Category Archives: DNA

Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark. Photo: Justin McManus

POLICE will have to conduct thousands of DNA tests a year under a state government plan to dramatically increase testing of people convicted of crimes.

However, despite Attorney-General Robert Clark announcing the crackdown - another pillar of the government's tough on law and order campaign - almost two years ago, the new regime will not come into force for at least another year.

''Victoria Police would expect a substantial increase in suspect samples. This will have an impact on caseloads which will be monitored,'' a police spokeswoman said.

In April 2011, Mr Clark said the legislation would allow DNA samples to be taken from anyone convicted of an indictable offence - crimes that attract a jail sentence of two years or more.

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At present DNA samples can only be taken from serious criminals such as murderers and rapists, but this would be expanded to include those convicted of assault, threats to kill, stalking, theft and a wider range of drug offences.

The Attorney-General described the proposed laws as a ''vital element in the high-tech fight against crime''. However, a spokesman for Mr Clark said this week the laws are ''expected to be introduced into Parliament later this year''.

A Victoria Police tender document released late last year reveals that the new laws would mean a four-fold increase in the number of mouth DNA swabs police would have to carry out. It says an average of 7300 swabs were carried out every year for the past five years, of which 1500 were for people suspected of crimes. This means the number of tests will balloon to 6000 a year.

''The status of the amendment is cabinet in confidence so unfortunately Logistical Support Branch is unable to provide further information. What we do know is that if the bill is passed, there will be a 12-month period between passage and implementation,'' the tender document says.

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Delay in DNA testing of criminals

CINCINNATI - A year-old program testing key evidence obtained from rape victims is just beginning to identify suspects whose DNA has been sitting on shelves in so-called "rape kits" for years.

An investigation conducted by Scripps station Newsnet5 found more than 2,000 rape kits have been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for sophisticated testing that identify suspects whose DNA is already on file.

The program was launched a year ago by Attorney General Mike DeWine, but only now has begun to swing into full gear -- identifying 28 suspects using DNA obtained from rape victims.

Since January 2012, forensic scientists have tested 479 of 2,124 "rape kits" that were collected in the hours after an attack, but that sat for years on shelves in police departments across the state -- often because testing was too expensive.

"Nothing ever works as fast as I want it to work," DeWine said.

The DNA testing program required hiring additional forensic scientists and establishing procedures for testing, while at the same time trying to avoid creating additional backlogs of current cases.

"What I did not want to do," DeWine said," is take these back rape kits, dump them into our system without any new people -- and create an even bigger backlog for a rape that was committed five days ago when we are actively seeking to find out who that person was."

The investigation found huge numbers of rape kits collected from police department all over Ohio, including nearly 340 cases in Cincinnati.

Amanda Slone was a teenager when she was raped by a suspect four years ago who still has not been identified. Once honored by Ohio's legislature for her volunteer work with disabled children, Slone agreed to come forward to encourage testing on behalf of other rape victims.

A citation from Ohio's Senate honored her for "making the world a better place" -- yet her world was shattered by an unknown rapist.

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DNA goes untested, rapists remain free

Let #39;s Get Physical: DNA Test shows your perfect workout
Visit and contact me on Facebook Gettin #39; Fit With the Facks http://www.facebook.com Follow me on Twitter @GetFitWithFacks What is a MET? dailyswab.inherenthealth.com Can Cardio Make you FAT? articles.elitefts.com

By: E Facks

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Let's Get Physical: DNA Test shows your perfect workout - Video

bull; Enjolras || DNA bull;
HD PLeaSe :3 Okay, so am I chucked out the Les Mis fandom yet? Seriously though, I couldn #39;t help myself. I #39;m just too much of an Enjolras fan. I can #39;t. I #39;m so sorry. I know how crap this video is,but I had to rush it.... it #39;s a long story. I just thought that this song fitted Enjolras really well. In my mind, anyway. 0_0 90 SUBS WHOO HOO!!! Please, enjoy ~ hearts; --- COMMENT, LIKE, FAVOURITE, SUBSCRIBE --- All rights belong to it #39;s original owners! I own nothing apart from an unheathly obsession with Les Mis and all it #39;s beautiful characters ~ hearts;

