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Originally posted here:
DNA links accused to crime scene

ATLANTA, Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Victims of crimes and their families met to discuss the need for immediate action in support of better funding for the Georgia forensic DNA program.   Debbie Smith, an outspoken rape survivor and namesake of the federal Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Elimination Act, was joined by Jayann Sepich, mother of murder victim Katie Sepich, namesake of Katie's Law -- both in Atlanta to meet with the parents of murder victim Johnia Berry (Mike and Joan Berry) and Savanna rape victim Susan Cash.  The Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault (GNESA) hosted the discussion of the importance of federal funding in reducing Georgia's backlog of unsolved cases, and the dire need for the State to provide improved funding for its DNA program.   

GNESA's Executive Director, Jennifer Bivins, noted that Georgia's DNA program provides victims with an important step forward in their healing process when attackers are named through DNA.  But Georgia's commitment to state funding pales in comparison with that of other state labs, currently represented in Atlanta at the AAFS meeting, as most states in the country provide significantly stronger support for their DNA analysts.  Mrs. Smith declared, "It is so important for DNA labs to receive adequate state funding.  The public safety of their residents relies on it." 

The Berrys have lobbied for several years for a law to improve the state DNA database program.  "Every year we've been told that this bill is not feasible until the DNA program is better funded.  Every year we come back, and the lab is no better funded.  Enough is enough.  We need to do everything possible to fix this situation.  Crime victims in Georgia deserve better, and we know our state legislators will agree."

Mrs. Cash (whose 1985 rape is pending a specialized DNA test) noted that Georgia has a strong history with DNA, "But it would be an injustice to victims if this backlog money is used not to improve backlogs but merely to keep the Georgia DNA program afloat.  Our forensic experts deserve better treatment.  Our victims deserve better."  Ms. Sepich agreed, "Studies show that investing in DNA is worth it.  Forget the lives that can be saved – the city of Denver found a $90 return on investment for every dollar spent on DNA.  How much money is Georgia losing by not making this investment?"

Mrs. Smith closed by pleading, "The federal money was never meant to replace the state's responsibility to its victims and other citizens.  To ignore the basic personnel needs of this program undermines the important strides forward that we have made with DNA and allows backlogs to build, criminal cases to remain unsolved, victims to remain in fear of their unknown attacker, and those attackers to remain on the streets."

Go here to see the original:
Victims Urge Georgia to Improve Funding for Forensic DNA

CONROE, Texas -

Detectives need help to solve the death of a man who disappeared in 1984.

Montgomery County sheriff's deputies said George "Bud" Sager, 30, withdrew money from his bank on Interstate 45 near Spring Cypress Road on June 7, 1984. Investigators said Sager planned to use the money to pay for closing costs on a home.

Sager was never seen or heard from again.

Deputies said that it appeared that Sager had never been officially listed as missing. In January 2010, Sager's sister contacted investigators and the cold case squad opened an investigation. DNA from his family was collected and entered into the Combined DNA Index System.

Cold case detectives learned that someone collecting cans along F.M. 1375 about a mile west of Interstate 45 in Walker County on Dec. 18, 1989, found a human skull on the side of the road. There was a handwritten note with the skull indicating that it had been found in the woods, but the person who found it did not want to be involved in the investigation.

The skull was sent to the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, but a cause of death could not be determined. When DNA technology began to be used in unidentified remains cases, DNA was collected from the skull and entered into the Combined DNA Index System.

In October 2011, after Sager's relatives' DNA had also been entered into the Combined DNA Index System, there was a match to the skull. It was positively identified as Sager's.

Investigators said they do not know how Sager died, but suspect foul play may be involved. He may have been the victim of a robbery, detectives said. Sager's pickup truck was found abandoned in the parking lot of the Crossroads shopping center on Interstate 45 near Highway 105 in Conroe on July 3, 1984. Detectives said there was no evidence in the pickup truck that gave them any leads.

Cold case detectives said they want to talk to the person who found the skull, or anyone else who may have information about Sager's death. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 281-297-6510.

Investigators also urged anyone with a relative who has been missing for a long period of time to contact the investigating law enforcement agency to be certain that the person is entered in the national missing person's database. They also recommend exploring the possibility of collecting DNA to be entered into the Combined DNA Index System.

Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

See original here:
DNA helps identify skull as missing man's

WORCESTER —  A partial DNA profile generated from the fingernail scrapings of Clara J. Provost matched the DNA of Ronald D. Dame, the man accused of murdering her 38 years ago, a Worcester Superior Court jury was told yesterday.Calin L. Drugan, a chemist and DNA analyst at the state police crime lab, testified at Mr. Dame?s trial that genetic testing she conducted in 2007 showed Mr. Dame?s DNA profile matched a profile derived from material removed from beneath the fingernails of Ms. Provost?s right hand after she was found slain in her apartment at 13 Highland Ave. in Fitchburg Jan. 7, 1974.

Prosecutors allege the 23-year-old woman, whose throat was slashed, was killed by the now 65-year-old Mr. Dame after he broke into her apartment with the intention of forcing her to have sex with him.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Quinlan told the jury in his opening statement that he expected the evidence to show Ms. Provost scratched the left side of Mr. Dame?s face with the fingernails of her right hand during the attack. Police saw the scratches when they questioned him later that day, according to the assistant district attorney.

