MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is establishing a DNA Library of Crops, Fisheries, and Livestock (LCFL) which will help speed up crop improvement and enhance Philippines' ability to benefit economically from genetic and proprietary rights.

DA already started the DNA LCFL Library under its 2011 biotechnology program which for the first time received a P150 million budget under the 2011 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

DA Undersecretary Segfredo R. Serrano said that DA already has a more stable budget for biotechnology program office (BPO) as government recognizes the function of new techniques in its poverty and hunger reduction and food security aims.

"We're making sure we're getting our due share from the more than 60 percent budget increase for the DA system," said Serrano.

Dr. Candida B. Adalla, director of DA's biotechnology program office (BPO), in an interview, said they have already started the project last year.

"We have already done barcoding for native chicken. It will be a continuing thing as we work on other crops," Adalla said.

For about 10 years since 2000, the BPO obtained its budget from the US PL480 Food forr Peace program for a total of P280 million. But the GAA funding through the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) will make commitments for BPO more permanent through a yearly allocation.

Adalla said the DNA Library is an electronic or digital database of genetic materials that will be kept and maintained by the Bureau of Plant Industry's National Seed Industry Council.

"If I'm a breeder I can easily improve on my crop because I will have access to a database of the genetic material that I need," she said.

The database will enhance the country's intellectual property claims for plant and animal genetic development.

Under the 2011 PL480 research and development program, BPO had 28 programs for crops and plants, six programs for livestock and poultry, and three for fisheries and aquatic species.

The program under the 2011 GAA include varietal improvement for non genetically modified (GM) crops using biotechnology tools such as marker assisted selection or breeding which took up the highest number of projects at 22 percent of total while genetic conservation and gene banking got 14 percent.

Other BPO projects are varietal improvement for GM technologies, improvement of bioprocessing using biotechnology tools, commercialization of biotechnology products, and support for policy, regulation, and quality assurance and safety.

BPO is also allocating a significant budget for skills or capability building as government needs to strengthen presence of research experts although it already has a good number.

"We have very robust pool of scientists. There are many at UPLB (University of the Philippines Los Banos) as we offer a BS on Agricultural Biotechnology. In terms of budget our P150 million for biotechnology research and development is significant in contrast to zero, said Adalla.

"Before we depended on grant, foreign projects. This time it's people's money allocated already which means that government has recognized the importance of biotechnology," said Adalla.

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DA Establishes DNA Crop Library

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — When Rhonda Sue Warford died in a rural field near Brandenburg, she had multiple stab wounds to her chest, back and neck, including one that destroyed her brain stem, and two gray hairs clenched in her right hand.

Two decades later, those hairs are at the center of a legal battle over DNA testing that appellate attorneys hope will upend the convictions of two men serving life in prison for Warford's murder.

The Innocence Project, a New York-based group that works with inmates to obtain DNA testing, is reinvestigating the murder of Warford, a 19-year-old from Louisville who died in 1992 in what prosecutors called a satanic ritual murder. The legal fight has made its way to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which is weighing whether to hear the appeal of 42-year-old Garr Keith Hardin and 41-year-old Jeffrey Dewayne Clark's and order DNA testing on the hairs.

Their case is a challenge to the scope of Kentucky's post-conviction DNA testing law, which applies only to death row inmates and is considered by defense attorneys to be among the weakest in the country. Kentucky legislators are also considering a bill that would allow more inmates access to DNA testing of evidence.

The utility of testing the hairs is a point of contention between prosecutors, who say the tests won't help Hardin and Clark, and the Innocence Project, which says tests matching someone else will clear their clients.

In briefs filed with the Kentucky Supreme Court, Innocence Project attorney Jason Kreag said test results on the hairs could match an alternate suspect and definitively point to someone other than Hardin and Clark as the killer.

"Tragically, in many exoneration cases, the actual perpetrator has gone on to commit additional crimes while the wrong person served time in prison," Kreag said in a letter to the Kentucky Attorney General's Office.

Kentucky prosecutors oppose the testing. They say it won't exonerate the two convicted men, though it might point to a third person being involved.

"The evidence in the record is enough to sustain any convictions," said Assistant Attorney General Perry Ryan, who is handling the appeal.

Kreag declined to comment to The Associated Press, citing the ongoing investigation and legal proceedings. Warford's family declined to discuss the case.

