A man was arrested Wednesday after he was linked through DNA to the sexual assault of an 8-year-old Santa Ana girl in her bunk bed, police said. The assailant climbed in through an unlocked window of her home.

Damien Anthony Reyes was arrested at his home in the 1300 block of North King Street after detectives were told there was a positive match on the DNA left at the scene of the June attack.

Reyes was booked at the Santa Ana Jail on suspicion of burglary, child molestation by force with enhancements that could lead to a potential life sentence upon conviction. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Authorities did not say how Reyes' DNA got into the state or federal DNA database. In most cases an arrest or conviction leads to a DNA sample being taken.

The noise woke up the girl's 13-year-old sister, who was asleep on the bottom bed, police said. Both girls screamed and woke up their father, who ran to their aid.

Detectives said the man immediately fled the house through the same window and was last seen running south.

Man found with body bags, smoke grenade at LAX investigated

Hazing probe launched after Fresno State fraternity pledge dies

-- Richard Winton

Originally posted here:
DNA leads to arrest in sexual assault of Santa Ana girl

A new analysis confirms the widely held suspicion that DNA from dinosaurs and ancient insects trapped in amber cannot be recovered to make a 'Jurassic Park'-style theme park

By Matt Kaplan and Nature magazine

Palaeogeneticist Morten Allentoft used the bones of extinct moa birds to calculate the half-life of DNA. Image: M. Mhl

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

Read More

From Nature magazine

Few researchers have given credence to claims that samples of dinosaur DNA have survived to the present day, but no one knew just how long it would take for genetic material to fall apart. Now, a study of fossils found in New Zealand is laying the matter to rest and putting paid to hopes of cloning a Tyrannosaurus rex.

After cell death, enzymes start to break down the bonds between the nucleotides that form the backbone of DNA, and micro-organisms speed the decay. In the long run, however, reactions with water are thought to be responsible for most bond degradation. Groundwater is almost ubiquitous, so DNA in buried bone samples should, in theory, degrade at a set rate.

Determining that rate has been difficult because it is rare to find large sets of DNA-containing fossils with which to make meaningful comparisons. To make matters worse, variable environmental conditions such as temperature, degree of microbial attack and oxygenation alter the speed of the decay process.

But palaeogeneticists led by Morten Allentoft at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, examined 158 DNA-containing leg bones belonging to three species of extinct giant birds called moa. The bones, which were between 600 and 8,000 years old, had been recovered from three sites within 5 kilometres of each other, with nearly identical preservation conditions including a temperature of 13.1 C. The findings are published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

See the original post here:
Dinos' DNA Demise: Genetic Material Has a 521-Year Half-Life

In "Jurassic Park," scientists extract 80-million-year-old dino DNA from the bellies of mosquitoes trapped in amber. Researchers may never be able to extract genetic material that old and bring a T. rex back to life, but a new study suggests DNA can survive in fossils longer than previously believed.

The oldest DNA samples ever recovered are from insects and plants in ice cores in Greenland up to 800,000 years old. But researchers had not been able to determine the oldest possible DNA they could get from the fossil record because DNA's rate of decay had remained a mystery.

Now scientists in Australia report they've been able to estimate this rate based on a comparison of DNA from 158 fossilized leg bones from three species of the moa, an extinct group of flightless birds that once lived in New Zealand. The bones date between 600 and 8,000 years old and importantly all come from the same region.

Science news from NBCNews.com

Although Einstein's theories suggest nothing can move faster than the speed of light, two scientists have extended his equations to show what would happen if faster-than-light travel were possible.

Temperatures, oxygenation and other environmental factors make it difficult to detect a basic rate of degradation, researcher Mike Bunce, from Murdoch University's Ancient DNA lab in Perth, explained in a statement.

"The moa bones however have allowed us to study the comparative DNA degradation because they come from different ages from a region where they have all experienced the same environmental conditions," Bunce said.

