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Lack of DNA database is a national disgrace

Posted on September 17, 2012 by ev1

The Irish Times - Monday, September 17, 2012

MATTHEW HOLMES

LEGAL OPINION: This legislation will strengthen the ability of the Garda to detect and prevent crime and, in particular, to snare repeat offenders

A DNA DATABASE is one of the most effective crime-fighting tools ever devised. Thanks to DNA databases, crimes that were previously unsolvable are now being solved and miscarriages of justice are being corrected.

Such databases save valuable time in investigations by quickly eliminating suspects or pinning them to a crime scene. They are particularly effective in sex crimes and in catching repeat offenders such as burglars. They also have uses beyond the criminal sphere in terms of identifying bodies and helping to locate missing persons. In February 2000, the then government announced a plan to establish a DNA database in Ireland. More than a decade has passed and this has still not been done. The lack of relevant legislation is hampering criminal investigations.

To date, three Bills have been drafted which seek to establish a DNA database in Ireland the Criminal Justice (Forensic Sampling and Evidence) Bill 2007, the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2010 and the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill, currently before the Dil.

The first had to be dropped after the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Marper v the United Kingdom, which led to European-level change in the law on DNA databases; the second lapsed following the change of government last year. In April 2011, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter told a conference of Garda sergeants and inspectors he hoped to publish a new Bill before the end of that year and to progress its speedy enactment. This was postponed to the middle of this year and it has been pushed back again to the end of the year.

There is currently an ad-hoc Irish DNA database which contains a representative sample of DNA profiles from 300 Irish citizens. To put this in context, the British database contained the profiles of 3.1 million people at the end of 2005. Clearly the scope for accuracy and effectiveness of results is exponentially higher in their system than in ours. In the UK, using the database has resulted in a 50 per cent hit rate. One in two samples on the databanks result in information regarding suspects being provided to the police. At one stage the hit rate was 74 per cent.

When he was in opposition, Mr Shatter said it was almost beyond belief that more than a decade had passed and this important legislation had still not been passed. Speaking in January 2011, he said: It is completely outrageous important issue hasnt been prioritised, and extraordinary lethargy has been displayed; the legislation is on the back burner. If there was any sense of urgency about it, this legislation would have been implemented last Easter considering it was published last January.

Over a year has passed since Mr Shatter became Minister for Justice, and legislation has yet to be enacted.

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Lack of DNA database is a national disgrace

Missing DNA evidence in Assange case

Posted on September 17, 2012 by ev1

Forensic experts have failed to find crucial DNA evidence in the sexual assault case against Julian Assange, a British newspaper reports.

In a 100-page document shown to lawyers for the Australian WikiLeaks founder, Swedish police outlined their basis for seeking the 41-year-old's extradition to Stockholm to face questioning.

The report said staff at two forensic laboratories were unable to find conclusive evidence of Mr Assange's DNA on a torn condom provided by one of two women who claim to have been assaulted in August 2010.

However, the same analysts have found DNA believed to belong to Mr Assange on a condom provided by a second woman, The Mail on Sunday reported.

Mr Assange denies any wrongdoing and says sex with the two women was consensual.

He remains holed up in London's Ecuadorian embassy in a bid to avoid Swedish extradition, which he insists would lead to him being handed to authorities in the United States, where the actions of his secret-leaking website are under investigation.

The Swedish police report said that one woman, now aged 33, claims she was repeatedly molested by Mr Assange at her flat in Stockholm, adding on one occasion he deliberately broke a condom before wearing it to have unprotected sex with her against her will.

Scientists were unable to find traces of Mr Assange's DNA on the condom and his lawyers suggest that is because a fake one may have been submitted, the tabloid reports.

Mr Assange, who has been granted asylum by Ecuador, is yet to be formally charged with any offence by Swedish authorities.

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Missing DNA evidence in Assange case

DNA evidence missing in Assange case

Posted on September 17, 2012 by ev1

Forensic experts have failed to find crucial DNA evidence in the sexual assault case against Julian Assange, a British newspaper reports.

In a 100-page document shown to lawyers for the Australian WikiLeaks founder, Swedish police outlined their basis for seeking the 41-year-old's extradition to Stockholm to face questioning.

However, the same analysts have found DNA believed to belong to Mr Assange on a condom provided by a second woman, The Mail on Sunday reported.

Mr Assange denies any wrongdoing and says sex with the two women was consensual.

Scientists were unable to find traces of Mr Assange's DNA on the condom and his lawyers suggest that is because a fake one may have been submitted, the tabloid reports.

Mr Assange, who has been granted asylum by Ecuador, is yet to be formally charged with any offence by Swedish authorities.

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DNA evidence missing in Assange case

DNA research key for Irish agriculture

Posted on September 17, 2012 by ev1

The Irish Times - Monday, September 17, 2012

INNOVATION PROFILE:Teagascs Animal Bioscience facility, Grange, Co Meath

TEAGASCS NEWLY opened Animal Bioscience Facility in Grange, Co Meath, will use the latest DNA-based approaches to assist Irish farmers produce better quality and healthier livestock and ultimately improve Irish food production.

The publication of the genome sequence for cattle in 2009 has opened up the possibility to use these approaches to study commercially important traits. These include milk and meat production, immunity and disease, nutrition and reproduction, explains Teagasc director Prof Gerry Boyle.

