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Tag: DNA

  • Pentagon Warns Military Personnel Not to Use Home DNA Kits

    Pentagon Warns Military Personnel Not to Use Home DNA Kits

    NBC News is reporting that the Pentagon has told military personnel not to use home DNA testing kits.

    According to a memo NBC News obtained, “Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernan and James Stewart, acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said that DNA testing companies were targeting military members with discounts and other undisclosed incentives.”

    The memo expressed concern that DNA companies’ policies may post a greater risk to military personnel than the general population. Inaccurate medical analysis impacting military medical disclosures, data being sold to third parties, data being used for surveillance and the possibility of tracking people without their consent were some of the specific concerns mentioned.

    Experts have for some time been warning about the privacy implications of home DNA testing kits and the companies behind them. The fact that the Pentagon is taking such a strong stand certainly adds weight to those concerns.

  • Craig Venter Talked About Reprogramming DNA At Google’s Zeitgeist Conference

    Scientist Craig Venter, known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome, spoke at Google’s Zeitgeist conference in Arizona this week. The topic: reprogamming DNA to create “a more information-driven species”.

    Yeah, it’s some pretty mind-bending stuff.

    We had the opportunity to listen to him speak in person at SXSW a few years ago, earlier in his work with synthetic life. It’s truly fascinating. If you’ve got twenty minutes to kill, watch the video above.

    Image via YouTube

  • Online Dating Site Tests DNA to Determine Matches

    Online Dating Site Tests DNA to Determine Matches

    A new online dating site catering to sophisticated professionals called Singldout.com offers users the opportunity to submit their DNA to bolster their chances of finding a long-term match.

    Singldout has partnered with Instant Chemistry, a service that tests DNA for “biological compatibility” in an established, long-term relationship. Instant Chemistry mentions that while relationships grow, DNA remains constant – couples are urged to submit their DNA to be tested, and then take a personality test to see if they like one another.

    Singldout adapts Instant Chemistry’s high technologies for use in the realm of dating. Singldout users sign up via their Linkedin profile, hinting at a standard of sophistication that exceeds that of Zoosk, and then submit payment. Singldout membership is $199 for three months, $249 for six months or $299 for 12 months.

    After payment is submitted, a DNA testing kit arrives in the mail, the user spits in a tube, sends it off to Instant Chemistry, and the results are posted on a Singldout dating profile, after the user takes an online psychological exam.

    SingldOut from SingldOut on Vimeo.

    The DNA tests assess two indicators to suggest compatibility – the serotonin uptake transporter, which regulates how people react to positive and negative emotions, and genes influencing the immune system. Co-founder of Instant Chemistry Ron Gonzalez points out that research has shown that there is a correlation with successful long-term relationships and different versions of serotonin and immune system genes.

    “With online dating, you have socioeconomic factors people try to match on – religion, how much you make. This is another layer on top of that so you can better find matches,” Gonzalez said.

    “America’s Relationship Expert” Dr. Wendy Walsh further explains DNA dating:

    Dr. Wendy Walsh from SingldOut on Vimeo.

    Mike Dougherty, director of education for the American Society of Human Genetics, advises the lovelorn that there are countless other genes and environmental factors that come into play. “If this is a marathon, we’re still inside the first mile,” he said, adding that Singldout is “looking at a very small number of genes, and you simply cannot extrapolate a prediction from those genes to long-term compatibility.”

    Gonzalez remarked that he does not want the Singldout service to be seen as “deterministic.” “If I could predict with 100% certainty who you will fall in love with, this would be amazing,” he said. “No technology can do that. We’re very cognizant and realistic. We know a lot of variables happen when you fall in love.”

    Image via Vimeo

  • John Wayne Gacy: Still Clowning Around in Cold Cases

    John Wayne Gacy was put to death almost 20 years ago. He had been convicted of the sexual assault and murder of 33 people, most of them teenagers and young men. He buried most of his victims in the crawl space of his house, some others in the yard, and the remaining ones he dumped in a nearby river.

    Gacy stands out among the serial killer crowd because of his former occupation as a clown at children’s parties. The joke is that you can actually go out on Halloween as John Wayne Gacy, because none of the other killers wore a costume.

    Recently we told you about how the evidence that had been gathered at Gacy’s residence had helped to solve a cold case.