Mr. Dame?s lawyer, John H. LaChance, told the jury in his opening statement that Mr. Dame was at his sister?s house when Ms. Provost was killed and that one of Mr. Dame?s nieces scratched him as he was tickling her.

Ms. Drugan testified that the chances of the DNA match occurring at random were one in 2.2 million in the Caucasian population of unrelated males.

She also testified that Mr. Dame?s DNA profile matched a genetic profile derived from sperm and seminal fluid found on a paper towel that police said they found in the back seat of Mr. Dame?s car when he went to the Fitchburg police station for questioning on Jan. 7, 1974.

She said the chances of such a match occurring at random in the non-sperm fraction of the stain on the paper towel were one in 27.8 million in the Caucasian population, and one in 5,227 for the sperm fraction of the stain.

A representative of an independent testing lab testified earlier that the paper towel from Mr. Dame?s car and pieces of paper towel found on Ms. Provost?s kitchen floor were from the same manufacturer and were consistent with being from the same batch or run.

Although investigators had long considered him a suspect in the killing, Mr. Dame was not charged until 2006 when, prosecutors said, DNA evidence linked him to the crime.

Testimony in the trial is scheduled to resume today.

Read this article:
DNA found under nails

For years, the cutting edge technology for DNA sequencing has involved mincing DNA up into tiny pieces. Even as sequencing has gotten faster and cheaper, each new process has relied on chopping the DNA up to be analyzed, because, although this process can introduce errors in the readout and can be expensive, it was still the best we had. Now, technology unveiled at a recent conference in Florida could mean that the age of slicing and dicing is over, thanks to something called a nanopore.

A nanopore is a ring of proteins, made by a bacterium, through which DNA can be threaded, like a string through a bead. In the method of DNA sequencing just debuted by Oxford Nanopore Technologies, long, intact strands of DNA are shunted through nanopores on a chip, and the electrical conductivity of each nucleic acid as it comes through the pore lets scientists tell which DNA “letter” it is—A, T, G, or C. A long strand of DNA analyzed this way, importantly, isn’t destroyed, so it can be reanalyzed, and errors introduced in processes that use chopping are also avoided. Using such basic physical laws to deduce a DNA sequence is a simple, elegant solution to a tough problem. That’s perhaps why nanopore sequencing methods have attracted some significant investment in recent years: the UN National Human Genome Research Institute had, by 2008, given $40 million to groups pursuing nanopore sequencing.

Oxford Nanopore’s presentation featured two devices they hope to start selling later this year: the GridION, which is a heavy-duty lab device that could theoretically sequence a human genome in 15 minutes and which they used to produce a sample viral genome sequence, and the MiniION, which is the size of a USB stick, will cost $900, and should be able to sequence a human genome in 6 hours and tiny viral and bacterial genomes in seconds. That’s very, very fast and very cheap—cheap enough that even curious hobbyists might be able to indulge. An important caveat: Though these devices promise to eliminate the errors brought about by chopping DNA up for analysis, they still currently have an error rate that is four times that of current techniques, perhaps because they still aren’t quite sensitive enough to fulfill nanopore sequencing’s promise, though the coverage of the company’s presentation doesn’t go into detail. But the company plans to have the error rate down to an acceptable level by the time the devices go to market. If Oxford Nanopore can bring accuracy up, and maintain it as they try to sequence larger and larger genomes, DNA sequencing companies with more expensive techniques may be looking at some serious competition.

Scientists are genuinely, if cautiously, excited by what they’ve seen of Oxford Nanopore’s work. “I think it is all credible,” Chad Nusbaum, co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told Nature News. “I would bet they are even underplaying it because they don’t want to risk overpromising.” For scientists talking about biotech, that’s pretty hopeful phrasing.

Here is the original post:
New Mini DNA Sequencer, Size of a USB Stick, Is Fast and Cheap | 80beats

Three crime-scene DNA samples have been linked to the man accused of killing and sexually assaulting a retired hairdresser 28 years ago in Petrolia, Ont.

The evidence came from OPP identification officer Darren Soucie, the only witness to testify during the jury trial Wednesday.

The 44-year-old accused is charged with the first-degree murder and sexual assault of Velma Thomson in October, 1983, but cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was 15 years old at the time of the slaying.

Samples from Thomson’s pubic hair, along with semen and hairs found on her slipper, were compared to DNA from a blood sample taken after the man was arrested in June 2008.

It's highly probable DNA from the semen found on the pubic hair belongs to the accused, according to a report form the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, where the DNA analysis was done.

The probability that another unrelated person could have been the DNA donor was set at one in 1.5 quadrillion (1,500,000,000,000,000).

The OPP identification officer presenting the report only submitted the samples and there will be further evidence regarding DNA testing, said Toronto defence lawyer John Norris.

Norris raised no objections during the officer’s testimony, but said the defence’s silence should not be taken as any kind of admission.

Last week jurors heard DNA from chewing gum in the accused man’s garbage was not from the same source as crime scene DNA. That testing compared DNA from the gum and a vagina swab from Thomson.

