Recovering appropriate evidence from crime scenes to identify the perpetrator, or in certain cases, the victim, is one of the main goals of forensic investigation. The current practice includes collection of objects from which “trace” or “touch” DNA may be retrieved. Contact lenses, worn by the perpetrator/victim, represent a potentially good source of DNA. This is based on their exposure to touch DNA and the release and regeneration of epithelial cells from the eye. This study takes these premises into account with the objective of analyzing the efficiency of human nuclear and mitochondrial DNA isolation from contact lenses. DNA was collected using a non‐destructive technique (double‐swab) and subsequently isolated using a silica‐based methodology. Although DNA quantification was variable among subjects and contact lenses, it was sufficient to amplify some STRs and successfully sequence mtDNA. The findings from this research provide a proof‐of‐concept that it is possible to recover, isolate, amplify human nuclear DNA, and characterize mitochondrial DNA from contact lenses left at crime scenes. These results show the potential importance of recovering unusual items from crime scenes as a potential source of DNA to identify the victim and/or suspect.

中文翻译：

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仅凭您的眼睛：犯罪现场隐形眼镜中核和线粒体DNA分离的效率

从犯罪现场找回适当的证据以识别肇事者，或者在某些情况下是受害者，这是法医调查的主要目标之一。当前的做法包括收集可以从中检索“痕迹”或“触摸” DNA的对象。犯罪者/受害者佩戴的隐形眼镜代表了潜在的良好DNA来源。这是基于它们暴露于接触DNA以及眼睛上皮细胞的释放和再生。这项研究考虑了这些前提，目的是分析从隐形眼镜中分离人核和线粒体DNA的效率。使用非破坏性技术（双拭子）收集DNA，然后使用基于硅胶的方法进行分离。尽管DNA定量在受试者和隐形眼镜之间是可变的，它足以扩增一些STR，并成功测序mtDNA。这项研究的发现提供了一种概念证明，即可以从留在犯罪现场的隐形眼镜中回收，分离，扩增人类核DNA并鉴定线粒体DNA的特征。这些结果表明，从犯罪现场回收异常物品作为识别受害者和/或嫌疑人的潜在DNA来源的潜在重要性。