By John Bohannon, ScienceNOW

When it comes to storing information, hard drives dont hold a candle to DNA. Our genetic code packs billions of gigabytes into a single gram. A mere milligram of the molecule could encode the complete text of every book in the Library of Congress and have plenty of room to spare. All of this has been mostly theoretical until now. In a new study, researchers stored an entire genetics textbook in less than a picogram of DNA one trillionth of a gram an advance that could revolutionize our ability to save data.

A few teams have tried to write data into the genomes of living cells. But the approach has a couple of disadvantages. First, cells die not a good way to lose your term paper. They also replicate, introducing new mutations over time that can change the data.

To get around these problems, a team led by George Church, a synthetic biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, created a DNA information-archiving system that uses no cells at all. Instead, an inkjet printer embeds short fragments of chemically synthesized DNA onto the surface of a tiny glass chip. To encode a digital file, researchers divide it into tiny blocks of data and convert these data not into the 1s and 0s of typical digital storage media, but rather into DNAs four-letter alphabet of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts. Each DNA fragment also contains a digital barcode that records its location in the original file. Reading the data requires a DNA sequencer and a computer to reassemble all of the fragments in order and convert them back into digital format. The computer also corrects for errors; each block of data is replicated thousands of times so that any chance glitch can be identified and fixed by comparing it to the other copies.

To demonstrate its system in action, the team used the DNA chips to encode a genetics book co-authored by Church. It worked. After converting the book into DNA and translating it back into digital form, the teams system had a raw error rate of only two errors per million bits, amounting to a few single-letter typos. That is on par with DVDs and far better than magnetic hard drives. And because of their tiny size, DNA chips are now the storage medium with the highest known information density, the researchers report online today in Science.

Dont replace your flash drive with genetic material just yet, however. The cost of the DNA sequencer and other instruments currently makes this impractical for general use, says Daniel Gibson, a synthetic biologist at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, but the field is moving fast and the technology will soon be cheaper, faster, and smaller. Gibson led the team that created the first completely synthetic genome, which included a watermark of extra data encoded into the DNA. The researchers used a three-letter coding system that is less efficient than the Church teams but has built-in safeguards to prevent living cells from translating the DNA into proteins. If DNA is going to be used for this purpose, and outside a laboratory setting, then you would want to use DNA sequence that is least likely to be expressed in the environment, he says. Church disagrees. Unless someone deliberately subverts his DNA data-archiving system, he sees little danger.

This story provided by ScienceNOW, the daily online news service of the journal Science.

Image: Scientists have found a way to store an entire textbook in the code of DNA. (JohnGoode/Flickr)

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DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive

(Phys.org) -- A team of researchers in the US has successfully encoded a 5.27 megabit book using DNA microchips, and they then read the book using DNA sequencing. Their experiments show that DNA could be used for long-term storage of digital information.

George Church and Sriram Kosuri of Harvards Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and colleagues, encoded Churchs book Regenesis of around 53,400 words into DNA sequences, along with 11 images in JPG format and a JavaScript program. This is 1,000 times more data than has been encoded in DNA previously.

DNA is made up of nucleotides, and in theory at least each nucleotide can be used to encode two bits of data. This means that the density is a massive 1 million gigabits per cubic millimeter, and only four grams of DNA could theoretically store all the digital data created annually. This is much denser than digital storage media such as flash drives, and more stable, since the DNA sequences could be read thousands of years after they were encoded.

The experiments success lay in the strategy of encoding the data in short sequences of DNA rather than long ones, and this reduced the difficulty and cost of writing and reading the data. Dr Kosuri said the process was analogous to storing data on a hard drive, where data is written in small blocks called sectors.

They first converted the book, program and images to HTML and then translated this into a sequence of 5.27 million 0s and 1s, and these 5.27 megabits were then sequenced into sections of nucleotides 96 bits long using one DNA nucleotide for one bit. The nucleotide bases A and C encoded for 0, while G and T encoded for 1. Each block also contained a 19 bit address to encode the blocks place in the overall sequence. Multiple copies of each block were synthesized to help in error correction.

After the book and other information was encoded into the DNA, drops of DNA were attached to microarray chips for storage. The chips were kept at 4C for three months and then dissolved and sequenced. Each copy of each block of nucleotides was sequenced up to 3,000 times so that a consensus could be reached. In this way they reduced the bit errors in the 5.27 megabits to just 10.

The procedure, described in a paper in the journal Science, cannot be used for rewritable data but could be used for very long-term storage of data. One advantage of using DNA is that a much greater density of information can be stored, but another major advantage is that DNA is a biological molecule that will always be able to be read biologically without special equipment such as CD or DVD players that can quickly become obsolete.

The main disadvantage of this system is that at the moment the technologies used to synthesize and sequence DNA are far too expensive for it to be a practical system for everyday use. Another problem is that while DNA has been sequenced from sources such as mummies thousands of years old, the DNA tends to be fragmented, and work needs to be done on improving the stability of DNA over centuries and longer.

More information: Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1226355

ABSTRACT Digital information is accumulating at an astounding rate, straining our ability to store and archive it. DNA is among the most dense and stable information media known. The development of new technologies in both DNA synthesis and sequencing make DNA an increasingly feasible digital storage medium. Here, we develop a strategy to encode arbitrary digital information in DNA, write a 5.27-megabit book using DNA microchips, and read the book using next-generation DNA sequencing.

