New DNA Tech Creates Digital ‘Sketch’ of Terrorists’ Faces (Video) – 107.180.56.147 (press release) (registration) (blog)

Bad news for criminals who are trying to remain hidden, nameless and faceless. New technology can predict what a terrorists face looks like from less than a drop of blood or single strand of hair.

Called the Parabon Snapshot, this new groundbreaking technology can take traces of DNA and literally put a face to the crime.

From a terrorist who built a bomb intended to kill hundreds of Americans through to a thief who stole your grandmothers handbag, this is the sort of American innovation that makes it hard for a bad guy to stay anonymous.

(Law enforcement now has a new DNA tool that helps nab suspects and close cases. The service, developed by Parabon NanoLabs of Reston, Virginia, is called the Parabon Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service (Snapshot). It predicts the physical appearance of individuals from the smallest of DNA evidence samples, creating a composite image or snapshot of any DNA source. Courtesy ofParabonand YouTube)

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) funded this exciting innovation and Parabon NanoLabs created it. DTRA safeguards Americans by focusing on combating weapons of mass destruction around the clock.

In war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, there are networks that build improvised explosive devices or IEDs. As such, there has been an urgent need to provide enhanced tools to help military teams identify, track, dismantle and defeat terrorist networks.

Similarly, terrorist plots such as the recent attacks in Manchester, Brussels and Paris have involved explosive devices so investigators immediately searched for clues to identify the bombmaker or possible bomb making network.

Snapshot is one very exciting solution for both the military and law enforcement. If the bombmaker left any trace of DNA, then the tech can take it and read the DNAs code to build a composite image of the bombmaker.

This new technology can build a picture, but how good is it? