How to use microbial community data from soils, dust, or objects for forensic or archaeologic use. Also, see the Microbiome of Death and/or  Archaeological Microbiology.

Research papers

The salivary microbiome for differentiating individuals: proof of principle – Sarah L. Leake – Microbes and Infection – April 2016

Next-Generation Sequencing of the Bacterial 16S rRNA Gene for Forensic Soil Comparison: A Feasibility Study – Ellen M. Jesmok – Journal of Forensic Sciences – February 2016

Humans differ in their personal microbial cloud – James F.  Meadow – PeerJ – September 2015

Microbial Forensic Analysis of Bacterial Fingerprint by Sequence Comparison of 16S rRNA Gene – So-Yeon Lee – Journal of Forensic Research – June 2015

Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes – Simon Lax – Microbiome – May 2015

Identifying personal microbiomes using metagenomic codes – Eric A. Franzosa – PNAS – April 2015

Mobile phones carry the personal microbiome of their owners – James F. Meadow – PeerJ – June 2014

Forensic identification using skin bacterial communities – Noah Fierer – PNAS – February 2010

Review papers

Microbial forensics: next‐generation sequencing as catalyst – Irene Kuiper – EMBO Reports – June 2016

Popular science articles

How your microbiome can put you at the scene of the crime – Kai Kupferschmidt – Science – March 2016

A cloud of distinction – Could the trails of microbes we leave behind be used to solve crimes? Julian Smith picks up the scent – Julian Smith – New Scientist – March 2016

Your Microbe Aura Could Be as Distinctive as Your Fingerprint – Cari Romm – The Atlantic – September 2015

When You Move House, Your Microbial Aura Moves Too – Ed Yong – National Geographic – August 2014