Archived cases that beg to be solved may soon see just resolution based on the preliminary findings of a collaborative US-Australian project that pointed to the possibility of lifting fingerprints from evidences already battered by age and deterioration.

The BBC reported on Monday that researchers from Sydney's University of Technology have devised ways that could help police investigators to recover long-left traces of wrongdoings by detecting dried up and fading fingerprints from old evidences.

The new study, which was a joint undertaking by the academic community in Sydney and Canberra, the Australian Federal Police and the Northern Illinois University in America, claimed that by using nanotechnology, fingerprints that normally evade the traditional detection could still be made available to crime investigators.

Nanotechnology, according to the project, is a more powerful tool in exposing traces of amino acids from fading fingerprints, allowing probers to appreciate the finer details of such important clue that could put together the puzzle of a given case.

Lead researcher Dr. Xanthe Spindler said that his team experimented on using new chemical cocktails that allowed the super-imposition of amino acids from specimens, which he said were usually present on human sweats that were possibly carried by fingerprints.

Spindler clarified that the usage of amino acids in enhancing fingerprint details for possible crime suspect identifications have been widely used by probers but the integration of nanotechnology increased the chances of better appreciating traces of criminal acts.

This, according to the researchers, is especially helpful on re-activated cases where old evidences can still provide new details by using the technology.

Spindler noted that his group is still in the process of improving their initial results as he expressed optimism that further breakthroughs in the enhancement of prints from old evidence would mean a lot in efforts of bringing justice to cases overtaken by the passage of time.

He pointed out that "this is something that is really going to push the boundaries, and will hopefully get more fingerprints, better fingerprints and hopefully improve case-solving success rates."

The evolving study, according to Spindle, is working towards a goal that he believes would best serve forensic science, which is to someday lift appreciable fingerprints from human skin.