A re-examination of crime scene exhibits in 2008 found hairs on Thomson’s slipper that had been found adjacent to her body in October 1983.

In 2010 the slipper was sent to the forensic centre to be tested for bodily fluids and DNA analysis.

That testing showed it was highly probable semen DNA on the hairs belonged to the suspect.

The likelihood of another unrelated person being the donor of that DNA was set at one in 51 billion.

Soucie’s testimony about prior exhibit-handling, including the accused man’s blood sample, consumed most of Wednesday’s trial time.

Defence cross-examination, regarding the exhibit-handling, is expected Thursday. The doctor who did the post-mortem examination is also expected to testify.

Thomson had turned 70 a few days before her body was found by a neighbour in the converted garage of her home that had served as a hairdressing salon.

Her throat had been cut and she had an apparent stab wound in her back.

nbowen@theobserver.ca

See original here:
DNA links accused to 1983 murder scene

Galgiani wants state to pay for search; Shermantine demands money before revealing more sites

Buy This Photo

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia addresses the media last week near the mass burial site on Flood Road east of Linden. The well was filled in Tuesday.MICHAEL McCOLLUM/The Record

February 22, 2012 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - Officials confirmed Tuesday through DNA test results that human remains recently unearthed in Calaveras County are those of murder victims Cyndi Vanderheiden and Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler.

Also Tuesday, a local legislator said she doesn't want the $90,000 cost already incurred to excavate remains from a Linden well to hamper further searching for more victims of serial killers Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog.

And a new letter Shermantine, 45, sent from death row boasts that he's now grabbed the world's attention by revealing three burial locations. He says he won't give up any more sites until he receives at least part of the money promised to him.

"I'll give (the) last two areas and we'll recover all Herzog's victim's," he wrote in the Feb. 13 letter to The Record. "I will not send people on a fool's search. That's just not my character."

Shermantine was sentenced to death in 2001 for four murders, yet he maintains he never killed anybody. He blames the killings on Herzog, who hanged himself last month at age 46 upon learning that Shermantine had begun to give up details.

Shermantine began sending detailed letters and hand-drawn maps to The Record in December. Following his tips, San Joaquin and Calaveras county deputies on Feb. 9 found Vanderheiden's remains in remote Calaveras County.

The next day, searchers located Wheeler's in the same area off Leonard Road near San Andreas. Remains on the third day found in the Flood Road well in eastern San Joaquin County have yet to be identified.

Shermantine was prompted by Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who agreed to pay the inmate $33,000 for the information. Padilla said he's preparing to send the first $2,000 money order to San Quentin State Prison.

It could take two or three weeks for it to hit Shermantine's books, Padilla said. With the money, Shermantine wishes to pay off his restitution, buy his late parents memorial stones and have spending money for comforts on death row.

Shermantine said in his most recent letter to The Record that he's holding out any new details until he's paid, but he has made a string of recent phone calls to Padilla, trying to describe the location of two more wells.

In those wells east of Linden, Shermantine says that searchers can expect to find a dozen more victims.

"He didn't know anything about the well they were digging up," Padilla said.

A lone bulldozer operator Tuesday from San Joaquin County Public Works finished filling in the gaping hole where searchers had pulled roughly 1,000 bone and skull fragments along with clothes, a purse and jewelry.

Garcia said investigators are now deciding their next move.

Making a rough cost estimate, Garcia said that by the end of last week the search cost $43,134 in overtime pay. Straight-time costs have yet to be figured, and the Sheriff's Office hasn't received its bill from Public Works.

But he estimated that, so far, the search has cost $90,000.

Don't stop the search now, said Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton.

She fears the cost - especially in these trying times - will influence Sheriff Steve Moore to delay or stall further searches. It may next require ground-penetrating radar or expensive satellite imagery to find more abandoned wells, she said.

To encourage more searches - and more relief to victims' families - Galgiani said she has introduced legislation that will allow San Joaquin County and other agencies to dip into the state's general fund.

She rationalized putting the bill on the state and not San Joaquin County alone because it appears Shermantine and Herzog stalked victims in other places, such as Modesto and Hayward.

Seeking help from farther afield is not yet an option, Garcia said.

He said Moore has not asked for help from the FBI because the case does not fall within federal jurisdiction. The office has sought - and received - assistance from the state's Department of Justice, Garcia said.

"As our investigation continues, if additional resources are needed and the FBI can provide those resources, absolutely, we would be in contact with them," Garcia said.

But with the remains of Vanderheiden and Wheeler confirmed, their families can now begin to make funeral arrangements. Both families have said they intend to cremate what remains they are given.

Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/smithblog.

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Here is the original post:
DNA test confirms pair of IDs

Police allege they have DNA evidence linking a prospective member of the Hells Angels to a home invasion during which an 11-year-old boy was shot at Semaphore in Adelaide.

The man has been refused bail in the Magistrates Court.

Former Fink Mark Sandery was enraged when his son was shot in their Military Road home last September.

The boy was sleeping with his brother in a bedroom when the shots were fired, wounding him twice in the left leg.

Five months later, Arron Cluse, 21, has been charged and faced court over the home invasion.