Forty-eight states have post-conviction DNA testing laws. Some, such as Colorado, allow anyone convicted of a felony to seek testing while others limit the crimes that qualify for testing. Maryland and Washington state, for example, limit the eligible crimes to murder or sexual offenses.

Oklahoma and Massachusetts have no laws allowing post-conviction access to DNA testing.

At least three people in Kentucky have reached agreements with prosecutors for post-conviction DNA testing and left prison exonerated, but the testing didn't come under Kentucky's access law. Under that law, enacted in 2001, only death row inmates may petition a court to gain access to evidence and have it tested.

The case of Hardin and Clark has its roots in the on-again, off-again relationship between Warford and Hardin. They dated for a while, with sometimes volatile results.

A witness at Hardin's trial, Hope Jaggers, said Warford told Hardin she was pregnant. Hardin responded by saying "if you are pregnant, I will kill you and that ... baby," Jaggers testified in 1995.

Warford disappeared early on the morning of April 2, 1992, after telling her mother she was going out. Her mother, Mary Warford, called Louisville police to report her missing when the teen didn't return home.

Investigators found Warford's body, face down, clad in white canvas tennis shoes, red sweat pants, a dark blue shirt and a multicolored jacket, three days later in "Dead Horse Holler," a rural section of Meade County about 45 miles west of Louisville. An autopsy showed Warford had been stabbed multiple times. She had stab wounds on her hands, which prosecutors theorized were defensive injuries sustained in trying to fight off the attack.

A medical examiner found a tattoo of an inverted cross on Warford's left clavicle, as well as a hair on her sweat pants. DNA testing was unavailable, but the examiner called the hair similar to Hardin's. Detectives found Warford's fingerprint in Clark's car, even though he said Warford had not been in the vehicle since December 1991.

A search turned up occult-related items and documents and knives at the homes of Hardin and Clark. Both men also told detectives that they had taken part in Satanic worship either around the time of the slaying or in the past. Hardin told police detectives on April 7, 1992, that he had a "vision" that Warford, wearing red clothes, had been killed in a field. Prosecutors said Clark twice confessed to a fellow jail inmate that he killed Warford.

Prosecutors took a mix of physical and circumstantial evidence to trial, even telling jurors that the gray hairs were found but couldn't be matched to anyone suspected in Warford's death. Jurors convicted both men of first-degree murder, but declined to impose a death sentence.

In 2009, The Innocence Project began the push for DNA testing of the gray hairs, but prosecutors opposed the request.

Meade County Circuit Judge Sam Monarch rejected testing in January 2010, ruling that matching the evidence to a third party wouldn't exonerate Hardin and Clark and would only implicate a third party.

"Assuming that DNA analysis would confirm what was known prior to the time of trial, this would not be anything new," Monarch wrote.

Since then attorneys for Hardin and Clark have focused on another man, identified in some court records as "John Doe," as an alternate suspect. They say he is the source of the gray hairs. The defense attorneys said they have obtained DNA from "John Doe" to test, should the court grant DNA testing in the case.

Prosecutors are relying on Kentucky's high court to agree with Monarch's logic in rejecting the testing — that there's nothing new about the hairs that could help Hardin and Clark.

"The jury has already considered the fact that the gray hairs could not be tied to Mr. Clark, Mr. Hardin or Ms. Warford and found that this fact did not create a reasonable doubt," Monarch wrote.

______

Associated Press reporter Brett Barrouquere is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBarrouquereAP

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Group wants DNA test in 1992 Ky. 'satanic' killing

Washington, Feb 11 (ANI): Scientists have shed light on what happens in cells when DNA is damaged.

The research group in the Faculty of Medicine 'n' Dentistry at the University of Alberta hopes that their latest discovery could one day be used to develop new therapies that target certain types of cancers.

Mark Glover, his graduate student Zahra Havali-Shahriari and post-doctoral fellow Nicolas Coquelle solved the structure of a DNA repair enzyme called polynucleotide kinase/phosphatase, or PNKP.

This allows them to see what is happening when this enzyme is repairing DNA.

In normal cells damaged DNA can lead to the breakdown of chromosomes and, ultimately, cancers. On the other hand, damaging DNA in cancer cells is a useful way to kill them. A long-term goal of this research is to find ways to specifically block PNKP from doing its repair work in cancer cells as a possible new cancer therapy.

"We can finally visualize it bound to the damaged ends of DNA," said Glover, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry.

