locality of collection. Detectable levels of DNA were also observed in air and dust samples from ultra-clean forensic laboratories which can potentially contaminate casework samples. We provide a Bayesian statistical model to estimate the minimum number of dust samples needed to detect all inhabitants of a location. The results of this study suggest that air and dust could become novel sources of DNA evidence to identify current and past occupants of a crime scene.
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