Police have told the court they found Cluse's DNA on a hammer used to smash windows at the scene.

They also claim to have found two balaclavas at Cluse's house and glass fragments from the windows.

The prosecutor has also revealed Cluse's now-former home was riddled by 14 gunshots last December, then set alight a month later.

Fearing for his safety, Cluse fled interstate to stay with family.

Defence lawyer Aaron Almeida has told the court Cluse will plead not guilty and there is no motive or evidence to link him to the shooting.

Magistrate Robert Harrup refused bail, ruling the charges were too serious and the accused was a flight risk, a judgment that distressed his family and friends.

Read the rest here:
DNA link alleged to child shooting scene

After more than four years “in the cloud,” I have come to the conclusion that one of the most difficult challenges for large enterprise customers to overcome on their journey to cloud is the DNA of the network. This is true regardless if the customer is simply consolidating standardized services to be delivered via an on-premise private cloud or consuming services from a cloud provider (private, hybrid or public.) Each Network DNA strand seems to oppose a core value proposition for cloud, such as virtualization, automation, self-service, and workload mobility just to name a few. Fortunately, “gene therapy” treatments are available which can significant improve the quality of experience and service from any cloud.

Before describing each of the Network DNA alterations needed, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the No. 1 challenge enterprise customers’ face on their journey to cloud: human behavior. IT teams are accustomed to building services, but must be willing to enable automation and self-service and consume services. Internal customers used to IT meeting 100% of their requirements must be willing to use services that may only meet 80% of their needs, but do so in a more cost effective and timely matter. Without changing these basic behaviors, enterprises will continue to struggle with requirement bottlenecks, lack of business agility and issues concerning expense and/or compliance due to “shadow IT”. The bottom line is that changing human behavior is almost always the biggest challenge to harnessing the value of any disruptive shift in technology — the cloud is simply the latest.

Network latency and lack of network bandwidth have always presented challenges to enterprise customers. Amid the ever-expanding demand to quickly send larger amounts of data to more users around the globe, the network has always struggled to keep up. With the more recent explosive growth in enterprise mobile and real time services (e.g. voice, video, analytics, etc.), the network latency/bandwidth challenge has intensified. Moving to a cloud service delivery and/or a cloud service consumption model, can either cause the customer to lose this battle or gain the upper hand.

Many large enterprise customers have optimized workloads with dedicated environments (server, storage and network). Switching to a virtualized/shared environment can have a tremendous (and often under-estimated) impact on the performance and thus experience of the users. Consolidation also requires dealing with larger geographic distances, then this impact is even greater. I have seen many cloud experiments end here with an assumption that this application workload is not cloud ready but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The first step is leveraging Application Delivery Control (ADC) to optimize virtualized and remotely accessed applications. It is important to determine if the application has special optimization requirements and whether the ADC supports the preferred deployment. For example, cloud based SAP environments can only be fully optimized by certified ADC vendors. Similarly, some ADC vendors do not support KVM or Xen, which would then require physical appliances with limited elasticity. The IBM SmartCloud works with a variety of ADC vendors including Citrix, F5, Radware and Riverbed/Zeus so that we can work with a broad range of customer requirements.

A second step is directly related to global reach. Large customers often want to reach new markets (e.g. BRIC countries) via cloud based services. To deliver the highest quality of experience and with the required SLAs is only possible via the virtual network overlay (VNO) model. Network latency and bandwidth limitations that stem from basic laws of physics often require a distributed, rather than centralized solution. Other geographies may require business data to be kept within certain borders, which in turn means that the associated services are similarly restricted. Building cloud data centers in all required geographies will not resolve the issues since many cloud based workloads are distributed and loosely coupled (i.e. actually composite services whose individual components may be delivered from multiple locations and/or multiple vendors). Fortunately, IBM has long partnerships with Akamai and Virtela who provide VNO based services, that can patch together disparate services over large geographic areas.

Network virtualization and automation are essential to ensure that the cloud is truly elastic. Ignoring elasticity can cause your cloud journey to reach a dead end. This need for elasticity drives requirements in the following two areas:

Increasing the speed at which new services can be made available to new clients Decouple network services from the underlying physical equipment

Managing IP addresses with spreadsheets and homegrown database solutions cannot keep pace with the “need for speed” and this need will only increase with the need to accommodate new requirements like IPv6. Automating and managing network DDI (DHCP, DNS, and IP address management (IPAM)) services as part of a service orchestration/delivery is a key requirement for cloud. These DDI services are necessary as cloud services, VMs and connected devices proliferate. IBM, Juniper and BlueCat have partnered to help customers ensure that their journey doesn’t get sidetracked due to the lack of DDI automation (Building a Smarter Network with IPAM).

Standards organizations and cloud communities (e.g OpenStack) have only recently started to focus on virtualizing networks and providing these resources as a service. Networking equipment that implements these virtualization and automation services will be much more suitable to cloud computing. However, today’s networking equipment is relatively inelastic when it comes to most services. Fortunately, there have been great strides made in software defined networking. This is particularly helpful workload mobility requires substantial elasticity in network resources. There are a number of innovative software defined networking vendors who specialize in moving virtual application environments, independent from the underlying networking equipment. This can improve agile development and operations (Dev/Ops) and also significant reduces costs.

