Death
On the Fly
Justine Giffen, now a doctor of chemistry, came to UAlbany with science experience from books, knowing she needed living research. Ironically, she found it in death.
“Before UAlbany, I earned my bachelor’s degree in chemistry from a different institution,” said Giffen. “It was a great experience. I loved it there. But the focus was more on textbooks and much less on research. I knew for graduate school I needed to find a program that would offer more hands-on experience.”
The May 2018 Ph.D. graduate, conducting her work in the lab of Associate Professor Rabi Musah, took the lead in the development of several forensics research projects, including a unique method to determine an individual’s time of death.
Under Musah’s mentorship, Giffen studied Blowflies — also known as Calliphoridae — which are typically the first type of insect to arrive upon a body’s expiration. The mother blowfly usually arrives at the corpse within 5 - 15 minutes after initial death and lays eggs within a few hours. Determining this time when a blowfly’s eggs are laid is valuable for investigators, offering an accurate time of death.
360 video taken inside of the fly enclosure: Press play then click and drag in the video window.
The issue? Blowfly eggs are microscopic and not easy to identify.
Musah’s lab, led by Giffen, used mass spectrometry — an analytical technique that probes masses within a sample — to try to make blowfly egg identification simple and immediate for investigators. To attract the flies, the lab used carrion flowers, which emit an odor that smells like rotting flesh.
Their paper “Species Identification of Necrophagous Insect Eggs Based on Amino Acid Profile Differences Revealed by Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry” was published in the June 2017 issue of Analytical Chemistry and selected as an American Chemical Society Editors’ Choice, an honor reserved for articles that feature research that “exemplifies the society’s commitment to improving people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry.”
Giffen also became the lead investigator on a separate research project that identified salvia plants. It was published in Phytochemical Analysis. In both 2016 and 2017, she presented her research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.
“Justine’s role on these projects has been absolutely critical,” said Musah. “I’ve watched her grow tremendously. She’s learned how to ask the right research questions, devise experiments that answer those questions, and be good with her hands in the lab — all very important in this field of work.”
Rabi Musah
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Giffen’s father is a licensed funeral home director and worked for 10 years in law enforcement as a death investigator. Intrigued by his work, she grew up watching crime shows, like the documentary series “Forensics Files” and the fictional “NCIS,” with her mom. Her brother was intrigued too. He’s in residency now to become a forensic pathologist.
“Death runs in our family,” Justine joked.
Justine presented her research at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Meetings in 2016 and 2017. She published a paper in Analytical Chemistry entitled “Species Identification of Necrophagous Insect Eggs Based on Amino Acid Profile Differences Revealed by Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry.” This paper was selected as an ACS Editors' Choice, an honor reserved for articles that feature research that “exemplifies the society’s commitment to improving people's lives through the transforming power of chemistry.
Giffen looks to follow in her dad’s footsteps and work as a medicolegal death investigator in New York City.
Her advice for other UAlbany students interested in research? “Stick with it.”