By: MissAnime111

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• Enjolras || DNA • - Video

Review: DROID DNA by HTC From Verizon Wireless
This is another great Smartphone that #39;s currently being offered by Verizon Wireless. I #39;m not going to go over all of the specifications. If you #39;re like me when I watch a review on YouTube I want to see how well an item works. And what #39;s good about it and want isn #39;t. The specifications I can find online and read for myself. The Droid DNA by HTC from Verizon Wireless is a superb Android based Smartphone. It #39;s very easy to navigate to whatever you need and want to use. Tough For starters, this phone has a 5+ inch screen made of Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Operating system The operating system is Jelly Bean; and it is fast and so SMOOTH! Whatever you need a phone to do for you this one will. From taking fun family photos and videos to those were you only have one chance to get the shot. Photos I took this phone to work with me to; sort-of an on-the-job test. It was an important meeting about an annexation that #39;s going to take place soon. Getting some good photos during this meeting was extremely important. Was the DROID DNA by HTC up to the job? Yes! The cameras in this Smartphone are superb. The rear facing camera is a full 8 megapixel. Not only is the front camera 8 and the front facing camera is a full 8 megapixel as well. Video You can get up to full 1080p videos front both the front and rear cameras with the DROID DNA by HTC from Verizon Wireless. Plus it comes with a built-in movie editor. No matter what you need your Smartphone for, whether it is work or play, this one ...

By: George Price

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Review: DROID DNA by HTC From Verizon Wireless - Video

Public release date: 17-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Greg Lester glester@wistar.org 215-898-3934 The Wistar Institute

Long segments of RNA encoded in our DNA but not translated into proteinare key to physically manipulating DNA in order to activate certain genes, say researchers at The Wistar Institute. These non-coding RNA-activators (ncRNA-a) have a crucial role in turning genes on and off during early embryonic development, researchers say, and have also been connected with diseases, including some cancers, in adults.

In an online article of the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Wistar's Ramin Shiekhattar, Ph.D., detail the mechanism by which long non-coding RNA-activators promote gene expression. They show how these RNA molecules help proteins in the cell to create a loop of DNA in order to open up genes for transcription. Their experiments have also described how particular ncRNA-a molecules are related to FG syndrome, a genetic disease linked to severe neurological and physical deficits. "These ncRNA-activators can activate specific genes by working with large protein complexes, filling in a big piece of the puzzle," said Shiekhattar, Herbert Kean, M.D., Family Professor and senior author of the study. "Our DNA encodes thousands of these ncRNA-activators, each with a role in timing the expression of a specific gene. As we learn more about non-coding RNA, I believe we will have a profoundly better understanding of how our genes function."

Their findings also provide a plausible mechanism of how locations along chromosomes, classically known as "enhancer" elements, can influence the expression ("reading") of genes located 5,000 to 100,000 base pairs ("letters") of DNA away. According to their findings, ncRNA-a molecules bind to large protein complexes to form a loop of DNA, which then opens up the gene to the molecular machinery that transcribes DNA. "There is an abundance of evidence to indicate that enhancers are critical components of transcription during embryonic development and disease process," Shiekhattar said.

"Non-coding RNAs are probably one of the earliest molecules that determine spatial and temporal gene expression in a developing embryo," Shiekhattar said. "These enhancers can help turn genes on and off as a growing embryo would need, but as we have seen in other genetic mechanisms of embryonic development, they can lead to cancer if they are switched on inappropriately in adult cells."

In the classic "central dogma" of biology, chromosomal DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is then translated by the cell into proteins. In recent years, however, scientists have found that not all transcribed RNA molecules become translated into proteins. In fact, studies have shown that large portions of the genome are transcribed into RNA that serve tasks other than functioning as blueprints for proteins. In 2010, the Shiekhattar lab first published the discovery of these ncRNA enhancer molecules in the journal Cell (2010 Oct 1;143(1):46-58), and theorized on their role as "enhancers" of gene expression. Since then, laboratories around the world have published and linked ncRNAs not only to transcriptional enhancers but also to certain diseases, including some cancers.

