forensic science question

[Scott DeWar]

Hypothetically!!!!!!!

DNA evidence is collected from a victim of murder, Which requires it to be processed, and I am to understand it could take as little as a week to get it profiled, then longer to put it through CODUS or Interpol databases

How easy is it to determine gender of a sample? Chromosomes show that, shouldn't that be rather easy to verify? XX or XY, or for the extremely rare, XXY?

I am watching NCIS New Orleans, where the phrase of "Him or her" for a sample of sweat found on a sweaty body. [how they were able to find that little bit of sweat on he whole body of the victim a couple hours after it was found, not to mention getting it int0o the lab, . . . . . let's not dwell on the impossible, shall we?

 

[Ryujin]

Apparently it's the easiest thing to determine, though the whole LGBT thing throws a wrench into it.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/apr/27/genetics.cancer

 

[Scott DeWar]

Good l ink! I will read this.

 

[Umbran]

Hypothetically!!!!!!!

DNA evidence is collected from a victim of murder, Which requires it to be processed, and I am to understand it could take as little as a week to get it profiled, then longer to put it through CODUS or Interpol databases

A week... if you aren't counting the *tremendous* backlog of samples the labs typically have.

 

[Scott DeWar]

A week... if you aren't counting the *tremendous* backlog of samples the labs typically have.

thus the statement of "as little as". In hind sight I could have worded that a lot better to something like "At the very least a week, usually much longer"

 

[Ryujin]

thus the statement of "as little as". In hind sight I could have worded that a lot better to something like "At the very least a week, usually much longer"

Let's just say that the chemical processes involved can't really be completed in time for the denouement of an hour long crime drama TV show

 

[Scott DeWar]

But, out of curiosity,for the sake of the hypothetical situation, how long would it take to detect the chromosome sets?

 

[Umbran]

But, out of curiosity,for the sake of the hypothetical situation, how long would it take to detect the chromosome sets?

If you can catch a cell when dividing, you can see them with a basic compound light microscope. If you find such a cell, you can tell within minutes. If you have to culture the cells to then get some to divide, then... a day or so?

 

[Scott DeWar]

That answers the question very well: IF you can catch the dividing of the cell.

 

[Umbran]

That answers the question very well: IF you can catch the dividing of the cell.

Presumably, in any sample, you're apt to have some. You'd just have to search around on a few slides made from the sample.

More important, to most procedurals, would be that this can be done, it probably isn't the common procedure. Someone would have to say, "Geeze, we don't care about much of the genetics, but we *need* to know the sex of the perp, like, now!" Normally, I think they'd take the sample, prep it and send it to a (third party) lab, and order some battery of standard analyses, which all have to go through the lab's backlog.