    Investigators in Cook County, Illinois, who reopened the Gacy investigation in 2011, are still working the remains of victims in the John Wayne Gacy case, some of which have never been identified. They are encouraging anyone who thinks their missing relative might have had contact with or become a victim of Gacy to submit a DNA sample so they can compare it to DNA from recovered bodies at the Gacy house.

    These investigators have catalogued DNA collected from exhumed bones. But that only leads them so far. Without a sample to compare, they are left holding DNA profiles with nothing to link them to.

    A DNA sample that one could send to the Cook County lab might include hair from a hairbrush, a toothbrush, or some other item that has physical remains of a missing relative. It has been over 20 years. But the hope is that families might have boxed up personal items of the loved one, and can send something along to the lab for analysis.

    Image via YouTube

  • Ancient Baby DNA Linked To Native Americans

    A new development in the origin of the Native Americans has been unearthed recently in Livingston, Montana. In 1968, the skeletal remains of a male baby was discovered by construction workers in the northeastern part of the area, and numerous artifacts were also found buried along with it. Covered in red ochre, the body was accompanied by more than 100 tools made of bone and stone that suggested that he belonged to the Clovis Culture.

    After decades of research, scientists were able to decode the infant’s genome and determine that the Clovis people are direct ancestors of present-day Native Americans. A human’s genome contains a complete account of his/her genetic data, which is used in modern scientific practices to shed light on the identity of both living and dead people. The boy’s genome also showed that he died about 12,600 years ago in Montana and that Native Americans are actually descended from Asian migrants as opposed to the idea that they came from Europe.

    The boy’s age was estimated to be anywhere between 12 to 18 months when he died. The tools that were found in his grave are made of typical materials used by the Clovis culture like bone, ivory, and elk antler. These artifacts were found to be much older than the boy’s remains, which suggests that the tools were special heirlooms that were passed down from generation to generation.

    Ancient tools of the Clovis Culture

    A comprehensive analysis of the boy’s remains yielded more proof that his physical attributes bear a better resemblance to Siberians than to other races. This data reinforces the initial theory that Native Americans settled in the continent from Europe. The Clovis people are believed to have arrived in the Americas from East Asia via an ice bridge that formed across the Bering Strait.

    Participating researchers and scientists are eager to move forward in their investigation in order to gain more insight on the origins and cultural practices of the early Native Americans.

    Watch video on the Clovis Culture

    http://youtu.be/Nyfw-kmI-pE

    Main image via YouTube. Image of artifacts via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fred Sanger: Two-Time Nobel Prize Winner Dies at 95

    The world lost one of the most noteworthy scientists ever. British Chemist, Fred Sanger died at age 95. Sanger was the only scientist to win two Nobel prizes in Chemistry, and one of four to win the Nobel Prize twice in any category.

    His first Nobel Prize was won in 1958, after Sanger made significant strides in the structure of the protein insulin. In 1980, the second was won and shared by three chemists: Fred Sanger, Walter Gilbert and Paul Berg. Sanger won for his work as the “father of DNA sequencing” which laid the foundations for todays medicine in human genome mapping.
    “His invention of the two critical technical advances – for sequencing proteins and nucleic acids – opened up the fields of molecular biology, genetics and genomics,” said Colin Blakemore, a professor of neuroscience and philosophy and former chief executive of Britain’s Medical Research Council.

    The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in England was named after Fred Sanger. The WTSI is one of the world’s leaders in human genome and working on significant strides in human genetics, all inspired by one great scientist, Fred Sanger.

    Blakemore refers to Sanger as “a real hero,” adding it was “impossible to exaggerate” the impact of his work on modern biomedical science.

    Image (via) Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

  • Watch a White Supremacist Find Out He’s Part African [VIDEO]

    In news that sounds more like something you’d hear on April Fools’ Day, a white supremacist recently found out that he is part African. And guess what makes this story even better? The white supremacist in question is the guy who is trying to start a “whites only” town.

    This sounds like something from a Dave Chappelle skit, but it’s really not (if you’ve never watched Chappelle’s “Black White Supremacist” skit, you can check it out here, but be warned–it isn’t remotely safe for work and may be quite offensive, depending on your sense of humor).

    Craig Cobb, the white supremacist in question, appeared on an episode of the The Trisha Goddard Show, which will air on November 18. We’re not sure why, exactly, Cobb would want to appear on a talk show hosted by a black woman, but it’s safe to say that Trisha got the last laugh after revealing the results of his DNA test. Watch Craig Cobb learning of his African roots below.