To discover how such enhancer-like RNAs function, the Shiekhatter laboratory deleted candidate molecules with known roles in activating gene expression, and assessed if they were related to RNA-dependent activation. They found that depleting components of the protein complex known as Mediator specifically and potently diminished the ability of ncRNA-a to start the process of transcribing a gene into RNA. Further, they found that these activating ncRNAs can attach to Mediator at multiple locations within the Mediator protein complex, and Mediator itself can interact with the enhancer element site on DNA that encodes these activating ncRNAs. Their results also determined how mutations in a protein that makes up the Mediator complex, called MED12, drastically diminishes Mediator's ability to associate with activating ncRNAs.

Mutations in the MED12 protein are a marker for FG syndrome (also know as OpitzKaveggia syndrome), a rare genetic disorder that leads to abnormalities throughout the body and varying degrees of physical and neurological problems. "This clearly shows how activating ncRNAs can influence disease development, an idea that has been gaining evidence in the scientific literature," Shiekhattar said. To confirm that ncRNA-a works with Mediator to form a loop in DNA, the researchers used a technique called chromosome conformation capture (3C) to gain a better understanding of the three-dimensional structure of chromosomes. Their results show how Mediator gets a foothold of sorts on the portion of DNA that encodes the ncRNA-a, and twists the DNA to form a loop.

"The looping mechanism serves to physically bring together a distant enhancer element with the start site of the targeted gene, allowing Mediator to recruit the proteins responsible for reading the gene to the location," Shiekhattar said. "It is at least one answer to how these classical enhancer elements function while being physically distant from their target genes."

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'Activating' RNA takes DNA on a loop through time and space

17 February 2013 Last updated at 18:43 ET

"It's a very specific test so if you just have a trace level of horse in beef it will be able to pull that out and identify it without any doubt."

The words of Paul Hancock, manager of a Worcestershire Scientific Services (WSS), which has been carrying out three times the normal number of tests it does, all looking for traces of horsemeat.

Mr Hancock said they have had "some positive tests" for horse DNA in the 300 samples they tested last week, but would not be drawn on the exact number.

"Hopefully over next few days we should get a complete picture of what's going on in the food chain," he said.

WSS is an official food enforcement control laboratory tucked away on an industrial estate in Worcester.

The Worcestershire County Council-run laboratory has 27 staff, 12 of whom work in food testing.

Mr Hancock said it normally tests foods to ensure that it contains "what it says it does on the label" and to look for contaminants and anything to else do with food standards.

Since the adulterated food scandal began last month, all its work has been testing for traces of horse DNA.

They are currently testing a range of meats from all over the UK, including anything from joints to mince, beefburgers and sausages.

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Test 'finds any trace of horse DNA'

Coveney: DNA meat tests will be routine

Monday, February 18, 2013

By Lyndsey Telford

DNA testing of meat will become a routine part of food testing nationwide, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has said.

The company said it had isolated the contaminated meat and informed the Department of Agriculture.

QK Cold Stores can confirm that, as part of its own quality controls, the company conducted DNA testing on consignments of imported beef product which revealed the presence of equine DNA, it said in a statement.

Upon discovery, these consignments were immediately isolated and either returned to the suppliers concerned or detained at QK Cold Stores facility.

The Department of Agriculture and Food Safety Authority of Ireland agreed a national protocol for DNA testing of meat would be applied at retail, catering, and processing level.

We intend to introduce DNA testing from now on as part of routine food testing across the country, said Mr Coveney.

Earlier, one of the countrys largest catering companies revealed it discovered horsemeat in burgers it supplied to a number of sites both north and south of the border.

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Coveney: DNA meat tests will be ‘routine’

DNA FT. YUNG OCHO - #39; #39;I GOT U #39; #39;

By: DNAJERKS1

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DNA FT. YUNG OCHO - ''I GOT U'' - Video

Little Mix - DNA (x2)
Little Mix #39;s DNA (Unplugged) mashed with the original version of the song. I made this with Virtual DJ and am very very proud of my work. I do not own either of the songs but I own this mash up so please do not take credit. Thank you. x.

By: characterinmydream

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Little Mix - DNA (x2) - Video