Understanding the end-to-end networking for a cloud environment is essential. Most software defined networking does a good job of enabling workload mobility between “like” environments. Unfortunately, the IT landscape within data centers is rarely homogeneous. In addition, most large customers want to leverage hybrid cloud and there is little chance that the on-premise IT landscape will be similar to a cloud service provider. There is also a misconception about the net value of live workload migrations that retain application state. While this may sound appealing, it even further solidifies the need for the mobility to be between like environments and forces “lock-in” to technology and vendors. For most workloads, it is more important to “capture” an existing application with its corresponding networking context and then quickly spin up a new virtualized environment for that application with its networking context intact. This approach not only allows the customer to move workloads between diverse environments but it also can help transition legacy application environments to the cloud. IBM SmartCloud is currently working with CohesiveFT and AppZero in the context of our Elastic Enterprise Application Services partnership (Elastic Enterprise Application Services).

I expect the network to make g
reat strides in developing “Cloud DNA” over the next few years. However, like all aspects of the cloud, the network will need to continually evolve keep up with the growing demands and expectations placed on it by applications and users.

The rest is here:
Will Network DNA Sabotage Your Journey to the Cloud?

Roy J. Britten, a Caltech biologist who discovered that the mammalian genome includes large quantities of repetitive DNA sequences that do not serve as blueprints for genes, has died. He was 92.

Britten, who had pancreatic cancer, died Jan. 21 at his home in Costa Mesa, Caltech announced.

Britten and molecular biologist Eric Davidson, a Caltech colleague, also played a key role in the development of the field of evolutionary developmental biology, which demonstrated that most of the differences between species arise from changes in how similar genes are regulated, rather than from mutations in the genes themselves.

"He was one of the truly brilliant people I have known," Davidson said in a statement.

Maxine F. Singer, former president of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, called Britten "a scientist's scientist."

Before the work of Britten and other researchers in the 1960s, scientists had thought that the massive genomes of animals and humans – the complete genetic blueprint of DNA required to produce an organism – were composed mainly of individual genes.

But Britten and colleague David Kohne, both then at the Carnegie Institution, demonstrated that such genomes were composed of not only genes, but also unique stretches of DNA and long sequences of repetitive DNA that did not serve as blueprints for genes. Much of this material is interspersed in the middle of genes. This material was once considered to be "junk DNA," but research has since shown that it plays a critical role in the development and functioning of all animals.

Britten and Kohne used a process called renaturation, in which the double-stranded molecules of DNA in the genome were chopped into smaller segments and separated into individual strands. Because the two strands are complementary, they will reassemble themselves – become renatured – when they are in solution.

But because mammalian DNA is so long and complicated – comprising about 3 billion individual base pairs in humans – that process is very slow. Britten reasoned that if there were many repetitive sequences of DNA, renaturation would occur more quickly, at a rate dependent on the amount of repetition.

The pair's experiments, reported in 1968, showed that this was, indeed, the case, but they had to use extremely concentrated solutions of DNA and the process still required days. A key component of their work involved the use of the mineral hydroxyapatite to separate double-stranded DNA from single-stranded for analysis. Britten, Davidson noted, turned hydroxyapatite "into a laboratory workhorse."

It soon became clear that actual genes, which serve as the blueprint for proteins, enzymes and other cellular components, accounted for only a few percent of the genome. Britten's work "provided the most accurate images of what DNA is like until sequencing came along decades later," Davidson said.

In 1971, Britten moved to Caltech and began a quarter-century collaboration with Davidson. The pair demonstrated how repetitive and single-copy DNA are organized in animal genomes, measured the amount of single-copy DNA in genes that are expressed (turned on) during embryonic development and began the analysis of gene regulatory systems that underlie development. They found that only about 5% of single-copy DNA was actually genes.

That work helped create the field now known as evolutionary developmental biology, commonly known as "evo devo." The main tenet of the field is that it is the regulation of genes, rather than their structure, that provides most of the differences between species. Very similar genes, for example, are needed for the production of fins in fish and limbs in humans. It is the differences in how these genes are controlled by regulatory elements that determines what is actually produced.

Roy John Britten was born Oct. 1, 1919, in Washington and was raised in Arlington, Va. His father was a statistician at the Public Health Service and his mother worked at the National Research Council. His parents permitted Britten and his brother to set up a chemistry lab in their basement.

At 16, Britten enrolled at the University of Virginia to study physics, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1940. During World War II, he joined the Manhattan Project, where he attempted to use magnetic beam techniques to separate and purify isotopes of uranium. The project did not work, however, which he frequently noted pleased him because he was a committed pacifist.

After the war, he received a doctorate in nuclear physics in 1951 from Princeton University. His graduate work involved the development of the quadrupole magnet, which was made by placing four bar magnets at angles of 90 degrees to each other. Quadrupole magnets are now widely used in spectroscopy and in accelerators. Britten often lamented that he neglected to patent the idea.

A lifelong interest in biology, however, prompted Britten to switch his specialty to biophysics when he joined the Carnegie Institution in 1951.

