Forensic Context

A study in human skin epidermal stem cells demonstrated that the miR-4659a-3p is upregulated 6 hours post-burn in heat-shocked cells compared to controls [Siu et al. DOI:10.1111/wrr.13100]. Separately, a forensic investigation in human blood samples from monozygotic twins identified the miR-4659a-3p as differentially expressed and shared across two pairs of twins, with its expression profile validated by microarray and qRT-PCR, indicating its potential role in distinguishing genetically identical individuals [Xiao et al. DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.05.003].