    “You’ve got a little black in you,” Goddard informed Cobb. How’s that for karma? Thanks to the DNA test, Cobb learned that he is actually 14 percent African, which was quite a blow for the white supremacist, as one can imagine. Or it would be, anyway, if he actually believed the test. Cobb claims that the test wasn’t scientific enough and believes that the DNA company used to provide his test results, Ancestry by DNA, conspired against him.

    At any rate, he plans to have his DNA retested by another company and hopes, of course, that that the 14 percent African heritage will go away. “I’m very anxious to. I’m probably going to get one overnighted to me,” Cobb said. “I’m going to use the National Geographic test. I’m going to use Ancestry DNA, which is the one this shlock company, AncestrybyDNA, piggybacks on. They literally copied the packaging!”

    So, what happens next if further DNA tests prove that Cobb really is part African? The plans for the “whites only” town in North Dakota will go on. Cobb told The Daily Mail that he will serve as a “border guard for the purebreds” in his town. He also says, “Well if I did have any n**** we don’t want anymore of it.”

    The single black resident that lives in Leith, the town Cobb hopes to convert over, absolutely loved the DNA results. “I knew there was one other black person in town,” Bobby Harper said. “Is he going to want to kick his own self out of town and discriminate against himself?”

    Judging from the Twitter reaction, it appears that Trisha and Harper weren’t the only ones amused with the results of Cobb’s DNA test:

    [Image via YouTube]

  • Amanda Knox Trial: Victim’s DNA Not on Kitchen Knife

    If you weren’t sure whether to believe in Amanda Knox’s innocence, a DNA test performed on the infamous kitchen knife may help to finally clear her name. Knox’s laywer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, is currently in Florence, Italy while the case against Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito is once again being heard in an appeals court. In Italy, there is no double jeopardy law. Therefore, even though Knox was found not guilty in 2011, her case can still be heard again. Italy’s highest court overturned the not guilty verdict from the appeal because the court felt that important DNA evidence was not taken into consideration.

    It now seems that the kitchen knife, which was originally alleged to be the murder weapon used to kill Amanda Knox’s British roommate Meredith Kercher, had no DNA evidence on it which matched the victim. The knife is an important piece of evidence because it played a large role in the original verdict which convicted both Knox and Sollecito of the crime that took place in Perugia.

    Knox’s lawyer told the AP today that the knife was simply a tool in preparing Amanda’s meals, not a deadly weapon. The knife was found by the police in a kitchen drawer at Sollecito’s apartment. Italian prosecutors have pushed the knife as the murder weapon because they felt that the blade matched Kercher’s wounds. They also contended, at the original trial, that DNA from Kercher was found on the knife. The new DNA evidence heard today now proves otherwise.

    Meredith Kercher was brutally killed in 2007 after being stabbed more than 40 times. Amanda Knox, who is now 26-years-old, was not required to return to Italy to face the appeals court. Both she and Sollecito have both maintained their innocence through this entire process which included a double conviction in 2009, where they both subsequently sentenced to 26 years in an Italian prison. However, the conviction was overturned in 2011 by an appeals court, upon which time Knox returned to her hometown of Seattle, Washington. Knox is currently a student at the University of Washington.

    Knox family spokesman, David Marriott, told the press that he did not think Amanda would have anything to say about this new evidence. A verdict for the appeal is not expected until January.

    Image Via Wikipedia Commons

  • Yeti May Be a Bear Descendant, States Scientist

    In Chill Out, Scooby Doo!, Scooby and the gang go to the Himalayas to help a French hunter find and kill the Yeti / Abominable Snowman. After many chases and hilarious antics, the Yeti is discovered to be not an actual Yeti, but rather a stunt by Ming to get her crush to keep his radio station running.

    Unfortunately for many kids (and many adults as well), Scooby and Shaggy still have a real Yeti to fear. However, this Yeti may not be what many have believed it to be. British professor, Bryan Sykes, has used science to prove the true identity of the Yeti, once and for all.

    Last year, Sykes put out a request for people to send him samples from unidentified species, such as the Yeti, Bigfoot, and Sasquatch. In total, Sykes received 70 samples, 27 of which produced good DNA results. Out of those 27 useful DNA samples, 2 proved vital to the mission of the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project.

    The two samples which sparked the most interest from Sykes were from 2 similar, yet distant, locations: the Western Himalayan region of Ladakh and Bhutan, which is approximately 800 miles east of Ladakh.

