Daily Archives: March 29, 2013

A Brooklyn man accused of shooting an Italian tourist has been tied to the crime by DNA found on the gun used in the shooting and a blue Yankee cap he left behind, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

Career criminal Tyron Lovick, 37, snatched a necklace worn by Eleonora Giuliani, 29, and then blasted Luciano Giuliani, 62, in the stomach after the brave father grabbed him on a Fort Greene Street in May 2012, prosecutors charge.

The gun and the hat definitely match the defendant, said the law-enforcement source. Its a solid case.

Eleonora said she expected the DNA evidence to match up with Lovick.

Im very glad they found the DNA, Eleonora said. I hope hes going to get a bigger sentence.

Lovick, who has been charged with multiple counts of assault and robbery, has 12 prior arrests.

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DNA , Yankee cap link thug to tourist’s shooting

LONDON and HILDEN, Germany, March 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

A new DNA test launched today cuts the time it takes to find horsemeat in food from two days to less than four hours. The process was developed by QIAGEN, the world's leading provider of molecular sample and assay technologies.

The new testing method can detect in real time even minute traces of horsemeat (

"Current and previous scandals reveal a fundamental flaw in Europe's food surveillance systems. The consumer is asking for rules and testing standards that ensure our food contains what it says on the label. Only such tests can ensure that the economic future of Europe's farmers and food industry will not be jeopardised by a few rogue traders," said Dr. Dietrich Hauffe, Senior Vice President and Head of Life Sciences at QIAGEN. "A regulatory framework with a comprehensive and standardised testing regime will benefit grocery shoppers, food producers, retailers and testing service providers."

There are currently only limited rules in the European Union on how to test food ingredients for their authenticity. Furthermore, test outcomes differ from country to country and test lab to test lab. That's because the two most common test methods - ELISA tests for proteins, and end-point PCR tests for DNA - are cumbersome, lack common standards and, in the case of the ELISA test, don't always work for processed food.

In contrast, QIAGEN's solutions can be implemented across Europe to contribute to uniform testing standards. The testing system is based upon real-time PCR and incorporates proprietary technologies for the reliable and fast extraction of DNA, which is regarded as one of the most challenging steps in food testing. The new test complements QIAGEN's existing offering of more than 30 different tests for food safety, which is considered to be the broadest range of real-time PCR tests in the industry. QIAGEN technology also helps to diagnose a wide range of diseases, and is widely used in forensics, veterinary testing as well as life science and pharmaceutical research.

A range of images of the QIAGEN Horsemeat testing process can be found here: http://www.qiagen.com/About-Us/Press-and-Media/Photo-Archive/

PCR test: Polymerase chain reaction, a method of producing multiple copies of specific DNA and RNA sequences for detection and evaluation. PCR is one of the most frequently used techniques in many areas of basic and applied research, from forensics and medical diagnostics to food testing. QIAGEN offers several PCR technologies and a proprietary PCR detection platform.

Elisa test: The Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assaytest uses antibodies and colour changes to identify proteins or other substances in liquid or wet samples.

About QIAGEN

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New DNA Test Cuts Time to Find Horsemeat in Food from Two Days to Less than Four Hours

A painting in the Olduvai Gorge Museum, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.

Some time in humanitys past, a small group of Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa before spreading out to every possible corner of the Earth. All the women of that group carried DNA inherited from just one woman, commonly known as mitochondrial Eve, whose DNA was inherited by all humans alive today. But the exact timing of this migration is not clear, and it has sparked debate among geneticists. Now, new research published in Current Biology may help calm both sides.

Studies of evolutionary events often involve the use of molecular clocks based on changes in DNA that accumulate over time. To accurately calibrate a clock, it helps to have a measure of the rate of mutations.

In 2012, UK Researchers used a method of analysis that involves DNA from the nucleus of present day humans. Armed with data from parents and their offspring, they estimated a new, much lower rate of DNA mutation. Based on their results, it would seem that human DNA may change much more slowly than was previously thought. The slow mutation rate puts the date of human migration out of Africa at somewhere between 90,000 and 130,000 years ago.

"This was very surprising," says Alissa Mittnik, a researcher at the University of Tbingen in Germany. "It contradicts what we know from fossil studies."

Those fossil studies have used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is easily preserved in old fossils, to estimate the mutation rate. The mutation rate was then used to calibrate events in humanitys past.

This data spills into other areas of research. For example, when combined with evolutionary models, this information can help predict which humans were able to build the various things that have been dug up by archaeologists. Carbon dating can give the precise age of the objects, but depending on the mutation rates, the species that made and used the object could be, for instance, modern humans or the Neanderthals.

In Current Biology, Mittnik and her colleagues report a new mutation rate. This rate may help researchers find a middle ground on the period when the African migration happened.

Their estimate relies on mtDNA too, but they claim it is much more reliable, in part because it uses mtDNA from ten different fossils, ranging from 700 to 40,000 years old. The new estimated rate is higher than the UK researchers got using nuclear DNA, but lower than older estimates of mtDNA studies. The lower rates reported by UK researchers, Mittnik says, could be because of their use of too stringent filterstheir analysis missed out on mutations that might have actually occurred (technically called false negatives).

Mittnik admits that, if it were possible, she would have studied nuclear DNA of fossils. That is because mtDNA only has 37 of the roughly 20,000 human genesthe rest are in nuclear DNA. But each cell has only two copies of nuclear DNA. Whereas it has hundreds of copies of mtDNA because it has many mitochondria in each cell, and each of them have multiple copies of the mtDNA. This makes it much harder to study nuclear DNA from fossil remains.