"We've trapped the enzyme bound to the damaged DNA before it actually repairs the damage. One of the surprising things that comes out of this study is that we also see that the enzyme has to unwind the DNA double helix."

Work over the last 10 years, pioneered in large part in the Faculty of Medicine 'n' Dentistry, revealed that the enzyme PNKP plays a critical role in the repair of broken DNA ends produced by radiation and other agents.

Until now, though, no one knew how it finds and repairs the damage.

"It breaks base pairs [of DNA] apart, peels off the broken end and then PNKP inserts that broken end into the enzyme," explained Glover.

"It then performs a chemical reaction on the damaged DNA end, reversing the damage and releasing it so that the broken DNA strand can be welded together with the rest of the double helix.

"We now understand more about how this thing works; an enzyme that is protecting us from getting cancers."

However, the same enzyme also protects cancer cells.

"We find a lot of tumours become resistant to these therapies [radiation and chemotherapy]," said Glover.

"The holy grail of cancer therapy is to find drugs that we could give to people that would sensitize their tumours to these therapies.

"One way you could sensitize tumours is to target what they're using to repair damaged DNA. One of the ideas is that we could specifically inhibit this PNKP enzyme."

Sensitizing the tumours to therapies could also lower side effects, insisted Glover.

The lab is already starting to test some compounds that could act as inhibitors for PNKP in tumours and they've seen some positive early results.

Because radiation is proven effective in some but not all cancers, new treatment avenues are necessary. Glover is playing a vital role in moving potential new treatment forward.

"It requires a lot of basic research to find out what's going on in all these different cancers," he added.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a high-impact scientific journal. (ANI)

Excerpt from:
Blocking DNA repair enzyme could eventually lead to cancer therapy

BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 8, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DNA Brands, Inc. (DNAX.OB) today announced that an interview with Darren Marks, the Company's CEO, will air nationally on the Fox Business Network on Wednesday evening February 8, 2012 at 10:30 Pacific time and then again at the same time on the following two Wednesdays. To view the interview click the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLNn5vK5IeA

Mr. Marks said, "Having the opportunity to be interviewed by Mr. Crowley, such a well-known and respected figure in the financial community, was a real honor. As a Company we have a powerful story to tell and interviews like this give us a chance to convey our message coast-to-coast to consumer markets and the investment community alike." Mr. Marks concluded, "We have been featured in several Money-Talk Radio programs."

About Wall Street Cast/Steve Crowley/Money Talk Radio http://www.moneychannel.tv

Steve Crowley is the Editor and Host of the daily "American Scene" Radio programs which have been airing nationally since June 1990. After an impressive career as a partner in a CPA firm, a Financial Reporter for WJAR-TV 10 in Providence and Host of "Money Talks", a PBS television program, Mr. Crowley made the full-time transition to the world of television and radio broadcasting. Steve then became the Financial Reporter for WPLG-TV10, the ABCV affiliate in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market. Steve was also the Money Editor of ABC's "Good Morning America". Steve currently hosts America's #1 Money-Talk Radio Program, Steve Crowley's "American Scene". Today, 3,000,000 listeners take advantage of the three-hour daily broadcasts through the Information Radio Network, and on the Internet worldwide.

About DNA Brands, Inc.

DNA BRANDS, make DNA Energy Drink(R), the award-winning, best-tasting energy drink at the 2010 World Beverage Competition, and DNA Beef Jerky(TM) and DNA Shred Stix(TM). DNA Energy Drink(R) is a proprietary blend of quality ingredients in four flavors Citrus, Lemon Lime, Sugar Free Citrus and CRANRAZBERRY. DNA is a proud sponsor of many action sport teams consisting of top athletes from Motorcross, Surf, Wakeboard and Skateboard has received tremendous TV and media coverage.

Independent retailers throughout the state sell the DNA Brand products as well as national retailers including Walgreens, Race Trac and Circle K.

True to its actions 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(R) 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

The DNA Beverage Corp. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=7258

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.

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DNA Brands' Television Interview to Air on Fox Business Network

DNA taken from the mouth of a former police detective so closely matched saliva from a bite mark on the arm of a murdered woman that no one else could have produced that genetic similarity, a criminalist told jurors Friday.

Los Angeles Police Department scientist Jennifer Francis, who analyzed evidence in the 26-year-old murder case, offered a conclusion that bolstered prosecution claims that defendant Stephanie Lazarus murdered her romantic rival.

