Category Archives: Transhuman News

By Benson Ang The New Paper Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012

DNA is passed down from parents to children and can be found throughout the body. Common samples of DNA are blood, bone and skin cells. For testing purposes, they are typically taken from inside the mouth. Heres how Paternity Testing Corporation (PTC) conducts a DNA test:

Step 1

Clients are finger-printed, photographed and their mouths are swabbed. The samples are sent to a lab in the US for processing.

Step 2

A paternity test works by identifying certain specific size pieces of DNA that the child received from his or her biological father. If the man has the same size pieces as the child, he is likely to be the biological father.

Unrelated individuals are unlikely to have the same specific size pieces. PTC guarantees that its normal DNA paternity tests have an accuracy of higher than 99.99 per cent.

Step 3

Once samples reach the lab, results are ready within two business days. But clients typically wait 10 days due to shipping and the number of cases that have to be handled.

Myth

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DNA samples sent to the US

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KTLA) -- Cold Case Homicide Detectives used DNA evidence to solve a decades-long investigation into the murder of a woman outside the Ancient Mariner restaurant in 1978.

On July 10, 1978, 26-year-old Lynda Saunders and 28-year-old Michael Reynolds were seen leaving the Ancient Mariner after having a couple of drinks, according to witness accounts.

Between 3:30 and 3:40 AM, the ex-manager of the Ancient Mariner, drove past and observed Reynolds vehicle in the parking lot with the interior light on, and it appeared the right rear passenger door was open.

At approximately 4:20 a.m., the manager of a nearby Del Taco was cleaning out behind the restaurant when he heard Reynolds calling for help.

He found Reynolds lying in the Ancient Mariner parking lot about thirty feet east of his vehicle.

Reynolds told the first officer that arrived at the scene three dark guys shot him.

Officers checked the area behind the Ancient Mariner and located a purse and identification belonging to Saunders.

Directly to the rear of the nearby Heritage Liquor Store officers found Saunders' body.

She had sustained a single, gunshot wound to the center of the chest, and blunt force trauma to the head.

It was later confirmed that she had also been sexually assaulted.

Excerpt from:
DNA Used to Solve Decades-Old Murder Mystery

Public release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Amy Pullan a.l.pullan@sheffield.ac.uk 01-142-229-859 University of Sheffield

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have unlocked one of the secrets to DNA repair helping doctors identify DNA base damage and a patient's susceptibility to certain types of cancer.

Groundbreaking research led by Dr David Williams from the University of Sheffield's Department of Chemistry and an international collaboration of expert researchers has discovered how some proteins recognise damaged bases within DNA which, if untreated, could lead to cancer.

Dr Williams said: "Proteins carry out all the day-to-day processes needed for survival. If the DNA bases become damaged the associated protein may not function or in some cases, too much of a certain protein can be produced which might lead to cancer.

"Everyday humans are exposed to chemicals known as alkylating agents which may be derived from environmental sources or from dietary sources such as a high intake of red or processed meat or exposure to tobacco smoke. Alkylating agents can chemically modify the bases in DNA which can, in turn, lead to non-functional proteins being produced or indeed cancer.

"Fortunately humans have a large number of different DNA repair proteins whose task it is to find and repair damaged bases in DNA. However DNA base damage, although highly problematic, is rare and often only one or two bases per million or even fewer. The task of locating a damaged base is similar to finding a needle in a haystack."

DNA contains all the information needed for life within the sequence of its four bases; adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. Specific sequences of bases in DNA known as genes instruct what proteins are made and furthermore genes may be switched on or off to control how much of each protein is made.

The pioneering research, published in the journal: Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), was conducted by scientists from the University of Sheffield, University of Manchester and the Scripps Research Institute in California and focuses on damage to the guanine base to form O6-alkylguanine, a type of damage that is particularly prevalent in colon or bowel cancer.

"In humans this is repaired by alkyltransferase proteins that simply reverse the damage of these modified bases, converting them back to guanine," said Dr Williams.

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Unlocking the secrets of DNA repair

Christopher Hatzis who was fatally stabbed in Light Square, Adelaide. Picture: Facebook Source: Supplied

THE DNA of a man accused of stabbing Christopher Hatzis near the Savvy nightclub was found in three locations at the scene, a court has been told.

The man, 22, whose name and image have been suppressed, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court yesterday.

He has been charged with one count of murder over the Light Square incident that occurred in August.

Yesterday, prosecutor Karen Ingleton told the court Mr Hatzis had been ejected from the club prior to the fatal brawl.

She said he was then assaulted by up to six male offenders and suffered seven stab wounds and eight incisions.

Ms Ingleton said witnesses saw the accused man running from the scene.

It was alleged he had torn clothing and a laceration to his hand and that his DNA was found at three locations at the scene.

DNA was also allegedly found on a pendant that was discovered nearby.

Ms Ingleton said police were concerned that since the incident the man had accumulated $40,000 and presently has $20,000 in his bank account.

Read more:
DNA evidence linked to stabbing

Tue, Oct 30, 2012

by Benson Ang

DNA is passed down from parents to children and can be found throughout the body. Common samples of DNA are blood, bone and skin cells. For testing purposes, they are typically taken from inside the mouth. Heres how Paternity Testing Corporation (PTC) conducts a DNA test:

Step 1

Clients are finger-printed, photographed and their mouths are swabbed. The samples are sent to a lab in the US for processing.