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DNA used to encode a book and other digital information

Aug 16, 2012 4:06pm

Image credit: WABC

In what may be a first anywhere, a Whos Your Daddy truck is cruising New York City selling DNA tests to people who want to confirm their childs paternity or even whether their parents are biologically related to them.

The brown and white RV, which is bedecked in eye catching signs advertising its services, is more than just a moving billboard, according to driver and operator Jared Rosenthal. The RV is set up to be a drug testing clinic and a DNA testing clinic, he told ABC News. Its essentially a mobile office so while were working people will walk up and ask questions and sometimes even take a test right on board.

Rosenthal, who works at mobile and clinic based testing company Health Street, came up with the idea for the truck himself.Necessity is the mother of invention, he said. Icouldntafford to rent an office, so I thought, we can convert the RV to a mobile office. People love the artworkit makes them smile and they share it with their friends on social media and get in touch with people who maybe do need DNA tests.

But its not all smiles aboard the Whos Your Daddy Truck, which often plays host to the full spectrum of human emotions. DNA really gets at a persons identity, it gets to the core of their identity, who your parents are, who your children are, how you define yourself ethnically and culturally. Rosenthal said The RV is a little more intimate than a clinic,clients tend to talk more they tell us things, we experience some of these life-changing moments with them.

Rosenthal brought up the story of one woman in her early 20s who came in for a test, only to find out that the people she believed to be her father and her three half-sisters was not related to her at all. In fact, the test revealed she was from an entirely different ethnic background. When she found out her father wasnt her biological father it totally rocked her identity to the core, he said.

He recounted meeting an 18-year-old woman from another state who had contacted the man she believed to be her father living in New York. A DNA test at the truck proved it was true, bringing a broken family back together. He began to form a relationship with this woman and it was great. Rosenthal said. They lost 18 years but they found each other.

Drama aside, Rosenthal insists that the truck is much more than a mobile Maury, providing a service that is very approachable, very accessible, and very available to the community.

The DNA, drug, and alcohol tests, which range in price from $79 to$599 are available at the truck or at local health street clinics. Although based in New York, the organization has partnered with out-of-state clinics and the US Consulate to provide testing in the event that one or more of the parties may live out of the state or country.

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Who's Your Daddy? Mobile Truck Offers DNA Tests to Go

Researchers code a book into DNA, demonstrating the possibility of using the biological molecule for long-term data storage.

Coding messages into DNA was first demonstrated in the 1980s, but technology at the time would only allow one graphical symbol to be encoded. While that capacity has grown over the last 3 decades, the largest project to date, completed in 2010, managed just 7,920 bits of data, equating to approximately half a page of typed text. Using a novel technique, detailed today in Science, researchers at Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities, have now encoded a 53,000-word book into DNA, including 11 JPG images and one JavaScript program.

Others have pointed out that DNA has certain advantages, said study co-author Sriram Kosuri. But no one had really taken it to a level that we were able to code really useful amounts of information.

Those advantages include the density of information that can be stored: an estimate of maximum capacity predicts that one gram of single-strand DNA could store as much as an exabyte (1018 bytes) of data. However, synthesizing and sequencing DNA carries a lot of inherent errors. Synthetic DNA typically has one incorrect nucleotide in every 70, and next gen sequencing techniques can make many mistakes when interpreting the stored data.

To overcome such errors, the team assigned the bases A and C as 0s, and G and T as 1s, creating a digital data stream. The manuscript and its accompanimentsa draft version of a book co-authored by one of the studys authors, George Church, called Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselveswas converted to HTML before being translated into the stream of 0s and 1s that could be written into the DNA sequence. The resulting stream was 5.27 megabits long, or 5.27 million 0s and 1s.

Previous methods have faced problems when trying to create whole streams in one long DNA sequence, a tricky and expensive process. The teams solution was to split the stream into smaller sections. They coded 96 bits per short nucleotide section, called an oligonucleotide, each of which contained a 19-bit address to order the information in the overall sequence. Each oligonucleotide was synthesized multiple times, so that upon reading, errors could be compared in each copy and a consensus reading could be reached.

Its a similar in the way that when you sequence the human genome, you dont sequence it once, you sequence it at 30 or 50 times coverage, and you just take consensus at each position, said Kosuri.

After synthesizing the sequence and attaching drops of DNA to microarray chips, the data was stored at 4 degrees Celsius for 3 months before being dissolved in water, amplified by PCR, and sequenced. By storing multiple copies, and sequencing each copy many times to reach consensus, the team managed to decode the entire 5.27-million-bit sequence with only 10 bit errors.

Theyve come up with a very clever way of managing error in the creation of the information, said synthetic biologist Steven Benner at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, who was not involved in the study. [The authors] provide some clever ways to get around the problems, allowing the reading of the minority molecules containing the desired information amid the larger numbers of molecules that do not.

While DNA storage is not re-writable, and not intended to replace your hard drive, the idea of long-term storage of large amounts of data in a very small space has advantages for archiving records and data. In contrast to a flat disc like a CD, with data only inscribed on the surface, a sheet of DNA has data stored throughout its thickness. The major challenge that remains, however, is the cost and efficiency of todays synthesizing and sequencing technologies, which currently make this system impractical for regular use. As sequencing costs continue to drop and technologies continue to advance, however, such DNA storage strategies may soon become much more practical.

