Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 Dye: An Application for Forensic Fingerprint Analysis

The Bradford reagent, comprised of the Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 dye, methanol, and phosphoric acid, has been traditionally used for quantifying proteins. Use of this reagent in the Bradford assay relies on the binding of the Coomassie Blue G-250 dye to proteins; however, the ability of the dye to react with a small group of amino acids (arginine, histidine, lysine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan) makes it a viable chemical assay for fingerprint analysis in order to identify the biological sex of the fingerprint originator. It is recognized that the identification of biological sex has been readily accomplished using two other methods; however, both of those systems are reliant upon a large group of amino acids, 23 to be precise. 1 figure (Publisher abstract modified)