Researchers

David Foran

To David Foran, it's all about the little things -- mystery's tiniest clues.
Foran, associate professor of criminal justice and zoology, leads MSU's forensic biology program, which designs and perfects techniques that help advance the fields of forensic biology and forensic molecular biology. The group focuses on mitochondrial DNA for much of its most sensitive work. DNA has revolutionized criminal evidence in law enforcement, but it's a technology still untapped.
Foran said the group is probing such questions as how long DNA endures in bones – a question crucial in using DNA to identify human remains. The group is examining a variety of human bones which have lain in different conditions – sometimes up to 3,000 years in a swamp, a desert, a forest or in bones that have stood the test of time or have crumbled to near dust.
"We're asking if there is any correlation between the level of weathering of a bone or skeleton and the likelihood of obtaining DNA results," Foran said. "Can we predict in advance, based on the condition of a bone, if DNA analysis will be successful, and what types of analyses should be tried?" Preliminary, and surprising, results is that bones may be dust in the wind, but most of the time DNA endures — and with it its cache of information about identity and heredity.
Other areas of research:

•  Flies or, more specifically, the maggots that blow flies leave on bodies, assist law enforcement in pinpointing time of death. Foran's group is pinpointing the expression of 10 genes in flies to be even more specific. Knowing when a gene is triggering development of wings or eyes, for example, can make the evidence more useful. "There's lots of stuff happening in a fly pupa as it develops so quickly," he said.
•  A group of students is working to collect DNA from the shrapnel of exploded pipe bombs. Unlike protein-based fingerprints, which usually are destroyed, enough DNA can endure to at least narrow down a suspect's family group.

The group also contributes to improving methods currently used in state, federal and private forensic laboratories. It's research that makes the biology of crime more responsive. More accurate. More reliable.
"This is technology that is new and has evolved very quickly," Foran said. "Some techniques have become pretty standard, but we're going to take something and make it better."

Richard Merritt

Richard Merritt is a professor and chair of the Michigan State University Entomology Department.

He became involved in forensic science more than 20 years ago, assisting police departments with investigations and testifying in cases involving insects. Currently, he is one of 12 board-certified forensic entomologists in North America, was recently the chairman of the American Board of Forensic Entomology, and a fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Merritt researches aquatic insects, especially the order Diptera- true flies - and their ecology. He has researched the effects of human inputs on rivers, as well as using insects to measure aquatic habitats. He is currently exploring new methods of controlling Buruli Ulcer, an emerging disease in Africa, with funding from the National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation.

Merritt also teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in aquatic entomology, biomonitoring of streams and rivers, and forensic entomology.

His scientific career began at California State University at San Jose, where he received his bachelor’s degree in biology. He received his master’s in entomology from Washington State University and his doctorate in medical entomology and parasitology from U.C. Berkeley.

John Trestrail

John Harris Trestrail III is a practicing boarded toxicologist, author, instructor, and the managing director of The DeVos Children’s Hospital Regional Poison Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.  

He works as an expert consultant for criminal poisoning investigations.  He founded the Center for the Study of Criminal Poisoning, as well as the Toxicological History Society and has served as an expert consultant in many criminal poisoning investigations, to law enforcement and attorneys

He graduated from Ferris State University with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy, and received his master’s degree in natural product chemistry at Ohio State. He taught chemistry at the University of the Philippines College while serving in the Peace Corp, and was a visiting instructor at the FBI national Academy for many years.

He has published two books: Criminal Poisoning: An Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys, and The Poison Quiz 2nd Edition and was a co-editor of Toxicology Secrets.

He is fellow in the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology and a diplomate, by examination, of the American Board of Applied Toxicology. He founded the Center for Study of Criminal Poisonings and the Toxicological History Society.