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DNA Data Storage

16 August 2012Harvard University researchers converted a 53 000-word book into DNA and then read the DNA-encoded book using gene-sequencing technology, the researchers report this week in Science. The project is by far the largest demonstration of digital information storage in DNA and the densest consolidation of data in any medium, the authors say.

There is a clear need for improved long-term storage of massively large data, says George Church, a geneticist at Harvards Wyss Institute and one of the leaders of the research. There is data that we are throwing away or dont collect because we cant afford to store it, such as video surveillance of public spaces and large research projects, he says. Someday that wont be necessary. The question is, What will get us there first: electronic or molecular memory?

DNA offers advantages over electronic storage, but whether it will ever make sense practically or economically is unclear. DNA can store more digital information per cubic millimeter than flash memory or even cutting-edge experimental memories such as quantum holography. Data stored in DNA is also recoverable for millennia (consider the 7000-year-old DNA archaeologists have extracted from human remains). And given DNAs biological importance, we can safely assume its going to remain a readable standard for a long time. If you look at the size per bit of stored memory as DNA, its unlikely that well ever get better than that, says Joseph Jacobson, a synthetic biologist at MIT who was not involved in the project.

But making and reading DNA isnt yet practical. Synthesizing and sequencing DNA is expensive, although the cost for both of these technologies has been dropping at a rate of five- and twelvefold per year, respectively. Whats more, unlike electronic bits, most DNA data cannot be changed once its written. And with todays technology, information in DNA usually has to be accessed as a whole, not in parts. (There is no way to make random-access DNA memory.)

Church and his colleagues set out to demonstrate a simple way to densely store data in DNA. They converted an html draft of a book comprising 53 426 words, 11 JPG images, and one JavaScript program into a 5.27 megabit set of zeros and ones. Using software they wrote, zeros were assigned the letter A or C for the DNA bases adenine and cytosine, and ones were assigned the letter G or T for DNA bases guanine and thymine. A lowercase f from the book, for example, was represented in binary as 01100110 and encoded in DNA as ATGAATTC.

Synthesizing that string of bits would yield a stretch of DNA that was 5.27 million bases long. Such long stretches of DNA are particularly expensive to work with, so Church and his colleagues split the DNA sequence into short chunks that were each 96 bases long. Each chunk included a 19-bit bar code, or address, to show where that chunk belonged in the whole of the book. The DNA was synthesized, inkjet-printed on a glass DNA microchip, and then cleaved off and dried to form a 50-nanogram clump smaller than a speck of pollen.

To convert the DNA back to a book, Church and his colleagues read out the bases using commercially available sequencing technology. They then arranged the sequence, decoded it back to zeros and ones, and converted those back to an HTML book. The researchers were able to complete the project with errors in only 10 bits out of 5.27 millionon par with the raw error rate of other storage media, says Sriram Kosuri, a staff scientist at the Wyss Institute who also worked on the project.

The tome that got the honor of becoming the worlds first biological book is the forthcoming Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. The book, coauthored by Church, will be published in more conventional forms this fall.

Similar approaches have been demonstrated before, but on a smaller scale. In 2001, Carter Bancroft and his colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine encoded in DNA the opening lines of Charles Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities. A 2010 project from the J. Craig Venter Institute encoded a 7920-bit watermark in a bacterium genome sequence. Churchs paper, however, takes us from a few bits to many megabits, says Jacobson. If you have a big enough quantitative advance, at some point theres a qualitative shift, and Id say thats the case here.

But another researcher who studies the intersection of biology and technology and asked to remain anonymous calls Churchs paper a silly vanity project with little value. Its like showing you could painstakingly use an abacus to solve a Hamiltonian path problem that would take the average computer a microsecond, he says. Other than maybe military intelligence, finding real-world applications for DNA storage technology under no conceivable set of circumstances is even remotely likely, he says.

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Reading and Writing a Book With DNA

DNA can be used to store information at a density about a million times greater than your hard drive, report researchers in Science today. George Church of Harvard Medical School and colleagues report that they have written an entire book in DNA, a feat that highlights the recent advances in DNA synthesis and sequencing.

The team encoded a draft HTML version of a book co-written by Church called Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. In addition to the text, the biological bits included the information for modern formatting, images and Javascript, to show that DNA (like other digital media) can encode executable directives for digital machines, they write.

To do this, the authors converted the computational language of 0's and 1's into the language of DNA--the nucleotides typically represented by A's, T's G's and C's; the As and Cs took the place of 0's and Ts and Gs of 1's. They then used off-the-shelf DNA synthesizers to make 54,898 pieces of DNA, each 159 nucleotides long, to encode the book, which could then be decoded with DNA sequencing.

This is not the first time non-biological information has been stored in DNA, but Church's demonstration goes far beyond the amount of information stored in previous efforts. For example, in 2009, researchers encoded 1688 bits of text, music and imagery in DNA and in 2010, Craig Venter and colleagues encoded a watermarked, synthetic genome worth 7920 bits.

DNA synthesis and sequencing is still too slow and costly to be practical for most data storage, but the authors suggest DNAs long-lived nature could make it a suitable medium for archival storage.

