PENZBERG, Germany, February 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

To ensure product safety, clearance of host-cell DNA is essential when manufacturing therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibody (mAB) drugs. Using the MagNA Pure LC 2.0 System from Roche, scientists have developed and validated an automated process for monitoring clearance of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell DNA during the capture and polishing steps when processing therapeutic proteins and mAB drugs (1).

Automated DNA monitoring during manufacturing eliminates the need to perform manual DNA extraction that can create analytics bottlenecks during process development and routine testing. Automated DNA isolation using Roche's MagNA Pure LC 2.0 System results in high DNA recovery rates and subsequent highly sensitive qPCR with the LightCycler 480 Real-Time PCR Instrument. MagNA Pure LC DNA purification eliminates: (a) Manual dilution of high-protein and high-DNA loads; (b) Manual acidic sample neutralization; and (c) Manual carrier RNA addition.

Roche has produced validation data comparing DNA extraction of manufacturing samples spiked with CHO DNA using Roche's MagNA Pure LC 2.0 System and competitive instrumentation. In contrast to the other instrumentation, the MagNA Pure LC 2.0 System did not require manual sample preprocessing, additional proteinase K pretreatment, sample neutralization and dilution, or carrier RNA. The MagNA Pure LC DNA System isolation was shown to require less hands-on time for higher performance than the competitive instrumentation. These findings indicate that MagNA Pure LC 2.0 System automated sample preparation can be productively used to reduce analytics bottlenecks during in-process development and quality control of therapeutic proteins and mAB drugs.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2011, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 42.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: http://www.roche.com.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

MAGNA PURE und LIGHTCYCLER are trademarks of Roche.

All other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Roche´s MagNA Pure LC 2.0 System for Monitoring DNA in Therapeutic Proteins and Monoclonal Antibody Drugs

FLORENCE, Ky. - 9 News has learned that the much-anticipated results of DNA testing in the 9-month-old double murder case of an N.Ky. couple has been sent from the lab to the Boone County Sheriffs Office for examining.

Bill and Peggy Stephenson, both 74, of Florence, were found brutally murdered in May 2010 in their Florence condo by their daughter's husband.

Detectives and members of the Stephensons' family have been anxious for these results, which they hope will lead to a break in the case that has devastated the Florence community.

This is the first of three rounds of DNA testing that will be done. Investigators believe this round will most likely lead to a killer if they are able to find anything.

The Stephensons' daughter, Beth Victor, tells 9 News she is relieved to now have this evidence back from the lab, but only "cautiously optimistic" it will help bring answers after such a long and painful wait.

"It's been terrible on our family. It's just been horrible," said Victor.

The Stephensons were pillars of their community. They ran a truck stop ministry at Travel Centers of America in Florence. Bill led a service there every Sunday, and Peggy played the organ at the couple's Florence church. Why someone would kill them has baffled detectives for nine months.

The conversation that had to happen between Victor and her husband the day they were killed was more than Victor could talk about.

Victor says she and her siblings have met almost weekly, sometimes with detectives, to talk and support each other.

"I will say one thing, it's drawn us closer as a family, but I hate it's taken this to make us closer," said Victor.

Read the rest here:
DNA results in Stephenson murder case delivered to Boone County Sheriff's Office for examination

FLORENCE, Ky. - 9 News has learned that the much-anticipated results of DNA testing in the 9-month-old double murder case of an N.Ky. couple has been sent from the lab to the Boone County Sheriffs Office for examining.

Bill and Peggy Stephenson, both 74, of Florence, were found brutally murdered in May 2010 in their Florence condo.

Detectives and members of the Stephensons' family have been anxious for these results, which they hope will lead to a break in the case that has devastated the Florence community.

This is the first of three rounds of DNA testing that will be done. Investigators believe this round will most likely lead to a killer if they are able to find anything.

The Stephensons' daughter, Beth Victor, tells 9 News she is relieved to now have this evidence back from the lab, but is only "cautiously optimistic" it will help bring answers after such a long and painful wait.

"It's been terrible on our family. It's just been horrible," said Victor.

The Stephensons were pillars of their community. They ran a truck stop ministry at Travel Centers of America in Florence. Bill led a service there every Sunday, and Peggy played the organ at the couple's Florence church. Why someone would kill them has baffled detectives for nine months.

Victor's husband found the couple dead in their home. The conversation that had to happen between Victor and her husband that day was more than Victor could talk about.

Victor says she and her siblings have met almost weekly, sometimes with detectives, to talk and support each other.

"I will say one thing, it's drawn us closer as a family, but I hate it's taken this to make us closer," said Victor.

See the rest here:
DNA in N.Ky. double murder delivered

Published: Feb. 28, 2012 at 2:27 PM

WEST CHESTER, Ohio, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The owners of an Ohio apartment complex said they are using DNA testing to determine the identities of residents who fail to clean up after their dogs.

Summit Management Services, which owns The Lakes of West Chester Village, said the "Poo Prints" DNA program will match dog droppings left on the property with DNA samples taken from residents' canines, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday.