    When Sykes cross-referenced the DNA from these two strands of hair with the DNA of other animals in the GenBank database, the results were both astounding and conclusive – The hairs showed a 100% match to the DNA of a 40,000-120,000 year old ancient polar bear from Svalbard, Norway (Which means one can only hope that this ancient polar bear was a panserbjørne, such as those from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.)

    So what do these results mean? According to Sykes, “This is an exciting and completely unexpected result that gave us all a surprise. There’s more work to be done on interpreting the results. I don’t think it means there are ancient polar bears wandering around the Himalayas. But we can speculate on what the possible explanation might be. It could mean there is a sub species of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor of the Polar Bear. Or it could mean there has been more recent hybridisation between the Brown Bear and the descendent of the ancient Polar Bear.”

    Despite these rather conclusive findings, many in the community do not believe that these results will quell the fervor of Yeti enthusiasts: “I do not think the study gives any comfort to Yeti-believers. But “no amount of scientific data will ever shake their belief,” stated David Frayer, a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Kansas. Frayer went on to add, “If (Sykes’) motivation for doing the analyses is to refute the Yeti nonsense, then good luck.”

    Sykes’s motivation for the project, though, is not to ruin the hopes and aspirations of Yeti-hunters, but rather to “to inject some science into a rather murky field.”

    If anything, Sykes’s findings may have spurred an even larger hunt for the Yeti. After all, who wouldn’t want to find an ancient-hybrid polar-brown bear that may or may not have opposable thumbs and super-awesome metal armor?

    Image via Wikipedia

  • Fossilized Mosquito Found; Sadly Lacks Dino Blood

    Smithsonian Magazine just put out a blog that chronicles the strange journey of a fossilized mosquito with ancient blood still contained in its stomach, reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jurassic Park.

    The ancient mosquito was unearthed in Montana’s Glacier National Park by a geology graduate student named Kurt Constenius, who picked it up during a fossil-hunting trip with his parents and left it in a basement for a couple decades. A retired biochemist named Dale Greenwalt rescued it as part of his fossil collection efforts for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

    Greenwalt’s fascinating collection of insect fossils includes thousands of samples from 14 different orders of the insect world. In order to retrieve some of his older samples, he had to raft the Flathead River to a special location that features shale formations dating to the Eocene epoch, or roughly 46 million years ago.

    For those unfamiliar, the plot of Jurassic Park revolves around a fossilized mosquito, preserved in amber, that happened to have fed on dinosaurs such as the massive Tyrannosaurus rex and the Velociraptor. A wealthy entrepreneur collected the mosquito and had the dinosaurs resurrected through cloning technology.

    The research regarding the mosquito fossil was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Greenwalt and entomologist Ralph Harbach.

    The Smithsonian Museum’s mineral science lab conducted the analysis using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Unfortunately for movie fans, and although they did detect the presence of heme (the compound that serves our red blood cells’ functions), the mosquito is contained in shale rock rather than amber, and it’s slightly too young (at 46 million years) to realistically contain dinosaur blood. Even worse, scientists can make no determination as to what creature’s blood the mosquito contains, because DNA degrades far too much to survive being caged inside the rock.

    Even if such a mosquito were discovered under the most optimistic conditions, recently conducted research has placed the half-life of DNA at 521 years, which is a rapid rate of degradation. So don’t go expecting your own personal dinosaur ecosystem any time soon.

    [Image via Dale Greenwalt/The Smithsonian Magazine]

  • Cucumber Causes Criminal Conviction

    Cucumber Causes Criminal Conviction

    So you just burglarized a home, and you’re a little winded because the sack you’ve stuffed with stolen goods is a little heavy from all that precious loot you’ve been carrying around. You’ve done your daily deed of contributing to society and making the world a better place so what better way to reward yourself with a bite to eat?

    You know crime pays.

    Wrong.

    Crime never pays, and the next time you decided to fill that gluttony hole you call a mouth with a drive by biting of an innocent cucumber, expect the police, because they’ll extract your saliva DNA and book you.

    Such is the case with Billy Joe Donnely, a 22-year old bloke who was robbing a house in Preston, England on August 21st of this year. The homeowners were asleep while Donnely crept in and out of the house and stole a retirement watch, antique key rings, and the family car. But before he drove off in the sunset, assuring himself that he got away with the crime, Donnely stopped by the greenhouse situated next to the residence and nibbled on a few vegetables. Among the produce being grown (and intended for sale), was a cucumber, which, according to Hull Daily Mail, was munched once and abandoned by Donnely, only later to be swabbed for DNA by investigators that would lead to his conviction.