Erik Winfree, who studies DNA-based computation at Caltech and was a 1999 TR35 winner, hopes the study will stimulate a serious discussion about what roles DNA can play in information science and technology.

The most remarkable thing about DNA is its information density, which is roughly one bit per cubic nanometer, he writes in an email.

Technology changes things, and many old ideas for DNA information storage and information processing deserve to be revisited now -- especially since DNA synthesis and sequencing technology will continue their remarkable advance.

The rest is here:
An Entire Book Written in DNA

6 hrs.

Francie Diep , InnovationNewsDaily

Bioengineers have turned a book into DNA. The researchers also have shown they can decode the DNA to re-create the book, which includes 53,426 words, 11 images and one interactive Javascript app.

This may be the world's only modern biology book that costs thousands of dollars to read as well as write.

The new bio-digital book, coded from a Harvard University researcher's writings on synthetic biology, represents the largest amount ofdata ever written into DNA. Because of how costly and complex it is to read and write genetic material, DNA is still far from a practical storage drive. Yet as the price of synthesizing and sequencing DNA continues to drop, it may become an interesting way of storing data for the very long term, said Sriram Kosuri, a Harvard bioengineer who was one of the bio-digital book's creators.

"It brings a different perspective into the storage field," Kosuri told InnovationNewsDaily.

"At this point, it's very premature to hope that it would actually become something practical," said Stefano Lonardi, a computational biologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not part of the Harvard effort. Nevertheless, Lonardi said, the work is a step toward DNA storage in the future. "These are things that people have to do first in order to get to something practical," he said.

Turning an e-book into DNATo turn text and pictures into a double helix, the book had to undergo several translations. First, Kosuri and his colleagues wrote an HTML file of a draft of the book that Harvard bioengineer George Church was writing at the time. HTML is the language Web developers use to write websites.

The biologists then turned the HTML into binary, the 1s and 0s that computers read. They decided to use the individual building blocks of DNA, commonly referred to by their one-letter initials, to represent the 1s and 0s. The building blocks A and C would represent 0s, they decided, while G and T would represent 1s. They then assembled strands of DNA representing their binary code. [10 Technologies Poised to Transform our World]

One of the greatest challenges of building DNA from scratch is that it's expensive and difficult to create long, unbroken strings of the stuff. So Kosuri and his teammates decided they would make very many smaller pieces instead, tagging each piece with an address so that someone trying to read the strands would be able to put them in the correct order. Such pieces are easy for the latest DNA-reading technology, callednext-generation sequencing, to process.

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Book converted to DNA then 'read' to show off bio-digital storage

August 16, 2012 - With built-in, removable diaphragm pump, CentriVap DNA Centrifugal Concentrator processes DNA samples and other minute quantities of solvents. Up to 60, 1.5 mL and 72, 0.5 mL micro centrifuge tubes may be processed simultaneously. There are 9 user-set programs accessible via buttons, and Quick-Start(TM) One Button Start Up function starts rotor, heater, timers, and vacuum pump. Along with Quick-Stop(TM) Rotor Brake, features include inlet and exhaust traps and optional CentriZap Strobe Light. Original Press release Labconco Corp. 8811 Prospect Ave. Kansas City, MO, 64132 2696 USA The CentriVap DNA Centrifugal Concentrator processes DNA samples and other minute quantities of solvents. Up to 60 each 1.5 ml and 72 each 0.5 ml micro centrifuge tubes may be processed at once.

With a built-in, removable diaphragm pump, the CentriVap DNA Concentrator has 9 user-set programs accessible with the touch of a few buttons. The Quick-Start(TM) One Button Start Up starts the rotor, heater, timers and vacuum pump. Three Quick-Start Buttons store one user-set program each. The Quick-Stop(TM) Rotor Brake stops vacuum within seconds to open the valve and bleed air into the chamber. Separate heat and run times allow the heat to be turned off sooner than the rotation to protect heat sensitive samples from excessive heat exposure. The Run Time turns off all functions after the set period of time has expired. Both an inlet trap to collect liquid coming off the samples and an exhaust trap to collect liquid coming off the pump exhaust are included. An optional CentriZap Strobe Light which utilizes a flashing light the same frequency as the rotation of the rotor allows remaining samples to be viewed in either sample tube or microtiter plate while it is spinning.

For more information on the CentriVap DNA Concentrator and the rest of the CentriVap line, contact Labconco at 800-732-0031, or download the PDF brochure at http://www.labconco.com.

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DNA Sample Concentrator uses centrifugal force and vacuum.

LEAMINGTON SPA, England, Aug. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --DNA Dynamics, Inc. (OTC Pink: DNAD), a global developer and publisher of mobile video games and applications, today announced that the latest iteration of it's SLAM Engine Technology, SLAM V7.0, is currently in development.

The SLAM Engine is DNA's powerful proprietary technology on which all of its internally developed games are built. SLAM 6.x has been in use over the last 18 months however the gaming world has moved on in that time. The SLAM Engine has always been focused on delivering games on multiple platforms over a short development cycle and SLAM 7.0 takes this ethos to the next level. Built around the popular programing language of C# and the Mono Framework SLAM 7.0 will see DNA's next batch of games move on from both technical and time to market standpoints

Ed Blincoe, CEO of DNA Dynamics Inc., commented, "Redeveloping the SLAM Engine has been a major undertaking for the team however it was critical we keep ahead of the pack in terms of our development processes and time to market. Our next game is currently being built upon the new technology base and we've already seen a marked improvement in game performance and build speed, I'm excited about what we can achieve using the new SLAM Engine and the games it will produce." Blincoe continued, "By utilizing our own technology we can substantially reduces our development costs making us a company to watch into 2013."

