Profession Chat: Life As a Forensic Biologist

After the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, Wright (right) used DNA profiling and genealogy to identify the victims and return their remains to their surviving relatives, who volunteered buccal swabs for DNA testing.

Image credit:Kirsty Wright

Forensic biologist Kirsty Wright has had a challenging but incredibly rewarding career, underpinned by her determination to use science to help people. Her expertise in DNA profiling has led her to work on high-profile criminal cases, to identify victims of natural disasters overseas, and even to uncover a major forensics laboratory scandal. Yet Wright’s journey to becoming a scientist might surprise and inspire even more.

Becoming a Scientist, the Hard Way

As one of Australia’s most eminent and passionate forensic biologists, one might assume that Wright was a science buff in school, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. “I hated science with a passion. I hated maths,” Wright laughed, adding that she preferred art, history, and sport. “I had no intention of going to university at all.”

After leaving school, Wright worked in a fast-food restaurant while she took a course to become a gym instructor, which included the study of anatomy and physiology. “I had no idea what those terms meant,” Wright recalled. But learning about the body in a scientific way was a gamechanger. “A light bulb went off, and it just burned brighter and brighter,” she added.

For a while, being accepted into university seemed almost impossible based on her school grades. Wright completed bridging courses in very basic science, applied to Griffith University, and was rejected multiple times. But she was relentless. Her saving grace was a program for students who could pay up front to complete just one course per semester. Several semesters later, she was finally accepted into a biomedical science degree. “I just spent all day at my desk reading textbooks, cover to cover,” she said.

Her grades quickly went from average to consistently excellent. “I never missed a lecture or a tutorial,” Wright remarked. “Every single day, walking up the driveway to get into the campus, I just felt privileged to be able to learn something so exciting.”

The next light bulb moment came in 1995 during a lecture on very early forensic DNA testing methods by molecular geneticist Lyn Griffiths, one of Wright’s all-time favorite lecturers. “Back then, forensics wasn’t a thing,” Wright said, but “at the end of that one single hour, I [thought], ‘I want to do that.’” Wright’s Honours research project with Griffiths, which focused on extracting DNA from very small and degraded samples, later provided the first DNA profile from a murder that had been a cold case since the 1950s.

Generating DNA Profiles and Providing Testimony in Court

Wright said that working as a scientist in a forensics laboratory means being part of a collaborative team. In the early days of DNA profiling, she landed a job in the analytical team of a Queensland government-run forensics facility, meaning she was at the lab bench all day generating profiles. “I was responsible for processing the DNA evidence, from DNA extraction, quantitation, PCR, and electrophoresis,” Wright explained.

Later on, Wright became a reporting scientist. “My job was to compare DNA profiles of suspects and victims with crime scene evidence and provide statistical analysis on the weight of the ‘match’ that police and courts could use,” she said. She also analyzed clothing, weapons, and other evidence collected by police from crime scenes, and she used chemiluminescent agents like luminol to detect the presence of bodily fluids like blood on those items. This role often involved giving testimony in court about forensic evidence and providing written statements to police and courts.

Wright also used her forensic skills to analyze human remains, whether they were possible missing persons or victims of homicide or natural disasters. “I would work with the pathologists and coroner to help identify the remains using DNA, comparing it to a reference sample from a family member or from a personal object, like a toothbrush,” she added. “As a forensic biologist, every day was different, and every day I knew that my team and I were helping victims and helping to make Queensland safer.”

Later, Wright became the manager of Australia’s national DNA database and worked as a lecturer in forensic biology, where she said she always cautioned first-year students about the realities of choosing forensics as a career. “You can always see in a car park which ones are the lawyers, because they’ve got the Lamborghinis and the Porsches and the Land Rovers and everything else like that. And you look around and always see who’s the scientist because that’s the push-bike leaning up against the post,” she laughed.

While she doesn’t teach at the moment, Wright is currently co-supervising a PhD student working on a forensic DNA profiling project and still does some public speaking, a task she loves.

Implementing a Lab Overhaul and Identifying Fallen Soldiers

Wright is still catching her breath after uncovering a forensic lab scandal that rocked Queensland’s criminal justice system; while reviewing DNA evidence for a cold case murder, she identified systemic flaws in the state-run laboratory where she had originally worked that led to inaccurate DNA evidence being provided to the police and courts for years.

Her current role is a hybrid one: Some of the time, she works with the Queensland Attorney-General’s office to implement major reforms that aim to fix the issues she identified, encompassing the laboratory, the Queensland police service, courts, and victims. “There are a lot of people across these groups I work with who genuinely want to fix the DNA issues,” said Wright. “I see it as one of the biggest reforms in Queensland’s public service.”

The rest of the time, Wright works with the Australian Defence Force; as a Squadron Leader in the Air Force, she puts her DNA profiling skills to use to identify fallen soldiers from World War I, II, and the Korean War. Again, this involves being part of a multidisciplinary team: Wright collaborates with investigators, military historians, genealogists, forensic odontologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, academic researchers, and overseas experts to identify the remains. “Some of these remains have lain undisturbed from when the soldiers fell in battle over 100 years ago, so these are extremely complex cases but a privilege to work on,” Wright said.