Based on this study, Bunce and his team put DNA's half-life at 521 years, meaning half of the DNA bonds would be broken down 521 years after death, and half of the remaining bonds would be decayed another 521 years after that, and so on. This rate is 400 times slower than simulation experiments predicted, the researchers said, and it would mean that under ideal conditions, all the DNA bonds would be completely destroyed in bone after about 6.8 million years.

"If the decay rate is accurate then we predict that DNA fragments of sufficient length will preserve in frozen fossil bone of around one million years in age," Bunce said.

But he cautioned that more research is needed to examine the other variables in the breakdown of DNA.

View post:
How long can DNA last? A million years

BOCA RATON, FL--(Marketwire - Oct 10, 2012) - DNA Brands, Inc. ( OTCBB : DNAX ), makers of the great tasting DNA Energy Drink, a favorite of the action sports community and its enthusiastic followers, announced today it is re-branding its entire line of DNA Energy Drinks to be able to reach a greater portion of the ever-growing energy drink market.

Darren Marks, President of DNA Brand, Inc., stated, "The one comment we hear over and over is that energy drinks don't taste good. We were previously selected as the best tasting energy drink by an independent international World Beverage Competition. We intend to get this fact out to the energy drink consumer. Our current graphics were primarily geared to the action sports community. Although we will continue to pursue these same customers, we will do it with new and innovative products geared to better communicate the brand's core identity while appealing to a much broader demographic; active consumers from every walk of life. We are confident that this rebranding will enable us to better position ourselves in a category that continues to re-invent itself and grow at a rapid pace. Energy drink sales increased 17.2% in 2011, the highest growth rate since 2007." In conjunction with the re-branding, Jeff Jonke has been promoted to the Company's Executive Vice-President and General Manger. He will be the driving force behind this new and exciting time for DNA Brands, Inc.

About DNA Brands, Inc.

DNA BRANDS, makers of DNA Energy Drink, the award-winning, best-tasting energy drink at the 2010 World Beverage Competition, is a proprietary blend of quality ingredients in four flavors: Citrus, Lemon Lime, Sugar Free Citrus and CRANRAZBERRY. DNA can be found at independent retailers throughout the state of Florida, as well as national retailers including Walgreens, Race Trac and Circle K. Distribution is primarily through Grass Roots Beverage, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary and select Miller and Anheuser-Bush distributors in select markets.

DNA is a proud sponsor of many action sport teams. True to its action sports roots, DNA BRANDS, INC. has earned national recognition through its sponsorship of the DNA Energy Drink/Jeff Ward Racing team where it competes on a world-class level in Supercross and Motocross, reaching millions of fans. DNA Energy Drink can also be found in other action sports such as Surfing, BMX, Wakeboarding and Skateboarding and its athletes are recognized stars in their own right.

For more information about DNA Energy Drink, its athletes and sponsorships, please visit http://www.dnabrandsusa.com or contact: Darren M. Marks, President (954) 970 3826 darren@dnaenergydrink.com

Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements

To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, future collaboration agreements, the success of the Company's development, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made.

See the original post here:
DNA Brands to Re-Brand and Undertake New Marketing Campaign

In "Jurassic Park," scientists extract 80-million-year-old dino DNA from the bellies of mosquitoes trapped in amber. Researchers may never be able to extract genetic material that old and bring a T. rex back to life, but a new study suggests DNA can survive in fossils longer than previously believed.

The oldest DNA samples ever recovered are from insects and plants in ice cores in Greenland up to 800,000 years old. But researchers had not been able to determine the oldest possible DNA they could get from the fossil record because DNA's rate of decay had remained a mystery.

Now scientists in Australia report they've been able to estimate this rate based on a comparison of DNA from 158 fossilized leg bones from three species of the moa, an extinct group of flightless birds that once lived in New Zealand. The bones date between 600 and 8,000 years old and importantly all come from the same region.

Temperatures, oxygenation and other environmental factors make it difficult to detect a basic rate of degradation, researcher Mike Bunce, from Murdoch University's Ancient DNA lab in Perth, explained in a statement.