Step 2

A paternity test works by identifying certain specific size pieces of DNA that the child received from his or her biological father. If the man has the same size pieces as the child, he is likely to be the biological father.

Unrelated individuals are unlikely to have the same specific size pieces. PTC guarantees that its normal DNA paternity tests have an accuracy of higher than 99.99 per cent.

Step 3

Once samples reach the lab, results are ready within two business days. But clients typically wait 10 days due to shipping and the number of cases that have to be handled.

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DNA samples sent to US

Priscilla Blevins was a studious, pretty woman whod studied Spanish at Wake Forest University, taught English in Bogota, Colombia, and wanted to be a translator for the United Nations. She disappeared without a trace shortly after Independence Day in 1975.

Now, police say they have solved the 37-year-old missing persons case thanks to a persistent family and a swab of DNA collected at a Winston-Salem bookstore.

Its the oldest missing persons case the unit has solved, said Det. Lee Tuttle, the lead investigator who added that police still dont know how Blevins died.

Blevins was last seen alive by her roommate at their apartment on Tyvola Road near South Boulevard. Her younger sister, Cathy Blevins Howe, who lived in Arizona at the time, still vividly remembers the long-distance phone call from her worried parents saying her older sister couldnt be found.

As the years ticked by, the Blevins family stayed in constant contact with Charlotte police, urging them to find their daughter. But investigators had exhausted all leads.

They never knew that a womans body was discovered 10 years later in Haywood County, near the Tennessee-North Carolina border, roughly 150 miles from Blevins apartment. Unidentified, it was shipped to the chief medical examiners office in Chapel Hill in 1985. No one knew it was Blevins.

As her parents aged, Howe continued the search for her older sister.

As I got older and had a daughter of my own, my curiosity about this continued and it just never let up, she said. I just decided that I wanted to see what I could find out.

She called CMPDs missing persons team in 2000. Tuttle, a 20-year-veteran of the department, who is also from Winston-Salem, called her back. Over time, he found an article about Blevins disappearance written in 1978. He also contacted a private detective whod been hired by the family to find Blevins.

But the key to cracking the case would be newer investigative methods.

More here:
DNA confirms body found by highway is woman missing since 1975

DNA taken from someone acquitted of a crime may be retained and used in subsequent investigations, according to a unanimous opinion by the Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday that said such people dont have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

In the 7-0 opinion written by Justice Robert Cupp, the court said that if the DNA is obtained legally during a criminal investigation, it may be used in a separate investigation down the road.

The decision stems from the case of a Cleveland man who was acquitted in the 2005 rape of his girlfriends 7-year-old daughter but was later convicted of a 2007 murder.

Authorities had taken a DNA sample from Dajuan Emerson, 34, in the rape investigation. Emerson was acquitted, but the sample was retained in the FBIs Combined DNA Index System and matched blood found on a door handle at the scene of the 2007 murder of 37-year-old Marnie Macon of Cleveland.

Macon had been stabbed 74 times, and prosecutors said the lower half of her body had been sanitized in an effort to destroy any semen left behind.

Emerson, who is now serving a life sentence stemming from his aggravated murder conviction, had argued that the state violated his constitutional rights by retaining his DNA and should only have used it for the rape investigation.

The justices denied that argument and said Emersons DNA was obtained through a proper search warrant and that he never challenged the validity of that warrant, noting that numerous courts across the country have examined the issue and reached the same conclusion:

A person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her DNA profile extracted from a lawfully obtained DNA sample, Cupp wrote.

Emersons Cleveland attorney, Robert Moriarty, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Emerson also had argued at trial that his DNA sample from the rape investigation should not have been used and unsuccessfully tried to get it suppressed.

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Ohio court: Old DNA in acquittals may be kept

By Randy Ludlow

The Columbus Dispatch Thursday November 1, 2012 2:00 PM

DNA profiles obtained from felony suspects can be retained in a state database and used in subsequent criminal investigations even if suspects were acquitted in the cases in which samples were obtained, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.

Retaining the DNA profiles of acquitted suspects does not constitute unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, the court said in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Robert R. Cupp.

The decision upheld an appellate court ruling in the case of a Cleveland man who was acquitted of rape in 2005 and charged with aggravated murder in 2009 when the rape-case DNA profile matched blood found at the murder scene.

Lawyers for Dajuan Emerson argued that the convicted killer had an expectation of privacy for his DNA profile since he was not convicted of the crime for which he provided a sample in response to a search warrant.

Emersons DNA profile could only be used in the rape case and its retention in the states Combined DNA Index System constituted illegal search and seizure when used to identify him as a suspect in the murder case, his lawyers said.

Cupp wrote that a DNA sample and a DNA profile differ. When the state tests a sample, the scientific process creates a profile that is a government work product in which criminal suspects do not have an ownership interest.

Retention by the state of a DNA profile for possible future comparison with profiles obtained from unknown samples taken from a victim or a crime scene does not differ from the retention by the state of fingerprints for use in subsequent investigations, the court stated.

Emerson, who was acquitted of raping a 7-year-old girl in 2005, was convicted of the aggravated murder of Marnie Macon, 37, who was stabbed 74 times in her apartment on July 4, 2007.

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Ohio suspects' DNA can be saved for later cases, court rules