Francis said the DNA of Lazarus was found on the bite mark discovered on victim Sherri Rasmussen's body after she was slain in 1986.

The case lay dormant and was reopened after two decades, with DNA analysis credited with reviving the case and implicating Lazarus.

The 51-year-old Lazarus, once a decorated LAPD investigator, listened attentively as Francis provided the strongest evidence against her.

Lazarus has pleaded not guilty and her lawyer, Mark Overland, has suggested that the DNA swabs taken at the time of Rasmussen's killing were corrupted over the years and are not reliable evidence.

Prosecutors claim that Lazarus was consumed with jealousy when her longtime lover, John Ruetten, announced he had decided to marry Rasmussen, a nursing supervisor at a hospital. When Rasmussen was killed, investigators believed she was the victim of a home invasion robbery.

Lazarus' name came up when the case was reopened and new detectives looked at the facts. Other police witnesses have told how they followed Lazarus surreptitiously and collected her DNA from a cup she discarded during a shopping trip.

It provided a partial match to DNA from the bite, they said. But it wasn't until Lazarus provided a DNA sample from her mouth while in custody that they had a perfect match, they said.

Francis described how she received swabs for testing that had been placed in an envelope a quarter century before. She identified pictures of the envelope which she said was in "ratty" condition and had at least one large tear. A photo projected on a courtroom screen showed a test tube top sticking out of a tear in the envelope. Francis said she also cut a slit in the envelope to remove the tube.

That has led to claims of evidence tampering by the defense.

During cross-examination by Overland, Francis said DNA evidence is highly susceptible to contamination and degradation over time. But she said laboratories have controls to prevent that.

She also testified that she was first approached to analyze materials in the case in 2004. In early 2005, she determined the person who made the bite mark was probably a female.

For unexplained reasons, the case then sat dormant again until 2009, when a detective reopened it and Francis compared the genetic profile of the biter with the DNA sample taken from Lazarus' mouth.

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Paul Nunez, Francis said the genetic profile of Lazarus and the bite mark would be expected to be found in one in 402 quadrillion individuals.

"On our Earth would you expect to find another individual with the profile of Stephanie Lazarus and Exhibit 30 (the bite)?" Nunez asked.

"No," said the witness.

The trial is in recess until Tuesday. Monday is a court holiday.

Here is the original post:
Witness: LA Detective's DNA Matched Bite Mark

LOS ANGELES (AP) — DNA taken from the mouth of a former police detective so closely matched saliva from a bite mark on the arm of a murdered woman that no one else could have produced that genetic similarity, a criminalist told jurors Friday.

Los Angeles Police Department scientist Jennifer Francis, who analyzed evidence in the 26-year-old murder case, offered a conclusion that bolstered prosecution claims that defendant Stephanie Lazarus murdered her romantic rival.

Francis said the DNA of Lazarus was found on the bite mark discovered on victim Sherri Rasmussen's body after she was slain in 1986.

The case lay dormant and was reopened after two decades, with DNA analysis credited with reviving the case and implicating Lazarus.

The 51-year-old Lazarus, once a decorated LAPD investigator, listened attentively as Francis provided the strongest evidence against her.

Lazarus has pleaded not guilty and her lawyer, Mark Overland, has suggested that the DNA swabs taken at the time of Rasmussen's killing were corrupted over the years and are not reliable evidence.

Prosecutors claim that Lazarus was consumed with jealousy when her longtime lover, John Ruetten, announced he had decided to marry Rasmussen, a nursing supervisor at a hospital. When Rasmussen was killed, investigators believed she was the victim of a home invasion robbery.

Lazarus' name came up when the case was reopened and new detectives looked at the facts. Other police witnesses have told how they followed Lazarus surreptitiously and collected her DNA from a cup she discarded during a shopping trip.

It provided a partial match to DNA from the bite, they said. But it wasn't until Lazarus provided a DNA sample from her mouth while in custody that they had a perfect match, they said.

Francis described how she received swabs for testing that had been placed in an envelope a quarter century before. She identified pictures of the envelope which she said was in "ratty" condition and had at least one large tear. A photo projected on a courtroom screen showed a test tube top sticking out of a tear in the envelope. Francis said she also cut a slit in the envelope to remove the tube.

That has led to claims of evidence tampering by the defense.

