Concept of Forensic Microbiology and its Applications

In the recent years, Forensic Microbiology has been established as a new scientific discipline in order to strengthen the law enforcement response especially in a bioterrorism event. Microorganisms can indiscriminately and unlawfully be used as agents of biological warfare, bio-crimes and agro terrorism. The main goals of microbial forensics are to identify and prioritize biological threats, identify the vulnerable population, create an information database and develop protocols for identification which includes determining unique genetic signatures, protein signatures, develop programs for ensuring the validity of results and constantly update based on existing literature. This review article aims to shed some light on this upcoming discipline.