The new facility was developed as part of the Teagasc vision programme which was initiated in 2006 with the objective of establishing centres of excellence in the key sciences that underpin Irish agriculture. Animal bioscience is a key component of the organisations Animal and Grassland, Research and Innovation Programme which integrates applied and strategic research across the main livestock species in Ireland namely dairy cattle, beef cattle and sheep.

The Animal and Bioscience Department carries out research in the areas of animal breeding and genomics, animal health and welfare, infection and disease, computational and systems biology, fertility and reproduction, feed efficiency and product quality. The new technologies being developed have the potential to accelerate the rate of gain in efficiency and quality.

Using the new areas of science such as genomics, proteomics, and systems biology, we are seeking to develop tools to more accurately identify the most profitable animals for current and future production systems, says Dr Richard Dewhurst, head of the Teagasc animal and bioscience department.

We are developing the optimal breeding programmes to maximise genetic gain in the long term. Our main research activities include the development of multi-breed genetic and genomic evaluations, breeding objectives and breeding programmes for dairy cattle, beef cattle and sheep. We also aim to identify genes, pathways and biological processes mediating resistance to infectious diseases in cattle and sheep and how these genes interact with pathogens and the environment.

While we are not quite at the stage of designer animals the use of these new DNA techniques could have a dramatic impact on Irish agriculture. If we take the DNA sequence of a bull, for example, we can use that to more accurately predict the characteristics that will be passed on to his progeny, Dewhurst explains. And the rate at which we can get the information is accelerating so we will soon be able to get the DNA sequence for individual animals. Its all about analysing the data and relating it to the traits we want to predict.

This highly scientific data led approach is a revolution in terms of the practices which obtained just 25 years ago. Over the past 25 years genetics has become much more statistics-based, before that it was an art, says Dewhurst. We have been using statistical models to predict traits in animals for the past while but now with the genome we will be able to identify good quality animals with the desired traits even before they reach maturity.

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DNA research key for Irish agriculture

Chemists develop reversible method of tagging proteins

Posted on September 17, 2012 by ev1

ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2012) Chemists at UC San Diego have developed a method that for the first time provides scientists the ability to attach chemical probes onto proteins and subsequently remove them in a repeatable cycle.

Their achievement, detailed in a paper that appears online this week in the journal Nature Methods, will allow researchers to better understand the biochemistry of naturally formed proteins in order to create better antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, biofuels, food crops and other natural products. It will also provide scientists with a new laboratory tool they can use to purify and track proteins in living cells.

The development was the culmination of a 10 year effort by researchers in the laboratory of Michael Burkart, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, to establish a method to both attach a chemical probe at a specific location on a protein and selectively remove it. This flexibility allows researchers to study the protein with many different functional attachments, providing versatility akin to a biochemical Swiss Army knife. The great advantage of this technique is the broad flexibility of the attachments, which can be dyes, purification agents or mimics of natural metabolic products. Each of these attachments can be used for different purposes and biological studies.

Burkart's goal in his own laboratory is to understand more about the biochemical pathways of fatty acid metabolism and the biosynthesis of other natural products. One project focuses on engineering algae in order to produce improved biofuels. In this effort, the scientists hope to maximize the production of high quality algae oils, which could be used to supplement or supplant existing fossil fuels.

"In fatty acid metabolism, the fatty acids grow from an arm that eventually curls around and starts interacting with the metabolic protein," said Burkart, who is also associate director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, or SD-CAB, a consortium of institutions in the San Diego region working together to make biofuels from algae commercially viable as transportation fuels. "What we wanted to know was how long does the growing fatty acid get before it starts binding with the protein?"

Burkart and chemists in his laboratory -- Nicolas Kosa, Robert Haushalter and Andrew Smith -- found a way to remove the chemical probe from this metabolic protein using an enzyme called a phosphodiesterase derived from the common bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Subsequent reattachment of a fatty acid analogue reconstituted the protein complex to its natural state. By repeating the process again and again, while examining the molecular changes in the fatty acid with nuclear magnetic spectroscopy, or NMR, during different metabolic stages, the scientists were able to detail the biochemical pathway of the fatty acid metabolism in a way they had never been able to do before.

"Without this tool, we would really have very limited ways of studying the dynamics of these fundamental metabolic processes," Burkart said. "This opened the door for us to finally examine in detail the fatty acid biosynthesis shared by algae, which you have to understand if you want to engineer ways to improve the quantity of oil that's made by algae or to make different types of oil molecules in algae that are better for biofuels."

The UC San Diego chemists also used NMR to verify that the process of chemically removing and attaching the chemical probes does not degrade or alter the protein in any way. "We've shown that we can do this iteratively, at least four or five times, without any degradation of the protein," said Burkart. "The protein remains very stable and can be studied very easily."

Because these same metabolic processes are shared by the metabolism of many natural products, including anti-cancer agents, antibiotics, and natural insecticides, Burkart said this new tool should have wide application in natural product chemistry labs.

"These are fundamental biochemical pathways that we still don't fully understand," he said. "We're now learning how these basic biosynthetic enzymes work. A large majority of drugs are derived from natural products and many future medicines can result from these pathways. There's a great interest now in synthetic biology, using these pathways to make new antibiotics or new anti-cancer drugs. They're all regulated by these same types of interactions."

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Chemists develop reversible method of tagging proteins