Congratulations to Xi Cao who won the best poster presentation at the ChemCYS 2016 conference last week in Blankenberge, Belgium. The poster was on her research on “Separation of Organophosphate Nerve Agents by Capillary Electrophoresis and Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis”. This research is funded through the GIFT project under the FP7 Security Programme.
ChemCYS 2016 is a Chemistry conference for young scientists and this year had Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr Sir Harold Kroto, The Florida State University as the keynote.
GIFT is a Capability Project funded under the FP7-SEC-2013-1 call to develop a European toolbox, focusing on procedures, practice and guidelines for CBRN forensic aspects. The title of project is Generic Integrated Forensic Toolbox for CBRN incidents. Full details of the project can be seen here https://giftforensics.eu
The objective of Xi Cao’s work can be seen below
"Forensic investigation is a key component in the fight against crime and the protection of EU societies. At present it is hampered by a lack of protocols and training in carrying out forensic analysis on CBRN-contaminated materials. The aim of GIFT-CBRN is to develop a forensic toolbox for investigating CBRN incidents. This toolbox would provide (1) procedures, sampling methods and detection of CBRN agents at the crime scene, (2) traditional forensic laboratory methods for contaminated evidence and (3) laboratory methods for profiling the CBRN agents released at the incident. The procedures and methods are will be set up and validated according to ISO17025 and the system validation will be performed by a final exercise. Procedures for chain of custody, QC to ensure the integrity of the evidence and investigations done on the evidence from crime scene to court will be developed. An education and training curriculum related to the developed procedures, best practices and methods will be designed and progressed to implementation.
Underpinning the above aims, research will be carried out to develop novel methodologies to enable traditional forensic science (DNA, fingerprint and electronic devices) to be carried out on CBRN contaminated exhibits and analytical procedures to be carried out that not only provide information about the CBRN agent itself but also through CBRN profiling provide in-depth information which can give valuable forensic information, for example points of origin.
The project team includes forensic research laboratories, potential users of the expected developments, including public and private users, and SMEs who will be able to bring the new technologies developed within the project to market."