"With pet ownership comes responsibility, particularly in a community comprised of renters," property manager Jill Moorman wrote in a letter to residents. "Aside from garden variety noise complaints … another antagonizing issue has become a major factor for pet owners and non-pet owners alike -- dog waste."

Moorman said the dog poo will be sent to the BioPet Vet Lab in Knoxville, Tenn., for identification and the owners will then be fined $200 per violation.

"The 'Poo Prints' DNA program was of great interest because it scientifically identifies the responsible resident, with no guesswork," said Rick Nixon, vice president of Summit Management Services. "Clearly, we do not view dogs as culprits in the utilization of this program; rather, owners will be held accountable for their failure to comply."

Read the rest here:
Apartment complex testing DNA of dog poo

CINCINNATI - 9 News has learned  that as early as Wednesday detectives with the Boone County Sheriff's Office will have long-awaited DNA results back from the lab in the double murder case of Bill and Peggy Stephenson.

The husband and wife, both 74, of Florence, were pillars of their community. They ran a truck stop ministry at Travel Centers of America in Florence. Bill led a service there every Sunday, and Peggy played the organ at the couple's Florence church. Why someone would kill them has baffled detectives for nine months.

The Stephensons' daughter, Beth Victor, tells 9 News she is relieved to now have this evidence back from the lab, but only "cautiously optimistic" it will help bring answers after such a long and painful wait.

"It's been terrible on our family.  It's just been horrible," said Victor.

The Stephensons were found brutally murdered in May 2010 in their Florence condo by Victor's husband.

The conversation that had to happen between him and his wife that day was more than Victor could talk about.

Victor says she and her siblings have met almost weekly, sometimes with detectives, to talk and support each other.

"I will say one thing, it's drawn us closer as a family, but I hate it's taken this to make us closer," said Victor.

Victor says her family's "new normal" is the pain of loss and worrying the killer or killers might want to harm another member of the family.

"We live in fear every day, you know that they're watching us, windows, blinds stayed pulled in all of our houses. I don't go out at night a whole lot by myself," Victor said.

Victor says because the family doesn't know why the murders happened, they can't be sure they're safe.  

Investigators have not released whether anything was taken from their home, being very tight-lipped to protect their investigation.

Boone County sheriff's detectives have made no arrests despite interviewing hundreds of people in eight states, but all the while potentially key DNA evidence that could point to a killer or killers sat on a shelf, no one analyzing it for some six months.

"We understand that the family is very distressed, that the community has someone out and about and they'd like to know who did this. I am very concerned about the case," said Laura Sudkamp, who manages the six Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratories that receive evidence from police agencies across the Commonwealth.

Sudkamp says Boone County wanted the Stephenson evidence handled by an analyst in the Northern Kentucky lab with whom the county had a longtime relationship, but that analyst had to take a leave that proved lengthy.

"They waited as long as they could. Then they went ahead and said 'send it to the central lab for it to get worked.'  We need results," said Sudkamp.

Sudkamp says an unexpected surge in cases has also kept the labs from speeding up the turn around of results.

"Officers are learning more and more about collecting DNA on the scene," said Sudkamp.
 
Sudkamp says the evidence load has more than doubled the past few years, keeping cases backlogged by four-to-six months despite a faster turn around rate.
   
She's now hiring three more analysts and is working on a grant to bring in robots, "to bring that down closer to 60-to-90 days, so that officers can actually use it as an investigative tool instead of just court purposes," said Sudkamp.

Sudkamp says if the state of Kentucky gave her $5 million, she could bring the wait time down to 30 days in the next year-and-a-half. That kind of priority would be up to lawmakers and taxpayers, she said.

Meantime DNA Supervisor Whitney Collins says she's been working nights and weekends on the Stephenson case since late December.

Boone County detectives are anxious to get the DNA evidence and hope it will help them solve the case, said spokesperson Tom Scheben. They will receive two more rounds of DNA evidence after this initial one as Collins keeps working on the case at the central lab.

Collins can't talk about what she may have found so far on the Stephenson case, but hopes it will help bring answers.

So do Beth Victor and her brothers, who remind the community they're offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

"We just want it solved, we just want to know who did it and why," said Victor.

Stay with 9 News and WCPO.com for the latest information on the DNA results as it becomes available.

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Continued here:
DNA results in Stephenson murder case imminent

A Utica man has been accused of stealing a computer and jewelry from a New Hartford residence.

Nermin Velic, 22, was charged with felony burglary and grand larceny counts, town police said.

The burglary happened on Sept. 21 when the resident left his house for a short period of time, police said.

The stolen items were worth almost $7,000, police said.

The New Hartford Police Forensic Investigation Unit processed the scene and was able to locate possible DNA. The DNA was swabbed and sent to the New York State Forensic Investigation Center in Albany for analysis. 

A DNA profile was extracted from the evidence and placed into a Data Base which cross- references it with DNA from known providers. 

On Feb. 27, New Hartford police were notified that there was a positive identification from the DNA at the scene that matched Velic. 