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Fossil DNA used to reset humanity’s clock

NPR Illustration/iStockphoto.com

NPR Illustration/iStockphoto.com

If you think programming a clock radio is hard, try reprogramming life itself. That's the goal of Drew Endy, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University.

Endy has been working with a laboratory strain of E. coli bacteria. He sees the microbes as more than just single-cell organisms. They're little computers.

"Any system that's receiving information, processing information and then using that activity to control what happens next, you can think of as a computing system," Endy says.

Normally the E. coli follow their own program. Is there food? Is the temperature all right? The bacteria process this information and make simple decisions about what to do next. Mainly, they decide whether to reproduce. Endy sees potential for them to do much more. He wants to take control of a cell's genetic machinery and use it to do human computing.

"For us, what's become exciting is the idea that we could get inside the cells in sort of a bottom-up fashion," he says.

Endy is talking about more than splicing in a few extra genes, as scientists already do with crops. He wants to make cells that can follow different programs, just like a computer. To do that, he needed to create something all computers have to have: the transistor.

Transistors are simple on/off switches. Computers are made of many millions of these switches. And to program a cell, you need a biological version. As Endy reports this week in Science, he's managed to make one out of DNA.

His switch, which he's called a "transcriptor," is a piece of DNA that he can flip on and off, using chemicals called enzymes. Endy put several of these DNA switches inside his bacteria. He could use the switches to build logic circuits that program each cell's behavior. For example, he could tell a cell to change color in the presence of both enzyme A and enzyme B. That's a simple program: IF enzyme A AND enzyme B [are present] THEN turn green. For an in-depth look, check out Endy's own explanation on YouTube.

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Tiny DNA Switches Aim To Revolutionize 'Cellular' Computing

An inmate convicted of murder and sent to prison in 2002 for 65 years might have a glimmer of hope for DNA testing in his case based on a decision Wednesday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Instead of dismissing William Harris' civil rights claim, a Houston federal judge should have given him the opportunity to amend his complaint to "state his best case," according to the federal appellate court's opinion issued Wednesday.

Harris, 48, has filed lawsuits in various courts claiming his constitutional rights were violated because the Harris County D.A. would not use DNA testing on evidence in his case.

According to the appeals court opinion, district courts should not dismiss pro se complaints - those filed on one's own behalf without a lawyer - "without first providing the plaintiff an opportunity to amend, unless it is obvious from the record that the plaintiff has pled his best case."

In September 2002, a Harris County jury found Harris guilty of the strangulation of his wife, Wenona Lynn Morris-Harris, 29.

The Texas Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in 2004. The state appeals court also denied two motions for post-conviction DNA testing.

Sued D.A. Pat Lykos

In 2006, Harris filed a habeus corpus petition in federal court challenging the conviction, based on the lack of DNA testing, and was denied relief.

Then last year, Harris sued then-Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos, accusing her of denying him due process by repeatedly refusing to seek or recommend DNA testing of evidence.

The case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes less than three weeks later.

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Court ruling could mean DNA testing for convicted murderer

DUBLIN, Ireland, March 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "DNA Sequencing and PCR Markets" report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )

DNA sequencing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are two major technology platforms of value in life science research, drug discovery and clinical diagnostics. The markets for sequencing are extremely competitive, driven by rapid technological advancements and aggressive price wars. Next-generation sequencing presents an exciting area of growth for life science tool vendors, including those providing sequencers, ancillary instrumentation, reagents and software.

This TriMark Publications report provides an in-depth analysis of key technology and market trends in the high-throughput sequencing space while analyzing the main drivers of growth in markets for PCR products and applications. The study provides a thorough overview of DNA sequencing and PCR, including applications, opportunities, technological trends, and market share and dynamics with a particular focus on the U.S, Japan, European, and Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) markets.

This report also analyzes almost all of the companies known to be marketing, manufacturing or developing DNA sequencing and PCR products in the U.S. and worldwide. Each company is discussed in extensive depth with a section on its history, product line, business and marketing analysis, and a subjective commentary of the company's market position. Detailed tables and charts with sales forecasts and market data are also included.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Overview

2. Introduction to DNA Sequencing and PCR Technology

3. DNA Sequencing Technologies and Market Analysis

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DNA Sequencing and PCR Markets

DNA has helped police nab the suspect in the 2011 shooting death of a man at an apartment complex in south Houston.

Rodrick Damion Mitchell, 36, is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Hao Anh Huynh, 22, about 2:30 a.m. Dec. 18, 2011 at the Catalina Village Apartments at 3560 Dixie Drive.

Police said officers were dispatched to the complex after residents complained about loud noise. When the officers arrived, they heard several gunshots. Then they found Huynh lying in the complex courtyard. He had been shot twice and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said witnesses told investigators they saw a man driving away from the scene after the shooting in a white Chevrolet. Also, crime-scene investigators gathered firearms evidence and other items at the scene. The evidence was later tested for DNA. The results, police said, were put into a national DNA database. On March 20, investigators learned Mitchell's DNA was identified on one of the articles tested.

He was arrested Tuesday without incident.

Witness identified him as the man they had seen driving away from the scene moments after the shooting.

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DNA helps nab suspect in 2011 fatal shooting