An avid sailor, Britten voyaged around the world. For many years, he lived on his schooner, Tiercel, which was moored in Newport Bay near Caltech's Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Corona del Mar, where he did most of his research.

Divorced from his first wife, Britten married Jacqueline Reid in 1986. She died in 2001. He is survived by two sons from his first marriage, Kenneth of Winters, Calif., and Gregory of Penacook, N.H.

Maugh is a former Times staff writer.

news.obits@latimes.com

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Roy Britten dies at 92; Caltech biologist was DNA, gene pioneer

Harvard scientists invent a novel method of eliminating invasive tumors, employing nano-sized machines fashioned after white blood cells

In a concept that sounds eerily similar to science fiction, researchers from Harvard University have created tiny nano-sized "DNA robots" that can be instructed to hunt and destroy cancer cells. Scientists created the bio-machines to carry out the duties normally reserved for immune-system-boosting white blood cells, and the mini-robots could potentially lead to treatments for other autoimmune diseases. Here, a brief look at this "exciting" new experimental form of therapy: 

How do these robots kill cancer?
The tiny devices were constructed out of DNA strands and folded into a shape resembling a clamshell. Researchers call it the "DNA origami" method. The devices are pre-programmed to open up in the presence of cancerous cells. Once open, the robot releases a series of antibodies that cause its target to self-destruct. "The idea is based on the behavior of the body's immune cells," says Elizabeth Lopatto at Bloomberg Businessweek, "which recognize viruses or other invaders and attack them." (Watch a demonstration below.)

SEE MORE: The mini flying robots that swarm like 'a 1980s arcade game'

And this really worked?
In preliminary lab-controlled tests, a team of Harvard scientists, led by Shawn Douglas, used the DNA robots to identify and effectively kill leukemia and lymphoma cells in a petri dish. "In diseases such as cancer, we know if we can find every single last cell and kill or reprogram it, we can cure disease," said Douglas. 

What's next for the cancer-killing bots?
Researchers will test the robots in animals like mice. Introducing the robots into living bodies will present a new set of challenges, says The State Column, including figuring out how to minimize the robot's toxicity levels, and increasing the amount of time the robots can circulate in the blood stream, particularly because the DNA robots can't reproduce on their own. Commercial use of the robots is still years away.

Sources: Bloomberg Businessweek, Mashable, The State Column, Technorati

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The 'DNA robots' that hunt cancer cells

09-02-2012 02:39 To introduce myself to those that are unfamiliar with me, I am 46 years old, a veteran of the United States Army and have four wonderful children ranging in age from 22 yrs to 9 years old. My wife, Kimberly, works for The Autism File Magazine and is a warrior of this epidemic in her own right. I am the father to Kaden, my young son who was born neurotypical and was even considered "above the curve" with regards to his early development. At twenty months of age, my wife and I took our youngest son Kaden to the pediatrician's office to get "caught up" on his recommended vaccinations due to recurrent ear infections that caused him to fall behind. My son was injected with 9 vaccines in 6 injections in one office visit! He immediately started his fever (within an hour) and began crying uncontrollably. Within days he stopped talking, became very sick and irritable and we witnessed four years of diarrhea! Yes! Four years! Were this not a vaccine injured child diagnosed falsely with "autism" the medical profession would have turned us in to child protective services for allowing this to go on so long! However, since the medical profession caused this "disorder", we were simply told that "this is just autism" and no treatment options were considered! This in and of itself is a criminal act that will be addressed on this site viralsepidemic.com http://www.prisonplanet.tv http://www.infowars.com The FDA asserts that the foreign DNA fragments found in Gardasil pose no risk. In contrast, Dr. Hanan ...

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Foreign DNA Found in Vaccine Can Cause Disease: Curt Linderman Sr Reports 2/2 - Video

17-02-2012 12:23 A Yale study reveals the pathway by which mitochondrial DNA defects cause maternally-inherited deafness. The study may also open the way to learning more about age-related deafness. We interviewed Gerald Shadel, Ph.D., professor of genetics and pathology at Yale School of Medicine. The study appears in the journal Cell.

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Mitochondrial DNA Defects Cause Deafness - Video

15-02-2012 16:35 Ohio AG credits new DNA law with cracking cold cases

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Main Category: Genetics
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  Cancer / Oncology;  Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 20 Feb 2012 - 1:00 PST

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Using a technique called "DNA origami", US scientists have made programmable molecule-transporting nanorobots that can seek out particular cell targets and deliver specific instructions for them to follow. One example of such use could be to tell cancer cells to destroy themselves. The researchers write about their findings in Friday's online issue of Science.

The programmable nanorobots carry cargoes of molecules that are released when aptamers (peptide molecules that bind to a specific target) in their structure bind to specific proteins on the surface of targeted cells.

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University modeled the technology on the immune system's white blood cells that patrol the bloodstream, looking for signs of trouble. They hope one day it will be used to program immune responses to treat diseases.

The DNA origami method is one that folds strands of DNA into complex three-dimensional shapes.

This latest study is considered a breakthrough because it brings together recent advances in DNA origami that have been pioneered in research centres around the world, not just at the Wyss Institute, to try and meet the challenge of how to kill cancer cells in a highly selective way.