    “The owner was going to sell the items he was growing in the greenhouse, but someone had been in there and eaten most of the vegetables and a cucumber. A cucumber was found with his DNA on it,” said Prosecutor Jharna Jobes.

    On August 25th in England’s Whole Crown Court, Donnely pleaded guilty to the burglary and theft in connection to the crime, as well as a drug charge.

    Donnely’s barrister, Stephen Robison said that, “The burglary has had a profound effect on the complainants. He was just not thinking about that at the time. He is sorry for what has happened, and he bitterly regrets his actions. He had been drinking heavily at the time and was riding around on his bike when he entered the greenhouse and ate some of the produce from there. It was foolish behavior, and he was identified by a cucumber.”

    Donnely will be serving two and a half years in jail, and he regrets deeply of the day he decided to ransack a house and a bite a cucumber.

    (Pictures via WikiCommons, Police Hand Out)

  • Family Of Man Who Kidnapped Teen Demands Test

    Family Of Man Who Kidnapped Teen Demands Test

    Tragedy has gone from bad to worse for the Anderson family. After suffering the high-profile double murder and kidnapping case that gripped the nation, the same family is now in the midst of a potential paternity investigation. It seems that this case has the knack of continually providing more questions than answers even in the breadth of insurmountable devastation for the remaining family members.

    Andrew Spanswick, the spokesman for DiMaggio’s family, explained that paternity tests are now being requested in order to shed light on the intensive, and otherwise irrational, interest James DiMaggio displayed during the Hannah Anderson kidnapping ordeal, which eventually led to the shootout and death of Mr. DiMaggio. Yes, that’s right. The kidnapper’s family members are the ones requesting the paternity test, specifically his sister, Lora.

    Mr. Spanswick told KGTV-TV in San Diego, “We are requesting DNA samples from Hannah and anything they can get from Ethan. There are rumors that Jim was the children’s real father. We think it’s strange he left them so much money with no explanation.” After the vibrant and beautiful young Hannah has triumphed through this period of heartache, family members of the man behind the ordeal want to obtain her DNA to fit their inquisitive demands.

    The “so much money” Mr. Spanswick previously referred to concerns the $112,000 life insurance policy James DiMaggio left to Hannah’s grandmother, Bernice Anderson, which raises even more questions. Why would someone designate such a policy to a survivor of the very family said individual tormented?

    The young Ethan Anderson was found severely and traumatically burned while his and Hannah’s mother was found after having enduring exceptional force to her head. The brutality of this crime is even more unsettling given the personal relationship between the perpetrator, James DiMaggio, and the Anderson family. The unfortunate advice about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer appears paramount in this situation though many questions about this depressing and puzzling situation still remain unanswered. The peace that at least one human life was spared is hardly enough of a concession for the tragic loss of life. If the paternity test proves positive, how could a man knowingly kill a young, innocent boy? Heck, how could a man unknowingly kill a young, innocent boy? If human life is so easily discarded by an intimate party, then what help do the rest of us have against mere strangers?

    [Photo Via Reuters]

  • Kourtney Kardashian Releases DNA Test

    Kourtney Kardashian Releases DNA Test

    Male model, Michael Girgenti, filed legal documents this month claiming that he is the father of Kourtney Kardashian’s oldest child, Mason Disick, and requested a DNA test to confirm it.

    “We have not seen the reported court filing, but we are informed that this individual has been seeking to get paid to publish his ridiculous pleading,” Kourtney’s lawyer Todd Wilson stated. “His claims are absurd and this is simply another shameful attempt to gain publicity and profit from fictional stories about my client.”

    Girgenti claims that he was involved in a sexual relationship with Kardashian while she was on the “outs” with her beau Scott Disick. Girgenti told “In Touch” magazine: “After Mason was born, and I saw photos of him, I began to wonder. I would definitely want to acknowledge Mason if he’s my kid, he deserves to know his real father.” He says that nine months after the sexual encounter with Kardashian, Mason was born.

    Despite Girgenti’s claims, Kardashian released the results of a DNA test today, proving that Scott Disick is, in fact, Mason’s father.

    “After three-and-a-half years of rumors and lies being spread by an individual I met briefly at a photo shoot, I am setting the record straight that Scott is Mason’s father. While it saddens me to have to address these ridiculous lies – especially when the truth was never in doubt – this story must be put to rest,” said Kardashian.