"The moa bones however have allowed us to study the comparative DNA degradation because they come from different ages from a region where they have all experienced the same environmental conditions," Bunce said.

Based on this study, Bunce and his team put DNA's half-life at 521 years, meaning half of the DNA bonds would be broken down 521 years after death, and half of the remaining bonds would be decayed another 521 years after that, and so on. This rate is 400 times slower than simulation experiments predicted, the researchers said, and it would mean that under ideal conditions, all the DNA bonds would be completely destroyed in bone after about 6.8 million years.

"If the decay rate is accurate then we predict that DNA fragments of sufficient length will preserve in frozen fossil bone of around one million years in age," Bunce said.

But he cautioned that more research is needed to examine the other variables in the breakdown of DNA.

"Other factors that impact on DNA preservation include storage time following excavation, soil chemistry and even the time of year when the animal died," Bunce said in a statement. "We hope to refine predictions of DNA survival by more accurately mapping how DNA fragments decay across the globe."

The study was published Oct. 10 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Read the original here:
'Jurassic Park' May Be Impossible, But Dino DNA Lasts Longer Than Thought

Researchers in New Zealand found that DNA decays far quicker than previously considered, making it impossible to salvage usable genetic material from dinosaurs.

Don't worry, we won't have to worry about this scenario in the future.

Countless childhood dreams dissolved today upon the news that the calculated half-life of DNA figures out to around 521 years, all but invalidating the chances of a real-life "Jurassic Park."

The DNA fact-finding project involved a team of palaeogeneticists testing 158 leg bones belonging to three species of extinct giant moa birds ranging from 600 to 8,000 years old.

After running a series of comparisons between the age of the various bones and DNA degradation within each specimen, the researchers estimated that DNA's half-life works out to about 521 years after being kept in a swamp with an average temperature of 13.1 Celsius (55 Fahrenheit). Even a more ideal preservation temperature of minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) would only result in readable DNA from specimens up to 1.5 million years old, meaning there is no possible way we can see a 65-million-year-old T-Rex waving its tiny arms about in this time frame.

DNA breaks down for a variety of reasons, including degradation from external influences such as temperature, water, soil chemistry, and so on. After half a millennium, the researchers assume that DNA continues to degrade as the nucleotide bonds within break in half. Each 521-year segment serves as another chapter of nucleotide structure breakdown and carries on until the bonds no longer exist. However, science has yet to determine the breakdown speed of DNA in environments that are more supportive of preservation, such as permafrost.

Morten Allentoft at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, worked with a large team on the findings, which were published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B science journal.

(Via Nature)

Read the rest here:
DNA decay rate makes 'Jurassic Park' impossible

10 October 2012 Last updated at 12:37 ET

DNA representing a one-in-a-billion match to that of a retired teacher and the man accused of her murder was found on her hand, a court has heard.

A "full DNA profile" of Stephen Farrow, 48, was found on a swab taken from the back of Betty Yates's left hand following the discovery of her body.

Farrow denies the murders of Mrs Yates, in Worcestershire, and the Rev John Suddards, in South Gloucestershire.

He claims he saw 77-year-old Mrs Yates two days before she was killed.

She was found stabbed to death in her cottage, in Bewdley, on 4 January, having been killed two days earlier.

Farrow, of no fixed address, claims he saw Mrs Yates on 30 December, but Bristol Crown Court heard the location the DNA sample was found would make it "extremely rare" to get such a strong profile days later.

Forensic scientist Christopher McKenzie told the jury: "The DNA profile obtained showed a mixture of DNA from two people which matched the corresponding DNA profiles of Mrs Yates and Stephen Farrow.

"We found that it is a billion times more likely to have come from Betty Yates and Stephen Farrow than from Betty Yates and someone other than Stephen Farrow."

Mr McKenzie said given the strength of the DNA profile he would expect there to have been either direct physical contact between Mrs Yates and Farrow or for it to have come from a bodily fluid - potentially saliva or sweat.