First author Dr Shawn Douglas, a Wyss Technology Development Fellow when he worked on the study, and colleagues, devised their nanosized robot in the shape of an open barrel made of two halves joined by a hinge. (Douglas is now an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Nano-Center at Bar-Ilan University in Israel).

The two halves are held shut by special DNA latches that respond to particular targets by allowing the two halves to swing open and expose their payload.

The targets the latches respond to are particular combinations of cell-surface proteins: for example these could be disease markers.

The DNA barrel can contain various payloads. Examples include molecules with specific instructions that receptors on cell surfaces respond to, causing them to change the signals they send to the cells.

The researchers demonstrated the technology on cells from two types of cancer: leukemia and lymphoma. The message encoded in the payload was to activate the cells' suicide switch. This triggers a standard feature of all cells, called apoptosis, which allows aging or abnormal cells to be eliminated.

Leukemia and lymphoma cells don't speak the same language, so the suicide triggering instructions had to be encoded in different antibody combinations.

Senior author Dr George Church, a Wyss core faculty member and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, told the press:

"We can finally integrate sensing and logical computing functions via complex, yet predictable, nanostructures -- some of the first hybrids of structural DNA, antibodies, aptamers and metal atomic clusters -- aimed at useful, very specific targeting of human cancers and T-cells."

The versatility of the technology emulates that of white blood cells that have the ability to sense a whole range of cell distress signals, bind to the cells, and then transmit the appropriate self-destruct instructions in the language of that cell type.

The DNA nanorobot uses modular components to achieve a similar range of versatility: different hinges, different molecular payloads. These can be switched in and out of the underlying "chassis", rather like swapping various engines and tires in and out of cars.

Such a system should have the potential to treat a variety of diseases. DNA nanotechnology is widely recognized as a potential way to deliver drugs and molecular signals: another plus is it is biodegradable.

But there are considerable challenges in how to program this tiny machine, never mind how to make the right structure, then get it to open and close, then re-open, insert, carry and deliver the payload.

The study represents a big step forward in meeting these challenges because three new elements have been combined for the first time. One of these is because the DNA barrel has no lids, the payloads can be inserted from the side in one step: there is no need to open and then close the barrel.

The second new element is that this system uses latches that respond to proteins (not DNA or RNA like other systems), which are commonly found on cell surfaces. And the third new element is that it uses antibody fragments to send the molecular signals, so by using different combinations of these, different types of immune responses can be replicated to target specific diseases.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Visit our genetics section for the latest news on this subject. "A Logic-Gated Nanorobot for Targeted Transport of Molecular Payloads"; Shawn M. Douglas, Ido Bachelet, and George M. Church; Science 17 February 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6070 pp. 831-834; DOI: 10.1126/science.1214081; Link to Abstract.
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posted by jeremy walls on 19 Feb 2012 at 4:18 pm

It is an interesting challenge, because the white blood cells just don't have a mind glandular yet evolved like our human own!!! Are you teaching a cell 'how' to evolve rather in place of natural thousands of years!? if in so doing, are we ready to just jump ahead and skip to the future viruses that await us? Would our white cells be no longer needed or evolved!?!

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"DNA Origami" Robots Target Cancer Cells

We've seen various experimental approaches that aim to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy while also reducing its damaging side effects by specifically targeting cancer cells. The latest encouraging development comes from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering where researchers have created a barrel-like robotic device made from DNA that could carry molecular instructions into specific cells and tell them to self-destruct. Because the DNA-based device could be programmed to target a variety of cells, it could be used to treat a range of diseases in addition to providing hope in the fight against cancer.

The team based their programmable nanotherapeutic approach on the body's own immune system in which white blood cells circulate in the blood ready to attack an infection where it has developed. Just like white blood cells that are able to hone in on specific cells in distress and bind to them, the researchers created a DNA barrel that can recognize and seek out combinations of cell-surface proteins, including disease markers.

By folding strands of DNA in what is known as the "DNA origami" method, the researchers create a three-dimensional open barrel shape whose two halves are connected by a hinge. The container is held shut by special DNA latches that reconfigure when they find their specific target - cancer cells, for example - causing the two halves to swing open and expose the container's payload. These payloads can be of various types, including molecules with encoded instructions that can interact with surface signaling receptors.

Shawn Douglas, Ph.D., and Ido Bachelet, Ph.D., used the DNA barrel to deliver instructions encoded in antibody fragments to two different types of cancer cells - leukemia and lymphoma. Since leukemia and lymphoma speak different languages the messages were written in different antibody combinations. But the message was the same - activate the cell's so called "suicide gene," which will cause a cell to kill itself through apoptosis.

It is the researchers' modular approach, which allows different hinges and different message payloads to be switched and swapped, that gives the system the potential to treat a variety of diseases.

Although DNA nanotechnology has been widely recognized for its potential as a delivery mechanism for drugs and molecular signals because of its natural biocompatibility and biodegradability, there have been significant hurdles concerning its implementation - what type of structure to create; how to open, close, and reopen that structure to insert, transport and deliver a payload; and how to program the device.

