Francese, Simona - Sheffield Hallam University - Department of Biosciences and Chemistry

个人简介

I was appointed as a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University after completing a BSc in Chemistry and a PhD in chemical sciences at The University of Salerno, Italy. I have taught separation and detection techniques, analytical science and bioanalytical methods. I am an internationally known researcher in the area of Latent Fingerprint analysis and I work closely with the Home Office and West Yorkshire Police UK.

研究领域

Chemical Profiling of fingermarks MALDI MSP and MALDI MSI method refinement for operational deployment in casework - This project focuses on maximising forensic opportunities from fingerprints by transferring laboratory MALDI MS Fingermark Profiling and Imaging techniques into protocols for routine operational use in casework. This work will represent the first significant enhancement to techniques which have remained largely unchanged for over 100 years. This project aims to deliver both offender profiling and enhance crime contextual information. Integration of these methodologies within the current fingerprinting workflows employed by Yorkshire and the Humber fingerprint identification services is an essential part of these developments. Such refined methodologies will enable robust and compatible workflows providing evidence to inform investigations and suitable to be submitted in a Court of Law. Multi-informative and specific detection of blood in fingermarks via MALDI MS based strategies In violent offences, blood is often found at crime scenes. Important intelligence and assistance in event reconstruction can be obtained from ascertaining the presence of blood, its provenance, age and its association with fingermarks (the most used means of biometric identification). Currently used blood detection techniques suffer from “false positives” due to their relatively generic molecular targets; this project aims to develop a proteomic and MALDI MS based multidisciplinary approach for the device of operational workflows providing blood signatures in fingermarks and blood provenance in addition to detecting exogenous substances of forensic relevance. Insights into the determination of the age of a blood trace and order of deposition (mark in blood or bloodied mark) will also be gained. Using ion mobility mass spectrometry to investigate the distribution and effect of dosed compounds on endogenous molecules This project has multiple research strands revolving around the investigation of technological developments in MS Imaging around three key areas: 1) Sample Preparation- to reduce ion suppression and improve spatial resolution by enhancing tissue digestion, matrix optimisation and matrix free technologies. Thus enabling the identification of less abundant endogenous molecules; 2) Ion mobility MS as applied to compound distribution and protein identification from tissue and fingermarks; 3) IT solutions for storing and comparing images. So far the main specimens of investigation have been fingermarks and and blood, though rat brain tissue has also been employed as a model.

近期论文

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Patel E, Cicatiello P., Deininger L., Clench M. R., Marino G., Giardina P., Langenburg G., West A., Marshall P., Sears V., and Francese S. A proteomic approach for the rapid, multi-informative and reliable identification of blood. Analyst (2015) DOI: 10.1039/c5an02016f Patel E., Clench M.R., West A., Marshall .S., Marshall N, Francese S., "Alternative Surfactants for Improved Efficiency of In Situ Tryptic Proteolysis of Fingermarks", J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 26 (2015): 862-872 Groeneveld G., dePuit M., Bleay S., Bradshaw R., Francese S., "Detection and mapping of drugs and metabolites in fingermarks by MALDI MS and compatibility with forensic techniques", Scientific Reports (2015) DOI: 10.1038/srep11716 Mitchell C.A., Long H., Donaldson M., Francese S., Clench M.R. Lipid changes within the epidermis of living skin equivalents observed across a time-course by MALDI-MS imaging and profiling. Lipids Health Dis. (2015) doi:10.1186/s12944-015-0089-z Bailey M.J., Bradshaw R., Francese S., Salter T.L., Costa C., Ismail M., Webb R., Bosman I., Wolff K. and de Puit M., "Rapid detection of cocaine, benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine in fingerprints using surface mass spectrometry", Analyst (2015) DOI: 10.1039/C5AN00112A