    The paternity test, that was completed in an independent lab, states that Scott is 99.99% Mason’s father. However, even after hearing these results, Girgenti said that he will not back off of the lawsuit. He says that the results could have easily been forged, and that he wants to see the results from a court-ordered DNA test.

  • Cat DNA Reading Solves Homicide Case

    A homicide in Britain has just been solved with cat DNA readings.

    The dismembered torso of David Guy was found wrapped in a curtain on a beach. The curtain covering the Hampshire resident had eight cat hairs on it. Those cat hairs were sent to California to have their DNA analyzed. The results were also compared to those of the cat owned by the suspect, David Hilder. A match was found, but prosecutors had to prove that a match between two random cats would be very rare.

    Jon Wetton, a University of Leicester geneticist, was then brought in to lead the cat DNA project. After already creating a database of dog DNA at Britain’s Forensic Science Service, Wetton started to create one for cat DNA. “This is the first time cat DNA has been used in a criminal trial in the UK,” Wetton continued, “We now hope to publish the database so it can be used in future crime investigations.”

    The UK cat DNA database included test results from 152 cats. From those samples, only three matched those found on the curtain, proving how uncommon the genetic signature was.

    The cat hairs weren’t the only thing that helped solve the case. Traces of Guy’s blood was found at Hilder’s residence.

    This isn’t the first time cat DNA has been used to solve a case. In Canada in 1994, Shirley Duguay was found dead in a shallow grave. A leather jacket covered with her blood also had some white cat hairs on it. Douglas Beamish, her estranged husband had a white cat. Investigators used the hairs recovered from the jacket and found that they matched the genetic signature of Beamish’s cat. To prove the rarity of a genetic signature match, experts sampled hairs of 20 cats to compare.

    Robert Grahn of the University of California at Davis, was involved in the Canadian case. He thinks cats are most helpful with forensic analysis because, “Cats are fastidious groomers, and shed fur can have sufficient genetic material for trace forensic studies.”

  • Wind Carried Beer Can DNA to Used Condom, Claims Rape Defendant

    Wind Carried Beer Can DNA to Used Condom, Claims Rape Defendant

    Today’s creativity in defense award goes to 20-year-old Marcelles Peter and his attorney, who are attempting to nullify DNA evidence by claiming that it was transferred by the wind.

    Peters is one of the six men charged in the gang rape of a 15-year-old Richmond high-schooler in 2009. The San Francisco Bay-area rape case garnered quite a bit of attention after the brutal nature of the crime was disclosed.

    On the night of the crime, the victim was leaving a homecoming dance at the school and was asked to join a large group of males in the campus courtyard. After the victim and the perpetrators drank copious amounts of alcohol, tre victim was propositioned for sex – an offer she refused. The men proceeded to beat and rape the girl for hours.

    One bystander described the attack as such:

    “They were kicking her in her head and they were beating her up, robbing her and ripping her clothes off; it’s something you can’t get out your mind. I saw people, like, dehumanizing her; I saw some pretty crazy stuff. She was pretty quiet; I thought she was like dead for a minute but then I saw her moving around.”

    Now, years later, Peter has a creative defense that he hopes will call into question his role in the attack. According to Fox News, his claim is that wind from a police helicopter must have carried his DNA from a beer can to a broken used condom found at the scene.

    Peter’s trial has just begun. Last year Manuel Ortega, the oldest defendant in the case, admitted guilt and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. Another defendant, Ari Morales, was sentenced to 27 years in prison this January. The other defendants are still awaiting trial.

    [Photo via KTVU]

  • Quadruple Helix DNA Spotted in Human Cells

    It’s been nearly 60 years since the structure of DNA was found to be a double helix. Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that “quadruple helix” DNA structures can also be found in the human genome.

    A new study, published this week in the journal Nature Chemistry, shows that the structures, called G-quadruplexes, form in DNA regions that are rich in the nucleobase guanine. The research also found that the quadruplexes are linked to the process of DNA replication.

    “We are seeing links between trapping the quadruplexes with molecules and the ability to stop cells dividing, which is hugely exciting,” said Shankar Balasubramanian, a professor in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry. “The research indicates that quadruplexes are more likely to occur in genes of cells that are rapidly dividing, such as cancer cells. For us, it strongly supports a new paradigm to be investigated – using these four-stranded structures as targets for personalized treatments in the future.”