The DNA Studios Team is currently transitioning over to the new technology base and expects to have its first game to market before the end of the year.

About DNA Dynamics, Inc.Headquartered in Leamington Spa in the United Kingdom, DNA Dynamics is a worldwide developer and publisher of graphically rich, interactive entertainment currently delivered on iOS, Android, Apple Mac and PC. Through its operating subsidiaries, the Company has created, acquired or licensed a portfolio of highly recognizable or emerging brands that broadly appeal to its consumer demographics, ranging from children to adults and casual gamers to serious enthusiasts. For more information, please go to http://www.dnadynamics.net.You can also follow the Company on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information please email info@dna-interactive.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of DNA Dynamics, Inc.'s future expectations, plans and prospects. In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the results of DNA Dynamics, its subsidiaries and concepts to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. Unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on DNA Dynamics' future results. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. DNA Dynamics cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Finally, DNA Dynamics undertakes no obligation to update these statements after the date of this release, except as required by law, and also takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that are not paid for by DNA Dynamics.

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DNA Dynamics Announce SLAM Engine Overhaul

by Gene Kang

WHAS11.com

Posted on August 15, 2012 at 12:37 PM

Updated today at 6:41 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky (WHAS11) -- A Louisville man who faced the death penalty is free tonight. Thats after prosecutors dropped a murder charge against him. It was DNA evidence that ultimately cleared him but not before he spent several years behind bars.

The Hall of Justice is where Carlos Lagantta claimed his freedom in more ways than one. He was waiting for trial for five years three for the current case and two for an unrelated charge. But Lagantta says he never grew bitter after being wrongfully accused of murder.

Overall, Carlos Lagantta served three years in prison for a murder he did not commit. He felt an overwhelming sense of freedom as a court of law declared that he's innocent.

WHAS 11 News: "What are you doing here at the Hall of Justice today?" "I'm turning in my HIP equipment and being a free man. Once I turn this in I'm all the way free," said Lagantta.

"Not only did he put this behind him but he was facing the death penalty," said Ryan Vantrease, Laganttas lawyer.

"It is the Commonwealth's decision to dismiss without prejudice," said prosecution in Judge Audra Eckerles court in Jefferson County.

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DNA evidence clears Louisville man of murder charges

15 August 2012 Last updated at 09:38 ET

The man accused of murdering a Perthshire pensioner was "gobsmacked" to learn a partial profile of his DNA was found on her wrist, a court heard.

The jury was read parts of William Kean's police interviews which took place in March, the month after 80-year-old Jenny Methven was found dead.

Mr Kean, 46, denies killing Mrs Methven at her Forteviot home on 20 February.

He has lodged a special defence blaming the victim's son David Methven, or others connected to him.

The High Court in Glasgow heard Mr Kean told police during the interview that he did not assault Mrs Methven.

Det Sgt Brian Smith had told the accused he was offering him a chance to explain what had happened.

Mr Kean denied murdering Mrs Methven but replied "no comment" when asked if he had been in her house and then refused to explain that answer.

He also told officers that if he knew who was involved in her murder, he would tell them.

Mr Kean had said to officers: "I wish I did. I wish someone would come forward and admit it. It's a sad time for everybody."

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DNA evidence 'gobsmacked' accused

DALLAS -

A Dallas man accused of a rape decades ago has been cleared by DNA twice. But so far he has yet to be exonerated.

Family members have been protesting outside the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on behalf of Ocie Moore.

"He has served 21 years of a 99-year sentence, almost died twice for a crime he did not commit. Now they want to send an innocent man back to prison for a crime he did not commit," said Audra Woods, Moore's sister.

In 1990 Moore and another man were convicted of rape. Since then he has maintained his innocence, even requesting to be DNA tested.

"I passed a DNA test in June. She come back and said they want to do another test. They tested again in April. I passed that one also," Moore said.

Moore's DNA did indeed exclude him. But in this case the allegations involved two men who raped the woman and only one DNA profile could be identified as belonging to the man convicted with Moore.

Prosecutor Russell Wilson said DNA alone does not open the door to freedom. Context matters as much as the content.

"We consider all the information that we can gather -- the scientific test, the testimony at the trial, the witness statements that we're able to gather, his own statements," he said.

Dallas County leads the nation in exonerations. Thirty wrongly-convicted men have been set free, almost all cleared by DNA. But the district attorney's office believes this is one conviction from the early 90s that's right.

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DNA doesn’t help inmate prove his innocence

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwire -08/14/12)- Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (APDN), (Twitter: @APDN), a provider of DNA-based anti-counterfeiting technology and product authentication solutions, announced its financial results for the third fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2012, generating revenues of $528,574. This represents the company's highest recorded quarterly revenues, and is the third sequential quarter to set this record.

