SallyAnn Harbison: the DNA detective

“I really wanted to be an astronaut,” confesses SallyAnn Harbison, a leading forensic scientist whose work has helped to solve many of New Zealand’s worst crimes.

“I still want to be an astronaut, and I haven’t given up.”

She’s left her run a bit late but, honestly, she just might not be kidding.

As an eight-year-old in Oxford, England, SallyAnn was a “child of the moon landing”, she says, awed by the grainy black-and-white images of the event on television in July 1969.

Genetics is her own scientific adventure, and today she’s the head of the Forensic Science Programme at the University of Auckland, and newly a professor. At the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science, she leads the forensic biologists who link criminals with crimes through blood, sweat, saliva, semen and other human traces.

“Forensic science never, ever stands still, so I am always learning” she says. “That’s why I love it. That and my young colleagues and students; it’s a joy to help them develop.”

An academic journey

SallyAnn grew up near the River Thames in Oxford in a house crammed with books, records and a piano. A shy girl, precociously talented at reading, writing, maths and the piano, she watched Match of the Day with her mother and delved into her father’s extensive library – he was interested in everything, she says.

A childhood playground – almost a second home – was a college dating back to the 14th century called New College, known for gargoyles, cloisters and gardens, and featured in the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Her father was on the professional staff.

“It was a fabulous childhood,” she says.

SallyAnn studied hard, and loved maths, chemistry and the arts, especially music. She became a devotee of J.R.R. Tolkien – the Oxford professor who wrote The Lord of the Rings – and Liverpool FC. The football team, a vibrant live music scene and a reputation for science, drew SallyAnn to the biochemistry department of the University of Liverpool at the tail end of the 1970s.

Peter Sutcliffe, the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’, was active in the North of England at the time, and students learned self-defence on arriving at halls of residence, she recalls.

SallyAnn cheered on Liverpool FC at home games for years, from a stand called The Kop; saw iconic bands like The Police, Madness and The Jam; and completed an honours project on proteins and RNA.

For her PhD, she investigated an RNA virus called Carnation mottle virus. Many years later, she would spend Christmas Day in a lab in Auckland analysing samples of another, similar-looking RNA virus, Covid-19.

In 1985, SallyAnn followed her partner to New Zealand and landed at the University of Auckland. She studied the genomics of White clover mosaic virus in Professor Richard Gardner’s research group, collaborating with the-then Plant Diseases Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).

Incredible advances in DNA

In 1988, she jumped to the Chemistry Division of the DSIR in Mount Albert. At that time, the DSIR was building up its DNA expertise after the discovery by UK scientist Alec Jeffrey of the ‘DNA fingerprint’ – aspects of DNA unique to each individual.

She’d never previously had anything to do with the police, but suddenly she was at crime scenes and soon she was giving evidence in court.

SallyAnn has seen and helped to implement incredible advances in forensic science, with DNA now extracted from samples as small as one-trillionth of a gram. When she started, scientists here could still only ascertain the blood group of an offender.

A defining case in her career was that of Malcolm Rewa, who was ultimately convicted of serial rapes, including the rape and murder of Susan Burdett in Papatoetoe in 1992. SallyAnn attended the Burdett crime scene and, as police struggled to solve the case, she and her colleagues advanced their DNA techniques to link the case with six rapes, and screened 5,000 men. She has given evidence in court five times in connection with the case.

“That crime scene is imprinted on my mind,” she says. “I could draw it for you right now.”

Rewa and a second prolific serial rapist offending simultaneously supported the case for establishing a DNA databank. This was introduced in 1995 along with police powers to compel DNA samples in some circumstances. Rewa’s DNA was the first sample in the databank.

SallyAnn began teaching at the University in 1995, and many colleagues are former students, while others work around the world in senior roles. Today’s students work to combat wildlife crime by identifying the origins of trafficked items such as elephant tusks, and develop AI agents to evaluate forensic evidence.

One study is investigating whether proteins can aid the often tricky task of linking an individual to a cartridge case. A shooter’s limited DNA traces from briefly handling a bullet can vanish amid the heat and gunshot residue of firing. “We’re going to give proteins a go, to see whether they survive better,” she says. Similar work is being undertaken for strands of hair, which contain limited DNA unless the root is attached.

‘You’ll never walk alone’

The job exacts a psychological toll, especially when the victims are particularly vulnerable, such as children, the elderly or the disabled. An unsolved case that SallyAnn hasn’t forgotten, and may one day be cracked, is that of Betty Marusich, a homeless woman killed in Auckland’s Domain in 1995.

Distance running helps with stress, including marathons and, inevitably, the Middle-earth Halfling Marathon at Hobbiton. She gets strength, too, from being a team player – You’ll never walk alone is the anthem of her beloved Liverpool FC – and from her pride in work that makes a real difference to people’s lives.

In 2021, SallyAnn was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. That year, she was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi, for leading the research and development of advances and innovation in forensic DNA and RNA analysis and being recognised internationally for casework-ready, accredited science for justice.

From that vantage point of experience, she offered younger members of the audience at her inaugural professorial lecture a handful of tips: be curious – to improve your life and give yourself options; find your tribe; be a team player; when you fall down, get back up and walk on (a Liverpool FC reference); and, of course, be a hobbit, not an orc.

And returning to space, it turns out SallyAnn did apply for a job at NASA – “not that long ago” – because she figured her forensic science experience might have been relevant for an anti-contamination role: “I haven’t given up,” she says.

“And I really don’t want to hover on the edge of space; I want to go into space and orbit. Anyway, you can always send your ashes, accompanied by a David Bowie soundtrack, if the worst comes to the worst!”

Paul Panckhurst