Humans Can Be Identified Through The Protein Of Their Hairs, Study Reveals

The protein in the hairs can be used as human identification just like the DNA profiling, according to a new study. The researchers examined whether the protein in human hair could be used for finding individuals in forensic or archaeology scenarios. The findings showed that it could also be used to distinguish ancient human and solve long-forgotten mysteries.

The study was printed in the journal PLOS ONE on September 7, 2016. It was led by Glendon Parker from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and colleagues, according to Phys.Org.

The study involved six people that were up to 250 years old. The team investigated their bioarcheological hair samples together with the hair samples from living individuals of European American and African descent. The team discovered about 185 hair protein markers to date. They said that this would be enough to deliver a unique pattern for an individual that could identify that person among a population of one million.

Humans can be identified by proteins in their hair even 250 years after their death https://t.co/pvclcgGycA article https://t.co/YkT8ZVEg0i

— Leroy (@Leroy_Lynch) September 8, 2016

According to Daily Mail, this new identification technique could be used to help law enforcements to track down criminals from the evidence left at the crime scene. Likewise, it could also able archeologist to recognize mysterious human remains.

Brad Hart, the director of the Lab's Forensic Science Centre said that they are in a very similar place with protein-based identification to where DNA profiling was during the early days of its development. He further said that this method will be a game-changer for forensics and while they have made a lot of progress toward proving it, there are steps to go before this new technique will be able to reach its full potential.