Third Quarter Highlights:

"The Company continues to improve quarter over quarter, beginning FY '12 with an exciting first quarter and improving on that performance with each quarter to date," said Dr. James A. Hayward, President and CEO of Applied DNA Sciences. "The continued expansion of our customer base and product offerings have sustained that momentum and contributed to the steady increase in our revenues. The first nine months of fiscal 2012 have been very productive for the Company, so much so that, as we recently announced, we have hired an additional 9 employees and expanded our physical footprint by over 50% in the past twelve months."

Dr. Hayward commented further, "We are pleased with the ongoing success of our partnerships, expanding the breadth and depth of our product offerings with such customers as Martin Guitar (see http://www.adnas.com/newsroom/press_releases). Our relationships continue to flourish and grow as we add new partners and customers. We continue to grow our revenues while managing our expenses closely."

Revenues in the quarter ending June 30, 2012 totaled $528,574 compared to $229,710 for the third quarter ending June 30, 2011, an increase of 130%. The increase in revenues was substantially generated from sales of our SigNature DNA and BioMaterial GenoTyping, our principal anti-counterfeiting and product authentication solutions.

An aggregate of 59% of our revenues was earned from two customers for the current quarter, while one customer accounted for 46% of the Company's total revenues for the nine months ending June 30, 2012.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased from $1,580,788 for the three months ended June 30, 2011 to $1,752,501 for the three months ended June 30, 2012. The increase of $171,713, represents an 11% increase over the same quarter in the prior fiscal year and is primarily attributable to the cost of stock-based compensation incurred in the current period compared to the same period last year

Net loss dropped $725,350 or 34% for the quarter as compared to the quarter ending June 30, 2011. Loss in the three months ended June 30, 2012 decreased to $1,429,645 from a net loss of $2,154,995 for the three months ended June 30, 2011.

The Company incurred research and development expenses of $99,958 and $47,988 for the three-month periods ended June 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively, and $274,528 and $161,645 for the nine month periods ended June 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively. The increase is attributable to additional research and development activity needed to support current operations.

Total operating expenses increased to $1,955,797 for the three months ended June 30, 2012 from $1,720,668 for the three months ended June 30, 2011, an increase of $235,129 quarter over quarter, or 14%.

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Applied DNA Sciences Reports Fiscal Third Quarter 2012 Results

Authorities have charged a Concord man in connection with a 2-year-old liquor store break-in after they said they used his blood to tie him to the crime.

Investigators pulled a blood sample from the scene of the 2010 break-in and sent it to a state police crime lab for DNA testing, according to a report filed in Milford District Court by Hopedale Police Sgt. Steve Mahan. Mahan said the DNA profile matched 48-year-old Edward Joness.

In April, police formally charged Jones, of 965 Elm St., with nighttime breaking and entering for a felony, larceny under $250, destruction of property under $250, and larceny from a building.

Currently being held on unrelated charges at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Concord, he was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Milford District Court, but was not transferred from the prison. Judge Robert Calagione rescheduled the arraignment for Oct. 12.

On June 23, 2010, Mahan responded at 10:55 p.m. to Grape Expectations, 156 Hartford Ave., and found all of the glass in the front of the store shattered. He said $200 and five lottery tickets had been stolen, and a 15-inch metal crowbar was left by the register.

The investigation initially stalled because the stores video camera had stopped recording for a week, Mahan said, apparently due to a power outage. And police were not able to lift any fingerprints from the store.

The blood - discovered, Mahan said, on three paper grocery bags behind the counter - proved to be the only physical evidence police extracted from the scene.

Later, however, the case got its first suspect when Mahan received information from the Medway Police Department regarding Jones. Sgt. William Kingsbury told Mahan that Jones had been linked to several liquor store break-ins in the area and that the thefts all followed a similar pattern.

"Sgt. Kingsbury advised me that Mr. Jones would break a window and steal from the register," Mahan said.

State Police ran the blood sample Mahan took from the store through the Combined DNA Index System on April 11, and Hopedale police, armed with the matching DNA profile, charged Jones.

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DNA test leads to charges in Hopedale break-in

SHEEP producers now have the opportunity to DNA test their breeding stock for parentage and poll status in Merinos for just $17, as part of a new research program being run by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC).

The Sheep CRC is calling for registrations from sheep breeders for the 2012 Genomics Pilot Project, with applications open from this Wednesday, August 15.

The Project offers three DNA testing programs: a SNP test for parentage at $17/test; a SNP test for Merino poll for $17/test; and the 50k SNP test for prediction of genomic breeding values for sires at a cost of $50/test. Merinos tested for parentage, or with the 50k SNP, will receive the poll test results at no additional cost.

The 2012 Pilot Project will deliver valuable commercial information to breeders, while at the same time providing research answers to questions such as: what is the gene frequency of horn genes in the Merino sheep population; and how to sample and use the tests most effectively in breeding programs.

The ability to DNA test for parentage in any breed, Merino poll and a range of other genetically inherited traits, will provide ram breeders with greater certainty when selecting breeding stock, Sheep CRC chief executive officer James Rowe said.

Sheep breeders will be able to use DNA testing in young rams to identify a wide range of traits and achieve faster gains and better balance in ram selection and breeding programs.

Prof. Rowe said the prices set for the tests would be attractive to producers, and were in line with similar programs in other livestock breeding programs.

The cost of genotyping is continuing to fall and we are confident that in 2013 the genomic tests will be available to the industry on a commercial basis at prices that will deliver a good return on investment, he said.

