‘Microbial clock’ may determine time of death more accurately

Forensic scientists may be able to use a powerful new tool to determine the time of death in human corpses: a microbial clock.

This clock is the lock-step succession of bacterial changes that occur postmortem as bodies decay.

By using high-technology gene sequencing techniques on both bacteria and microbial eukaryotic organisms (such as fungi, nematodes and amoeba) postmortem, changes in microbiome patterns can be tracked. The information is then used to correctly estimate the time of death within an error range of three days.