    Though scientists have in the past been able to show that quadruplex DNA can form in the lab, this is the first time that the structures have been shown to form in nature. The Cambridge researchers suggest that synthetic molecules that trap quadruplexes could be used in the future to halt the proliferation of cancer.

    “We have found that by trapping the quadruplex DNA with synthetic molecules we can sequester and stabilise them, providing important insights into how we might grind cell division to a halt,” said Balasubramanian. “There is a lot we don’t know yet. One thought is that these quadruplex structures might be a bit of a nuisance during DNA replication – like knots or tangles that form. Did they evolve for a function? It’s a philosophical question as to whether they are there by design or not – but they exist and nature has to deal with them. Maybe by targeting them we are contributing to the disruption they cause.”

    (Image courtesy the University of Cambridge)

  • Multiple Sclerosis ‘Immune Exchange’ Discovered

    A new study has identified and “immune exchange” that allows disease-causing cells in patients with multiple sclerosis to move in and out of the brain. Researchers state that this exchange may be the key to better treatments and diagnostics in the future.

    According to the study’s authors, one current theory on multiple sclerosis holds that self-reactive B cells in the brain activate and cause inflammation. The exchange of B cells uncovered by the new study could mean that the B cells are “accessible” when moving from the brain.

    “The hope is that if we can identify culprit B cells, using precise tools, we will be able to better diagnose multiple sclerosis and monitor disease activity,” said Dr. Hans Christian von Büdingen, lead author of the study and neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). “In addition, in ways that may have to be tailored for each patient, this may also allow us to develop therapies that directly target disease-causing B cells.”

    The study, published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, obtained DNA sequences from multiple sclerosis patients at the UCSF Medical Center. Since 2008, two UCSF clinical trials have shown that blocking B cells may stop multiple sclerosis flare-ups from occurring. Büdingen and his colleagues hope their new findings will lead to a “precision strategy” where treatments can be tailored to the exact identity of the culprit B cells in a particular patient.

  • Scientists Dash Jurassic Park Hopes with DNA Half-Life Study

    Dinosaurs bit the dust around 65 million years ago, but pop-science has held that maybe, just maybe, some sort of DNA recovery could lead to a Jurassic Park-like scenario where dinos could once again roam the Earth. Whether or not you think that would be an awesome idea or an incredibly daft idea is now a moot point, as scientists have determined that it’s not possible to recover genetic material from the legendary beasts.

    Researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Perth examined DNA-containing bones from three species of extinct birds ranging from 600 to 8,000 years old. What they found, depressingly enough, is that the half life of the DNA is somewhere around 521 years.

    Here’s what that means, according to the science journal Nature:

    The team predicts that even in a bone at an ideal preservation temperature of −5 ºC, effectively every bond would be destroyed after a maximum of 6.8 million years. The DNA would cease to be readable much earlier — perhaps after roughly 1.5 million years, when the remaining strands would be too short to give meaningful information.

    What. A. Bummer.

    On the bight side, the findings could lead to older DNA sequencing – possibly more than a half million years (which is the current record).

    But as far as dinosaur theme parks, we’re probably looking at robots and/or people in suits. At least we have Jurassic Park 4 to look forward to, I guess.

    With such terrible news, I think we need a dose of Goldblum for some optimism:

  • You May Soon Be Storing Books And Music In DNA

    It’s said that the printing press was one of the most influential inventions of all time. It made books cheaply available to everyone by reducing the printing process to a single machine instead of 10 monks sitting in a tower transcribing everything word by word. You could argue that e-books and e-readers are the modern equivalent of the printing press, but they’re only the beginning.

    Researchers at Harvard Medical School have successfully encoded the contents of a book to a string of DNA. The book was written by the researchers and contained 53,000 words, 11 images and some software. All of the information from the book was stored artificially using the same stuff that makes up our bodies.

    You may be wondering how DNA can actually store information. It’s quite easy really because DNA has always stored information. It contains all the information that makes up the human body so it obviously has plenty of space for storage. How much storage? One gram of DNA can store up to 455 billion GB. The total amount of data used in the world is 2.7 zettabytes which means that a single gram of DNA can hold almost a quarter of the world’s data.

    DNA writing is still in its early stages though. We can’t take full advantage of it just yet, but the storage of a book is a massive breakthrough. The book and accompanying data took up 5.27 megabits which is a new record as far as DNA writing goes.