The CRC has decided to provide the 50k genotyping test at $50 because we are confident that this is close to the commercial price for testing in 2013 and beyond.

The beef and dairy industries already have 7-10k SNP tests available around this price and a similar product will be available for the Australian sheep industry by 2013.

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DNA tests for $17 in pilot projects

ST. LOUIS DNA has linked a convicted murderer to a 1992 rape in the Central West End, according to charges filed Monday.

Authorities say Derrick Cobb, 54, of Bowling Green, struck a woman in the head with a beer bottle then raped herat the 4700 block of McPherson Avenue on April 19, 1992.

The crime went unsolved until a recent DNA match identified Cobb as the culprit. He has been charged in St. Louis Circuit Court with a count each of rape and sodomy.

Cobb is 17 years into a 30-year prison sentence forsecond-degree murder in the killing of a Jennings deliveryman and father of twoin September 1992.

James Crimi, 31, was returning tohis home in the 7000 block of Garesche Avenue from visiting a relative when Cobb, who was homeless at the time, fatally struck him in the side of the head then stole his car.Cobb sold the parts to buy crack cocaine, then attempted to rob three students on the St. Louis University campus about an hour later, authorities said at the time.

A campussecurity officer identified Crimi's car as the one involved in the attempted robbery. Detectives then linked Cobb to the murder.

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DNA matches convicted murderer to 1992 Central West End rape

GLASTONBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Open Solutions Inc., the leading provider of collaborative enterprise technology to community-based financial institutions worldwide, announced today that its revolutionary DNA core processing platform has won the Technology, User Experience, and Alliance Core Banking Awards from Aite Group, a leading independent research and advisory firm focused on the financial services space. DNA won the most awards of any core platform mentioned in the report - including systems from Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry and Harland demonstrating how DNA is a dramatically different core banking platform.

Aite Groups July 2012 report, The Leading US Core Vendors: Fueling Financial Institution Initiatives, analyzes the state of the U.S. core vendor market and compares the leading platforms of 21 vendors targeting U.S. banks and credit unions. The comprehensive 63 page report describes DNA as a real-time, relationship-based (rather than transaction-based) solution and one of the most modern core solutions offered by a U.S. vendor.

Aite Group identifies several reasons why DNA won its coveted Technology Award, starting with DNAs single code line, which allows the platform to serve any institution type, regardless of geographic location a fact Aite Group identifies as a key differentiator that enables a more focused core development strategy. The report continues to note that another strength of the DNA solution is its usability. And finally, Aite Group states: The DNAappstore was the first of its kind for a core vendor, and, in time, has the potential to create a paradigm shift for the financial services industry.

DNAs User Experience Award is the result of multiple interviews Aite Group conducted with DNA customers, who, according to Aite Group, tend to be extremely customer-focused and strive to offer unique capabilities different from the bank down the street. The report also observes how "existing customers seem very satisfied with Open Solutions service and product offerings.

Finally, Aite Group recognized DNA with its Alliance Award based on the platforms open architecture, which makes it easy for virtually any financial services vendor to integrate their solutions with DNA. As a result, Open Solutions boasts a long list of what Aite Group identifies as best-of-breed partners, including Yodlee for PFM, mFoundry for mobile, and Vantiv for ATM/EFT.

In total, the three awards validate why Aite Group thinks Open Solutions is better positioned today than in the past to offer greater flexibility for innovation and to grow its market share.

Commenting on the report, Open Solutions chairman and CEO, Louis Hernandez Jr., stated: Aite Groups independent evaluation of DNA highlights what we at Open Solutions have known all along DNA is radically different. The platforms award winning technology, world class user experience and revolutionary open architecture offer community banks and credit unions around the world a way to overcome the limitations of legacy technology that have left them ill-equipped to compete.

Aite Group

Aite Group is a leading independent research and advisory firm focused on business, technology and regulatory issues and their impact on the financial services industry. It was founded by leading industry experts in Banking and Securities & Investments. Aite Group brings together a team of business strategy, technology and regulatory experts to deliver comprehensive, timely, and actionable advice to financial institutions and technology vendors. It seeks to become a true partner, advisor, and catalyst by exchanging ideas and challenging basic assumptions to ensure that our clients always stay one step ahead of the competition. Learn more at http://www.AiteGroup.com.

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Open Solutions DNA Wins Three Core Banking Awards from Aite Group

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwire -08/13/12)- Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (APDN), (Twitter: @APDN), a provider of DNA-based anti-counterfeiting technology and product authentication solutions, announced today that its SigNature DNA product has once again helped to send criminals to prison. Forensic evidence, including SigNature DNA-marked stolen cash from Loomis cash boxes, was used to link the criminals to a crime spree spanning eight cash-in-transit (CIT) crimes in the United Kingdom. The sentences for the ten criminals total 53 years.

Detective Constable Will Roscoe, leader of Operation Tejat, an investigation launched by the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad based at the Barnes office, London, said: "This was a prolific gang of robbers specifically targeting cash in transit vans and custodians. I have no doubt they would have continued this course of action if it were not for a detailed and targeted operation to identify and arrest them. Their convictions and sentences represent a significant success for the Barnes Flying Squad and the MPS in our Total War on Crime."

