Pittsburgh, PA (ChemImage Corporation) ChemImage, a leader in Chemical Imaging technology, is pleased to announce their continuing partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) to improve the reliability of visualization methods for latent prints.

In the second year of this National Institute of Justice project, ChemImage Corporation will work with ORNL to design and develop a field transportable macroscopic Raman Chemical Imaging system. This system will enable the further development of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based agents for visualization of latent prints on skin and enable the transition of this technology to law enforcement agencies nationwide. This technology will prove especially useful in forensic investigations of prints on human skin in murder and assault cases.

ChemImage possess a diverse portfolio of Chemical Imaging technologies and was selected for this development project due to the company’s expertise in the application of hyperspectral imaging to examination of a wide variety of forensic evidence. This expertise combined with ORNL’s experience in developing new technologies for national security provides the basis for a strong collaborative effort.

“There are just too many situations where the standard methods of latent print visualization just don’t work”, commented Dr. Linda A. Lewis, Senior Research Scientist at ORNL and Principal Investigator for this project. “The team of ChemImage and ORNL are working together to develop and test SERS visualization techniques and instruments that will lead to better utilization of this important class of forensic evidence.”

“We are looking forward to continuing to work with ORNL to capitalize on what we’ve learned in the first year of this project. We are expanding on the work we’ve done with other law enforcement agencies to broaden the application of Raman hyperspectral imaging to forensic analysis,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, Senior Project Manager at ChemImage.