Daubert and Omics: Exploring the Use of Complex Scientific Evidence in Court

• DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/a5fhj_v1
• Publication Date: 2025-02-21T18:25:08Z
• Authors: Alberto Chighine; Emanuela Locci
• Keywords: Omics; Scientific evidence

The integration of omics sciences, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics, into forensic practice holds substantial promise for advancing personalized medicine. This short communication aims to elucidate the complexities associated with implementing these advanced methodologies within contexts, particularly in relation legal admissibility under standards established by landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals. Omics technologies generate vast, intricate datasets that necessitate sophisticated statistical analyses unravel relevant insights, thereby posing unique challenges meeting criteria scientific evidence. delves how approaches can meet standards, focusing on aspects like testability, known or potential error rates, general acceptance community. It highlights design increasingly rigorous experimental protocols research, which include multiple sample replicates, controlled environments, robust validation processes ensure reproducibility. However, despite this methodological rigor, several hurdles persist. There is a significant need specialized, interdisciplinary expertise during peer review, reviewers must be conversant both methods science. Furthermore, gap between research animal models its direct applicability human cases, intra- interlaboratory reproducibility, especially less mature fields proteomics are examined. system's increasing reliance evidence has also pushed greater scrutiny rates methods, requiring scientists refine their account biological variability environmental factors, post-mortem settings. While genomics seen notable DNA profiling due decades validation, other disciplines gradually gaining ground. practical use court still limited, primarily because depth breadth data not yet fully exploited straightforward interpretations. offer transformative potential, full judicial necessitates further standardization, community bridge theoretical capabilities application.