Course Curriculam

Course Code: MBT312 Credit Units L T P/S SW AS/DS FW No. of PSDA Total Credit Unit
Course Level UG 2 0 2 4 0 0 0 5
Course Title Forensic Microbiology

Course This course focuses on newly emerging areas of microbiology relevant to medicolegal and criminal investigations: postmortem changes,
Description : establishing cause of death, estimating postmortem interval, and trace evidence analysis.

Course Objectives :

SN
Objectives
.
This course focuses on newly emerging areas of microbiology relevant to medicolegal and criminal investigations: postmortem changes, establishing
1
cause of death, estimating postmortem interval, and trace evidence analysis.

Pre-Requisites : General

SN. Course Code Course Name

Course Contents / Syllabus :

SN. Module Descriptors / Topics Weightage

Forensic Microbiology: Historical aspects, Definitions and concepts, Significance, Basic Principles, Functions and
1 Introduction 15.00
Scope.
Culture and long, term storage of microorganisms for forensic science, Sample preservation, storage, and handling
techniques,The value of culturing microorganisms, Collection and handling of samples, metagenomic data
generation, analysis, visualization, and interpretation, DNA extraction,, DNA sequencing, Marker gene data
analysis, visualization, and interpretation, Multi]omics data analysis, visualization, and interpretation, Methods for
identification, Estimating PMI (post mortem interval), Cause of death, Trace evidence, medicolegal aspects,
Postmortem bacterial translocation, Bacterial translocation in health and disease, Bacterial translocation in
Use of humans, Physiological changes after death influencing the selection of commensal bacteria, Consequences of
microorganism bacterial translocation, Microbial impacts in postmortem toxicology Precautions taken to limit microbial impacts,
2 55.00
s as physical Experimental protocols used to investigate postmortem drug and metabolite degradation due to microbial activity,,
evidence Examples of microbially mediated drug degradation DNA profiling of bacteria from human hair: Potential and
pitfalls, introduction to human hair as a forensic substrate,, Current research into hair microbiomes, Importance of
hair sample collection, storage, and isolation of microbial DNA, DNA sequencing of hair microbiomes, Clinical
microbiology and virology in the context of the autopsy The historical view of autopsy microbiology,, Which
samples should you collect and how? Which methods are available for the diagnosis of infection?, How do you put
the results into context? What are the risks of transmission of infection in the postmortem room?, How does
autopsy microbiology contribute to the diagnosis of specific conditions?
Forensic Microbial communities associated with decomposing corpses, Microbes, anthropology, and bones, Bone
microbiology in microstructure,, Microbially mediated decomposition, Bone bioerosion, Reconstructing postmortem histories, Tools
3 decomposition for the forensic classification of the built environment microbiome, Forensic microbiology of the built 20.00
and built environment,,Challenges of human remains research, Human remains research during death investigations,
environment Descriptive and hypothesis driven research, Experiment design, Validation studies.
Emerging
Current technologies in forensic microbiology, Innovative forensic diagnosis and exploration in forensic
4 Trends & 10.00
microbiology
Technologies

Course Learning Outcomes :

SN. Course Learning Outcomes
1 Students will be able to define basic concepts of forensic microbiology
2 Students will be able to relate modern techniques for the identification of microbes in diagnostic forensic laboratories
3 Students will be able to rephrase the biological machinery of microbes associated with decomposing corpses
Students will be able to integrate knowledge of Forensic Microbiology and techniques with interdisciplinary approaches to solve biological
4
problems.

Pedagogy for Course Delivery :

SN. Pedagogy Methods

1 Lecture Plan/Session Plan :Lectures, Writing on Board, Power point presentation, discussion of various Case studies
The course instructor will spend considerable time in understanding the concept of forensic microbiology technique through the eyes of the
2 innovator. The instructor will cover the ways to think innovatively liberally analyze the forensic diagnosis and how it helps in exploration of Forensic
Microbiology.

Theory /VAC / Architecture Assessment (L,T & Self Work): 80.00 Max : 100

Attendance+CE+EE : 5+45+50

SN. Type Component Name Marks

1 Attendance 5.00
2 End Term Examination (OMR) 50.00
3 Internal CLASS TEST 10.00
4 Internal INTEGRATED ASSIGNMENT 20.00
5 Internal CLASS QUIZ 10.00
6 Internal SEMINAR 5.00

Lab/ Practical/ Studio/Arch. Studio/ Field Work Assessment : 20.00 Max : 100

Attendance+CE+EE : 5+45+50

SN. Type Component Name Marks

1 Attendance 5.00
2 External PRACTICAL 25.00
3 External Viva 25.00
4 Internal PERFORMANCE 10.00
5 Internal PRACTICAL / LAB RECORDS 10.00
6 Internal Viva 25.00

Lab/ Practical details, if applicable :

SN. Lab / Practical Details

1 To demonstrate how to recover microbes from forensic samples
2 To demonstrate identification of microbes with reference to metagenomic analysis
List of Professional skill development activities :

No.of PSDA : 3
SN. PSDA Point
1 Quiz
2 Chart/ppt presentation
3 Integrated Assignment

Text & References :

SN. Type Title/Name Description ISBN/ URL

B.B. Nanda and R.K Tiwari, Forensic
1 Book Science in India : A vision for the Twenty 0
First Centrury, selec
M.KBhasin and S.Nath, Role of Forensic
2 Book Science in the New Millenium, University of
Delhi, Delhi(2002
S.HJames and J.J Nordby, Forensic
3 Book Science :An introduction to scientific and
Investigative Technique
W.G. Eckert and R.K. Wright in Introduction
4 Book to Forensic Sciiences, 2nd Edition, W.G.
Eckert (ED), CR