View post:
Murder accused's DNA 'on victim'

HAPPIER TIMES: Lloyd and Corryn Rayney on a family holiday in Canada in late 2003-early 2004. Source: PerthNow

A DNA expert based in London was called in to investigate whether Lloyd Rayney or another, unidentified "person of interest" were involved in the 2007 death of Mr Rayney's estranged wife, Supreme Court registrar Corryn Rayney.

But tests by forensic scientist Rosalyn Treliving did not shed any light on who may have been responsible for Mrs Rayney's death.

Ms Treliving, who specialises in the analysis of body fluids and the interpretation of DNA profiles, was asked by Major Crime Squad officers to examine hairs, DNA extracts and a handkerchief collected from crime scenes related to the case.

In a written statement tendered to the Supreme Court in Perth, she said her DNA tests were to "assist in addressing the issue" of whether Mr Rayney or a second person - whose name has been withheld - were involved in Mrs Rayney's death on August 7, 2007.

She said she understood Mr Rayney and the second individual were both "persons of interest" in the investigation.

The prominent Perth barrister has been on trial for three months charged with wilfully murdering his wife at the family home in Como on the night of August 7, 2007.

Prosecutors have alleged that Mr Rayney killed Mrs Rayney at their home before placing her body in the back of her State-issued car and driving to Kings Park where he buried her in a clandestine bush grave.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Ms Treliving said she examined hair and DNA extracts from Mrs Rayney's car; hair samples from outside the Rayneys' Como home; a handkerchief found in Mrs Rayney's grave; DNA from a tree branch near the gravesite and DNA extracts from hairs found at the grave, on Mrs Rayney's clothing and in the body bag in which she was placed after being removed from the grave.

Read the rest here:
UK DNA expert drew a blank with tests

ScienceDaily (Oct. 9, 2012) Many diseases, including cancers, leave genetic clues in the body just as criminals leave DNA at the scene of a crime. But tools to detect the DNA-like sickness clues known as miRNAs, tend to be slow and expensive. Now a chemist and a biologist from University of Copenhagen have invented a method that promises to shave days off the lab work done to reveal diseases, using cheap methods and easy to use analytical apparatuses.

Chemistry researcher Tom Vosch and plant molecular biologist Seong Wook Yang invented a DNA sensor, coupling genetic material to a luminous molecule which goes dark only in the presence of a specific target. Details on their invention, Silver Nano cluster DNA-probes, are published in the high profile scientific journal ACS Nano, and Tom Vosch is understandably proud of the invention.

"We invented a probe that emits light only as long as the sample is clean. That is an unusually elegant and easy way to screen for a particular genetic target," says Vosch of the Department of Chemistry's Nano Science Centre.

DNA clues help detect disease

You could say that the inventors took their cue from crime detection. In murder cases police technicians use DNA to identify the killer. Similarly Individuals with disease are likely to have a unique miRNA profile. Any disease that is attacking a patient leaves this genetic clue all over the victim. And because the profiles of miRNAs vary by type of cancer, finding it proves beyond a reasonable doubt what made the patient sick.

Gene magnets stick to opposites

The new detection method exploits a natural quality of genetic material. A single DNA strand is made up of molecules, so called bases, ordered in a unique combination. When two strands join to form their famous double helix, they do so by sticking to complementary copies of themselves. Likewise strands tailored to match particular miRNAs will stick to the real thing with uncanny precision. But detecting this union of the strands was only made possible when Vosch and Yang paired their skills.

A real kill switch

Tom Vosch is specialized in studying molecules that light up. Seong Wook Yang is specialized in miRNA. Together they figured out how to attach the light emitting molecules to DNA sensors for miRNA detection. Vosch and Yang discovered, that when these luminous DNA-strands stick with microRNA-strands, their light is snuffed out, giving a very visible indication that the target miRNA is present in the sample. In other words: When the light goes out, the killer is in the house.

Likely to lead to high speed cancer diagnostics

Read this article:
Glowing DNA invention points towards high speed disease detection