    The most exciting thing about DNA storage is that its quickly dropping in price. The researchers estimate that the technology will go mainstream within five to 10 years. They say that it may be even cheaper than traditional forms of storage like magnetic hard drives, solid state drives and flash drives.

    For now, the researchers are just making sure they can make the storage of information on DNA fool proof. The 5.27 megabits of data that made up the book didn’t make it into the DNA completely safe as 10 sectors were flagged for errors.

    Of course, all of this might bring up some concern over the use of DNA as a storage medium. The researchers used artificial DNA for their experiment. They also said that using real DNA could cause “unnecessary complications.” As you can see, DNA storage is both ethical and efficient.

    Now excuse me while I get my hands on a DNA sequencer. I’ve always wanted to implant Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas into my DNA. If I do that, future generations may have an increased appreciation for Hunter S. Thompson.

    [h/t: The Guardian]

  • Spiderman Faces His Greatest Foe Yet – Science

    Everybody loves superheroes because it lets us suspend our disbelief and wonder – could that really happen? In most cases, the answer is unfortunately no. There’s no way we could accrue the disposable income and rock hard body to become Batman. Likewise, there’s no way we could gain new abilities just by being bitten by a genetically modified spider, or is there?

    The latest video from the amazing guys over at AsapSCIENCE look into the possibility of somebody actually becoming Spiderman. It turns out that a lot of it is theoretically possible, but don’t expect to start climbing walls after a spider bite anytime soon.

    The main problem stems from the fact that a genetically modified spider doesn’t have the ability to change our DNA on the level seen in the comics or movies. As the video explains, the retrovirus passed on by the spider would have to infect and change every single cell in the human body. That’s a daunting task even for a small amount of change to DNA.

    It’s sad to realize that we’ll never be a superhero, but maybe it’s for the best. If superheroes were real, they would have more in common with The Watchmen or Kick-Ass. As we all know, those kind of stories never turn out good for the heroes. Let’s stick to the fantasy of flying through the air attached to an impossibly small string of spider silk. I don’t really feel like becoming a spider pancake today.

  • Amazon: Complete 1000 Genomes Project on the Cloud

    Amazon has announced the complete 1000 Genomes Project is available on Amazon Web Services, giving scientists free and instant access to the world largest collection of human genetics. The availability of this wealth of information will accelerate disease research all over the world.

    The 1000 genomes Project is an international research effort coordinated by a consortium of 75 companies and establishes the most detailed catalogue of human genetic variation available. The project contains 200 terabytes of data including full DNA sequences of 1,700 individuals. The 1000 Genomes Project aims to have 2,600 individuals from 26 different population segments from around the world by the time it is complete. The United States National Institute of Health (NIH) will continue to add the remaining samples this year, but what they have so far is being made public now. Go to http://aws.amazon.com/1000genomes. to access the 1000 Genomes Project on the cloud.

    “Previously, researchers wanting access to public data sets such as the 1000 Genomes Project had to download them from government data centers to their own systems, or have the data physically shipped to them on discs. This process took a long time, and that’s assuming a lab had the bandwidth to download the data and sufficient storage and compute infrastructure to hold and analyze the data once they had it,” said Lisa D. Brooks, Ph.D., Program Director for the Genetic Variation Program, National Human Genome Research Institute, a part of NIH. “We are happy that the 1000 Genomes Project data are on AWS to give researchers anywhere in the world a simple way to access the data so they can put the data to work in their research.”

    The publishing of the 1000 Genomes Project on the cloud makes the information available to small and large research facilities alike, eliminating the need for expensive hardware and data facilites to process the information. With more research facilities being able to concentrate on advancing science, hopefully more research will be done faster in finding cures for human disease.

    “It took more than 10 years, and billions of dollars to sequence and publish the very first human genome. Recent advances in genome sequencing technology have enabled researchers to tackle projects like the 1000 Genomes by collecting far more data, faster. This has created a growing need for powerful and instantly available technology infrastructure to analyze that data,” said Deepak Singh, Ph.D. and Principal Product Manager, Amazon Web Services. “We’re excited to help scientists gain access to this important data set by making it available to anyone with access to the Internet. This means researchers and labs of all sizes and budgets have access to the complete 1000 Genomes Project data and can immediately start analyzing and crunching the data without the investment it would normally require in hardware, facilities and personnel. Researchers can focus on advancing science, not provisioning the resources required for their research.”