Cash in transit (CIT) businesses transport and store cash and service ATMs. In the UK alone, an estimated 500 billion is transported each year, or 1.4 billion per day. The nature of this business makes CIT an attractive target for criminals, and as a result the industry invests millions each year in security equipment and devices. Attacks against CIT carriers in the UK has been reduced significantly over recent years due to the investments made in security and a close relationship between law enforcement agencies, customers and the industry. The impact of SigNature DNA has been notable in the CIT industry where APDN has been working with Loomis UK, a provider of specialist cash management services that use the most advanced security and technological solutions available.

As reported in the Guardian on July 27th, the now-convicted gang-of-10 stole more than 100,000 in eight robberies and attempted robberies of CIT vans in Mitcham, Streatham, Wallington and Croydon between January 3, 2011 and June 10, 2011. On all occasions, force was used against security guards to snatch cash boxes, which were later broken into and the cash contents stolen. Much of the cash was marked with SigNature DNA. Detectives carried out surveillance and forensic work, leading to the arrest of the ten robbers on or shortly after August 24, 2011. Nine of the ten pleaded guilty to robbery at Kingston Crown Court. One pleaded not guilty but was convicted of conspiracy to rob.

About Applied DNA Sciences

APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions that can help protect products, brands and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature DNA and smartDNA, our principal anti-counterfeiting and product authentication solutions that essentially cannot be copied, provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.

The statements made by APDN may be forward-looking in nature. Forward-looking statements describe APDN's future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN's SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on December 8, 2011 and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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Applied DNA Sciences SigNature(R) DNA Sends UK Thieves to Jail for 53 Years

ScienceDaily (Aug. 9, 2012) Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered, for the first time in any animal species, a type of "selfish" mitochondrial DNA that is actually hurting the organism and lessening its chance to survive -- and bears a strong similarity to some damage done to human cells as they age.

The findings, just published in the journal PLoS One, are a biological oddity previously unknown in animals. But they may also provide an important new tool to study human aging, scientists said.

Such selfish mitochondrial DNA has been found before in plants, but not animals. In this case, the discovery was made almost by accident during some genetic research being done on a nematode, Caenorhabditis briggsae -- a type of small roundworm.

"We weren't even looking for this when we found it, at first we thought it must be a laboratory error," said Dee Denver, an OSU associate professor of zoology. "Selfish DNA is not supposed to be found in animals. But it could turn out to be fairly important as a new genetic model to study the type of mitochondrial decay that is associated with human aging."

DNA is the material that holds the basic genetic code for living organisms, and through complex biological processes guides beneficial cellular functions. Some of it is also found in the mitochondria, or energy-producing "powerhouse" of cells, which at one point in evolution was separate from the other DNA.

The mitochondria generally act for the benefit of the cell, even though it is somewhat separate. But the "selfish" DNA found in some plant mitochondria -- and now in animals -- has major differences. It tends to copy itself faster than other DNA, has no function useful to the cell, and in some cases actually harms the cell. In plants, for instance, it can affect flowering and sometimes cause sterility.

"We had seen this DNA before in this nematode and knew it was harmful, but didn't realize it was selfish," said Katie Clark, an OSU postdoctoral fellow. "Worms with it had less offspring than those without, they had less muscle activity. It might suggest that natural selection doesn't work very well in this species."

That's part of the general quandary of selfish DNA in general, the scientists said. If it doesn't help the organism survive and reproduce, why hasn't it disappeared as a result of evolutionary pressure? Its persistence, they say, is an example of how natural selection doesn't always work, either at the organism or cellular level. Biological progress is not perfect.

In this case, the population sizes of the nematode may be too small to eliminate the selfish DNA, researchers said.

What's also interesting, they say, is that the defects this selfish DNA cause in this roundworm are surprisingly similar to the decayed mitochondrial DNA that accumulates as one aspect of human aging. More of the selfish DNA is also found in the worms as they age.

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'Selfish' DNA in animal mitochondria offers possible tool to study aging

Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012

NAGASAKI Nagasaki University has been preserving DNA from cells extracted from cancer-stricken A-bomb survivors since 2008 in an effort to identify tumors caused by radiation exposure.

"It may become possible to find distinctive features in DNA mutated by radiation through a detailed investigation of cancer cells from hibakusha," said Masahiro Nakashima, professor of pathology at the university's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

With patients' consent, both cancerous and healthy cells are extracted from the affected region. DNA and RNA are then taken from the cells, frozen at minus 80 degrees and stored in a DNA bank at the university. The work is being conducted at Nagasaki University Hospital and the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Genbaku Hospital.

So far, the university has collected 365 samples not enough to reveal any distinctive features of cancers related to radiation. The situation is further complicated by the city's aging atomic bomb survivors, whose average age now stands at 77 years.

Nakashima said it is necessary to "devote all energy" to the research, despite a lack of manpower.

According to a survey conducted by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation on 94,000 hibakusha in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a high possibility exists that radiation exposure was connected to cancer in 61 percent of patients exposed to 2 or more sieverts of radiation from the A-bombings.

It has not yet proved possible, however, to identify the causes of individual cases of cancer.

On the risk of developing cancer from small amounts of radiation emitted during the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Nakashima said "the investigation may open a door to research the effects of low-level exposure."

JIJI

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DNA of cancer-stricken hibakusha preserved