Velic was found on Feb. 28 with the assistance of the Utica Police Burglary Unit. 

He was arraigned in the Town Of New Hartford  Court and was remanded to Oneida County jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
 

See more here:
DNA match leads police to burglary suspect in N. Hartford

Enlarge Martin Kaste/NPR

A Washington State Patrol crime lab technician opens DNA sample cards containing cheek swabs sent from jails and prisons. If the state Legislature approves pre-conviction DNA sampling, the number of cards the lab processes could double.

Martin Kaste/NPR

A Washington State Patrol crime lab technician opens DNA sample cards containing cheek swabs sent from jails and prisons. If the state Legislature approves pre-conviction DNA sampling, the number of cards the lab processes could double.

Mandatory DNA collection is fast becoming routine in the American criminal justice system. In many jurisdictions, just being arrested can mean having to submit a genetic sample to the national database. Federal law enforcement and 26 states now permit various forms of pre-conviction DNA sampling and more states are poised to follow suit.

The state of Washington still waits until conviction before taking genetic samples. There, the Legislature's resistance to expanded "DNA typing" has traditionally come from self-described civil libertarians like Democratic Rep. Jeannie Darneille. In recent years, Darneille killed two bills that would have allowed sampling at arrest.

But this year, Darneille surprised other civil libertarians when she sponsored a bill that would allow police to sample DNA as soon as they arrest someone for certain serious felonies. Darneille says she changed her mind after hearing about a serial rapist in Tacoma who might have been caught earlier if his DNA had been sampled at arrest.

"Let's say the person goes in for that auto theft and they aren't actually convicted of that, but they've committed these prior offenses, and they're going to commit more," Darneille says. "There's a chance that we could stop them from doing those additional crimes in the future."

Building The Database

Collecting DNA samples after an arrest — rather than after a conviction — would likely double the number of genetic samples processed at Washington State Patrol crime labs like the one forensic scientist Natasha Pranger works in.

Like most states, Washington has gradually widened its mandatory DNA sampling — first, it was sex offenders, then convicts in general. Pranger says improved technology has made it possible to handle the growing volume.

"The program started in 1990 and everything was blood samples," she says. "We do not want to have to store all those blood samples in freezers — because that's where they were stored."

These days, samples come in on a paper card with dried smears of white gunk Q-tipped out of somebody's mouth. Pranger scans then punches the cards with a machine the size of a laser printer. The machines that do the actual DNA analysis are no bigger than an old photocopier.

Once that's done, the DNA markers are uploaded to the FBI's national database and the card goes into a file cabinet.

An Intrusive Thing?

Pranger's own DNA is also in the system, along with the DNA of each lab employee, frequent visitors and even janitors. They're all on file in case of cross-contamination so, around the lab, having your DNA in the database is no big deal. That's also the attitude of law enforcement.

Dan Satterberg, prosecuting attorney for King County, testified in January in favor of pre-conviction sampling.

"This is not an intrusive thing," he told a state legislative committee. "I don't know that a person has any more expectation of privacy in the DNA profile than they do in the whorls and loops and arches and ridges of your fingerprints."

But ACLU legislative director Shankar Narayan says, "DNA goes far beyond mere identification. It's actually a catalog of an individual's most private biological information."

To be clear, that biological information is not going into the FBI's database, known as CODIS. Those computers get only a tiny sampling of genetic information, usually consisting of 13 markers. The most you can do with a computer search is match one sample to another, determine the person's sex and sometimes point to possible relatives. For anything more detailed, you have to go back to the biological samples ?? the white gunk in the file cabinets. Still, Narayan says, when it comes to government databases, you have to worry about "mission creep" — the possibility that down the road the information could be used for something it wasn't originally intended for.

"If they are really serious about this being just about the 13 markers, then the biological sample should be destroyed once those 13 markers are uploaded," he says.

The Supreme Court has yet to make a definitive ruling on the issue. Some legal scholars say it qualifies as a search under the Fourth Amendment, and police should be required to get a warrant before they get out the cotton swabs. But others wonder whether it might be better just to put everybody in the database and be done with it.

"I'm very torn about whether that's the solution," says Erin Murphy, a DNA specialist at New York University Law School. "I prefer it ... [to] the road of mindless expansion that we seem to be on now. I think that if everyone were in it, it would be far more likely we would have better quality control and we would have better oversight and we would have better information about how the database is actually used.

"On the flip side, you know, it would be a massive shift in the relationship between the people of this country and their government."

For now, the growth of the national database is being limited by the states' lack of money.

Just last year, Maine passed a bill expanding the collection of DNA, but the law was never implemented; the Legislature just couldn't figure out how to pay for it.

And in Washington, Darneille's bill allowing DNA typing at arrest is on hold for now, as the Legislature struggles with a billion-dollar-plus revenue shortfall. But the budget woes won't last forever, and Darneille and other advocates promise to keep trying to expand the number of states that take DNA at arrest.

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Wash. Lawmakers Fight For DNA Sampling At Arrest