Today@Sam Article
SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science Awarded Three NIJ Research Grants
Feb. 28, 2025
SHSU Media Contact: Mikah Boyd
By Kim Foster
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has awarded grants to three faculty members of the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice Department of Forensic Science, totaling $1,261,437 in research funding for Fiscal Year 2024.
“We were thrilled when we received the news,” Sheree Hughes, chair of the SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science, said. “While each of these awards are in three different forensic science disciplines, it’s highly unusual for one department to get multiple successful grants because that single funding source (NIJ) must distribute among universities, private labs and private corporations across the entire United States.”
Sheree Hughes, SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science chair
Title: “The Impact of Processing and Sampling Procedures on the Integrity of Forensically Relevant Biomolecules in Bones for Human Identification and Forensic Intelligence Purposes”
Award Amount: $828,479
This research project is a collaborative effort with Noemi Procopio from the University of Central Lancashire School of Natural Sciences and Glendon Parker with the University of California Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology. The team is investigating the effects evidence processing may have on skeletal samples collected from the field.
While most might think DNA provides finite answers with investigations, this research dives deeper. Hughes is looking at DNA’s building blocks and their role in providing investigative insight.
“When identifying human remains, such as time of death, individualization is often difficult and heavily reliant on DNA,” Hughes said. “However, as the bones become more degraded or damaged, the DNA quickly breaks and gets to a point where you can’t get enough useable, quality DNA to identify someone. Now the field is looking at other biomolecules such as proteins, which are more resilient in bones that are left degrading over time.”
Hughes says the way labs currently clean and process bone samples could be damaging, potentially making identification even more difficult in an already challenging case.
“The grant is looking at what cleaning methods are the least destructive and will provide guidance to labs on the best way to sample and which bones are best to extract samples to get these biomolecules,” Hughes said.
The preliminary data used for this grant is based on work done several years ago by Hughes’ collaborator, Noemi Procopio. That study used samples from the Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility (STAFS) and published data that found damage to the proteins, prompting this current collaborative research project.
This project was supported by Award No. 15PNIJ-24-GG-03841-SLFO, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.
Tyler Davidson, SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science assistant professor
Title: “Differentiation of Hemp and Marijuana Using Metal Ligand Ion Complexation”
Award Amount: $216,763
This research project is a collaborative effort with Davidson’s colleague in the SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science, Britni Skillman and Christopher Zall in the SHSU College of Science and Engineering Technology’s Department of Chemistry. The team is investigating an alternative approach to differentiate hemp and marijuana.
“The challenge is that for years, the presence of THC was sufficient for the identification of marijuana, but due to changes in legislation, analysts must now determine how much THC is present to differentiate legal hemp from illegal marijuana,” Davidson said. “Our project is exploring alternative methods for detecting different cannabinoids that are present in cannabis plant material so we can more readily distinguish them from each other and try to alleviate the current burden on forensic laboratories.”
While this is Davidson’s first NIJ grant, the research is based on seed data from a previous internal grant. The research team’s goal for this two-year grant is to solve the next piece of the equation and apply for additional funding to continue the research.
“We’re not coming to the end, but rather to a new beginning,” Davidson said.
This project was supported by Award No. 15PNIJ-24-GG-03858-RESD, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.
Patrick Buzzini, SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science professor
Title: “On the reliability of the forensic examination of electrical tapes and the influence of alteration sources encountered in casework”
Award Amount: $216,195
This research project is a collaborative effort with James Curran, chair of the Statistics Department at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
The goal of this grant is to research the forensic examination of electrical tape, a subject that is understudied yet encountered in forensic case work fairly often.
“With very few exceptions, previous studies on electrical tape date back to over 10 years ago,” Buzzini said. “Essentially, we want to revisit the protocols for the forensic examination of the tape. You really need to know what features and properties you can gather from these materials.”
Buzzini also plans to study environmental factors to provide information about the limitations and reliability of the protocols that are used for the forensic tape examination.
“When you recover something from a crime scene, it’s seldom pristine,” Buzzini said. “So, after a blast, we want to know if the properties have been preserved. Sometimes the laboratories run fingerprints before analyzing the tape. We want to see if there is some influence from the typical methods used for fingerprints on the actual chemical analysis of the materials.”
This project was supported by Award No. 15PNIJ-24-GG-03853-RESD, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.
For more information about Hughes, Davidson and Buzzini, visit their faculty bio pages on the SHSU College of Criminal Justice website. For more information on the SHSU CJ Department of Forensic Science, click here to visit their website.
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