The Wyss researchers overcame the first two problems by creating a barrel-shaped structure with no top or bottom lids. This allows the payloads to be loaded from the side while the structure is closed instead of having to first open the structure, insert the payload, and then re-close it. Meanwhile, for the programming problem they developed a mechanism that responds to proteins. While other systems use release mechanisms that respond to DNA or RNA, proteins are more commonly found on cell surfaces and are largely responsible for transmembrane signaling in cells.

The researchers say theirs is the first DNA-origami-based system that that uses antibody fragments to convey molecular messages, offering a controlled and programmable way to replicate an immune system response or develop new types of targeted therapies.

The team's research findings appear in the journal Science and the creators discuss their DNA nanorobot in the video below.

Source: Wyss Institute

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DNA nanorobot could offer targeted treatment of cancer

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE February 20, 2012 9:12AM

DNA evidence has led to an arrest in connection with a sexual assault that happened nearly a year ago on the Northwest Side.

Moises Alcantara, 39, of the 4000 block of West Melrose Street, was charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault in connection with the March 20, 2011 attack in the 5100 block of North Keating Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.

He allegedly sexually assaulted a female victim at that location, Gaines said, but further details on what happened were not immediately available early Monday.

He was arrested Saturday after authorities found a match to DNA evidence in the case, Gaines said.

Alcantara was ordered held on $475,000 bond in a Sunday hearing, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s office.

© 2011 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit http://www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.

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DNA evidence leads to arrest in year-old rape case

Packages constructed of DNA dubbed "DNA origami" might one day be used to create nanorobots capable of finding and destroying cancer cells in the human body.

[More from Mashable: U.S. Army Orders $13.9 Million in Badass Micro Robots [VIDEO]]

The nanorobots mimic a cell's receptor system in order to communicate with cells. The cells can carry materials -- a "payload" -- to cancer cells, and when the nanorobot detects the cells it's hunting for, it will spring into action.

The study was published in Science on Thursday. Researchers Shawn M. Douglas, Ido Bachelet, George M. Church are all affiliated with Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Douglas developed the open-source software the researchers used called Cadnano to design the structures.

[More from Mashable: XBox-Controlled Military Robot Can Lift 150 Pounds [VIDEO]]

Once the bots were designed, the research team built the tiny barrel-shaped nanobots that measures about 35 nanometers in diameter. Each nanobot can hold molecules that are meant to be delivered to cells. On the outside of the nanobots would be two strands that could help recognize target cells, and release their contents at the right time.

The system has yet to be tested in living organisms, but the researchers are considering testing the nanorobots in mice.

What do you think about this technology? Tell us in the comments.

?Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Palto ?

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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'DNA Origami' Nanorobots Could Find and Destroy Cancer Cells [VIDEO]

Oxford Nanopore says it will begin selling by the end of the year a disposable DNA sequencer about the size of a USB memory stick that can be plugged directly into a laptop or desktop computer and used to perform a single-molecule sensing experiment. The device is expected to sell for $900, according to the company. 

The company also unveiled a larger benchtop version of the technology. It says a configuration of 20 of the benchtop instruments could completely sequence a human genome in 15 minutes.

The technology is based on a radically different sequencing method that has been in the work for more than a decade at Oxford University, Harvard and the University of California, Santa Clara. DNA strands are pulled through nanopores embedded in a polymer. As the DNA passes through the nanopore, specific sequences are identified based on varying electronic signals from the different bases. As a result, the technology can read DNA sequences directly and continuously. The company says double-stranded DNA can be sensed directly from blood.

The announcement comes at a time when the cost and time of DNA sequencing is dropping dramatically. Earlier this year, Life Technologies showed off a benchtop sequencer that it says can decode a human genome in one day for less than $1,000. By making sequencing far cheaper and faster, the new generation of instruments could finally make personalized medicine a reality. 

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DNA Sequencing To Go

As the Department of Justice DNA Data Bank waits for the human remains found at an abandoned well in San Joaquin County, the media toured the facility to see how scientists receive and process evidence.

In a training lab on Friday, criminalist specialists displayed an adult femur.

"We get remains that have been out in the elements for weeks to months to years so we get them looking like everything imagineable," Senior Criminalist Theresa Wheeler said. "Some of them are really brittle, dry, bleached out from the sun and others have been buried under dirt for a really long time."

In the lab, technicians remove any contaminants from bones or fragments.

Part of the bone is then put into an impactor where it is shaken and becomes dust; the texture is similar to flour in your kitchen. A chemical is added to separate the DNA from other materials in the bone - the amount of DNA depends on the condition of the remains.

"The challenge is that there's not a lot of DNA present in bone to begin with and then over time there's even less DNA present so we're faced with a very minute amount of DNA to work with," Department of Justice  Criminalist Supervisor Dr. John Tonkyn said.

In another lab, scientists extract the DNA.

Forensic scientists then make multiple copies of the DNA fragments, creating called amplified DNA fragments. They do this because the amount of DNA is small and scientists need enough DNA to be detected by their instruments, according to Tonkyn.

In some cases, the lab uses DNA samples from family members to compare DNA with the unidentified remains.

The process could take weeks or months to identify the victims.

"We can't rush the science," said Tonkyn. "We don't want to compromise any of the quality measures that we have so the processes that we have set up for DNA extraction typing do take time."

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