During cross-examination by Overland, Francis said DNA evidence is highly susceptible to contamination and degradation over time. But she said laboratories have controls to prevent that.

She also testified that she was first approached to analyze materials in the case in 2004. In early 2005, she determined the person who made the bite mark was probably a female.

For unexplained reasons, the case then sat dormant again until 2009, when a detective reopened it and Francis compared the genetic profile of the biter with the DNA sample taken from Lazarus' mouth.

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Paul Nunez, Francis said the genetic profile of Lazarus and the bite mark would be expected to be found in one in 402 quadrillion individuals.

"On our Earth would you expect to find another individual with the profile of Stephanie Lazarus and Exhibit 30 (the bite)?" Nunez asked.

"No," said the witness.

The trial is in recess until Tuesday. Monday is a court holiday.

Excerpt from:
Witness: Detective's DNA matched bite mark

February 12, 2012, 7:13 PM EST

By Robert Langreth

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- More than half of lung and colon cancer patients may benefit from high-speed tests that detect DNA flaws doctors can target with existing medicines, a study found.

Researchers used a gene test made by closely held Foundation Medicine Inc. to sequence 145 cancer-associated genes in 40 colon tumor samples and 24 lung tumors. They found that 53 percent of colon tumors and 71 percent of lung tumors had mutations that may be attacked with cancer medicines on the market or in human trials, according to the study published today in Nature Medicine. In some cases, the results revealed what drugs wouldn’t work against the tumors.

The study from researchers at Foundation Medicine and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, shows the value of using DNA sequencing machines to optimize treatment by matching drugs against specific gene abnormalities inside a patient’s tumor, said Pasi Janne, a study co-author.

“It is moving closer and closer to real personalized medicine,” Janne, a lung cancer specialist at Dana-Farber, said in an interview. “It is fantastic as we can tailor our therapy to the particular genetics of a patient’s cancer.”

The DNA sequencing field has drawn increased interest from pharmaceutical makers focused on developing gene-targeted therapies. Roche Holding AG, the world’s biggest maker of cancer medicines, last month began a $5.7 billion hostile takeover offer for Illumina Inc., the maker of gene sequencing machines that Foundation Medicine uses in its tests.

Pfizer’s Sutent

The researchers also spotted a previously unknown genetic flaw in 2 percent of 561 lung tumors tested. The flaw activates a growth-boosting protein targeted by Pfizer Inc.’s kidney- cancer drug Sutent, hinting that the treatment from the New York-based drugmaker may also work in these lung patients, said Janne. He wants to begin a trial of Sutent in lung-cancer patients with the gene change by year end, he said.

Researchers in Japan also reported finding the same new genetic change in a fraction of lung tumors, according to two other studies published today in Nature Medicine. Until the three new studies, the genetic change had never been seen in any cancer, said Janne.

The change fuses two unrelated genes together to form KIF5B-RET, turning on a growth-driving protein called RET that is usually not active in lung cells. When Janne and his collaborators treated cells with the aberrant gene using Pfizer’s Sutent or AstraZeneca Plc’s thyroid-cancer drug Caprelsa, the cells died. Both drugs block RET.

Finding Gene Abnormalities

Maureen Cronin, a study co-author and molecular pharmacologist at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Foundation Medicine, said her company was finding new gene abnormalities at a much higher rate than they expected as it performs DNA scans on tumors.

“We expected to find new things, but not at the frequency we are finding them,” she said in a telephone interview. The results “are very surprising.”

The study also suggests cancer researchers may need to rethink the way they classify and treat the disease, Cronin said. The particular genetic abnormality inside tumor DNA may matter as much as what organ the tumor came from, she said.

Pfizer is aware of the new lung cancer gene finding and “believes the data are interesting,” said Jenifer Antonacci, a company spokeswoman, in an e-mail.

Laura Woodin, a spokeswoman for London-based AstraZeneca, said the company “is constantly alert to new developments and research in the science of oncology and we review relevant, peer reviewed studies for what they might mean for patients and drug development.”

Foundation Medicine performs a $5,800 test that takes tumor samples and sequences DNA from 200 genes relevant to cancer. It is funded with $33.5 million in venture capital from Third Rock Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Google Ventures, according to its website.

--Editors: Angela Zimm, Andrew Pollack

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

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High-Speed DNA Scans Help Most Lung Cancer Patients, Study Finds