Monthly Archives: September 2013

Paul on learning about his own DNA.
Paul, a genetics educator, shares why he decided to learn about his own DNA through the Personal Genome Project, and describes living with depression and how...

By: Personal Genetics Education Project - pgEd.org

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Paul on learning about his own DNA. - Video

LAWRENCEVILLE - Police acted lawfully when they seized a trash bag containing DNA evidence from outside the home of a Henrico County woman now accused of killing her newborn twins, a judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Nathan Curtis Lee of Brunswick County Circuit Court denied a defense request that he throw out the DNA evidence, which was crucial because it suggests that Darnesha Berry was the mother of the twins found dead in 1998 at Saint Paul's College in Lawrenceville.

At the time, Berry was a student at the school and lived in the dorm, authorities said. Her mother testified at an earlier hearing that she did not know in 1998 that her daughter was pregnant.

Now, Berry faces two counts of first-degree murder in the death of the boy and girl.

The DNA sample was

taken from personal hygiene products inside the trash bag, which was seized by Lawrence- ville police in February outside Berry's town house in the 8600 block of Millstream Drive, where she lived with her husband and three children.

Defense attorney Arnold Henderson argued Thursday that by taking the trash bag, the police had violated the defendant's Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

Henderson said the DNA sample was used by police to obtain a search warrant to take a saliva sample from Berry for DNA purposes, which helped lead to her arrest. Henderson said the judge should suppress all the evidence as "fruit of the poisonous tree."

But the judge agreed with Brunswick Commonwealth's Attorney Lezlie S. Green that the trash bag was seized outside Berry's privacy fence and therefore outside the "curtilage" of her home.

"It was trash that was abandoned, and I would deny the motion to suppress," Lee said.

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Judge denies motion to stifle DNA evidence

DNA testing is being done on bones found inside an old submerged car to determine whether they belong to two 17-year-old girls who disappeared in South Dakota in 1971, authorities told FoxNews.com.

Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson were last seen May 29, 1971, driving a 1960 Studebaker Lark on their way to a party. Authorities this week pulled a rusted Studebaker from an embankment in Brule Creek near Elk Point, and are processing evidence.

Miller's sisters, Rita Allen and Dawn Hewlett, live in Watertown. They told local station KELO-TV that they're grateful for the development in the cold case. They say their mother's biggest wish was "never give up" -- and no one has.

The sisters say they will wait to see what answers they get, and they aren't setting any expectations.

"Skeletal remains have been recovered, as well as additional items," authorities said in a press release Tuesday. "No further information will be released until a requested autopsy and further testing is complete."

The statement was issued after crews lifted the rusted, mangled hulk from an embankment in Brule Creek near Elk Point, which isn't far from the South Dakota town of Vermillion where Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson were from.

High spring water levels followed by a drought this summer helped reveal the old car. Authorities recovered a Studebaker hubcap and a license plate matching the car once owned by Miller's grandfather.

A fisherman, who remembered the 42-year-old case, told The Associated Press that he called authorities after noticing one of the car's wheels sticking out of the creek. It's not clear what, if anything, came of that phone call.

The disappearance of the Vermillion High School juniors was one of the initial investigations of South Dakota's cold case unit. The unit was formed in June 2004 to focus on unsolved suspicious deaths and disappearances; there's no time limit on filing criminal charges in homicide cases.

A September 2004 search of a Union County farm turned up bones, clothing, a purse, photographs, newspaper articles and other items, but not the car. Authorities have not ever said if the bones recovered were the girls' -- or even whether they were human remains.

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DNA testing on bones may help solve 1971 cold case

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwired - Sep 26, 2013) - Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: APDN), (Twitter: @APDN) a provider of DNA-based anti-counterfeiting technology and product authentication solutions, announces that Karim Berrada, Director of DNA Formulation, will be presenting at the 72nd Plenary Session of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) at Cartagena, Colombia, September 29, 2013. Dr. Berrada will also be participating in a roundtable to present the company's anti-counterfeiting platform, as recently tested at 5 ton (metric) on raw ELS cotton.

The ICAC is an association of ten governments of cotton producing, consumer, and trading countries formed in 1939. It is the most important international association providing transparency to the world cotton market by serving as a clearinghouse for technical information on cotton production and by serving as a forum for discussion of cotton issues of international significance.

At the conference, Dr. Berrada will present recent results using APDN's highly cost-effective and proven way to authenticate originality and verify provenance of fibers, yarn, fabric, garments and labels.Items are marked with a unique, secure and enduring botanically-derived DNA signature that can be definitively authenticated at any point in the supply chain. Counterfeiters and thieves are identified and convicted, future offenders are deterred.

Dr. Berrada recently led a fully successful trial of the company's technology, demonstrating its capability to protect ELS cotton fibers at massive scale.Working with cotton authorities internationally, APDN's SigNature DNA Mark was applied to ELS cotton fibers at the ginning phase. The identifying marks adhered directly to the fiber using a proprietary process, and survived the entire finishing process including washing, dyeing and other aggressive industrial treatments, and physical threats.

Dr. Berrada can be heard at the ICAC Roundtable for Biotechnology in Cotton, September 29, 2013, 14:30 p.m., as the Hilton Hotel in Cartagena, Colombia.The conference in Cartagena provides a global platform for all topics of interest to the cotton industry including new technologies like APDN's.The conference also encourages younger entrepreneurs, issues of visibility to women and the impacts of land ownership patterns.

Additional information about the conference can be found at the ICAC website by clicking here.

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 20, 2012 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 to Present Textiles Anti-counterfeiting Technology at Global Conference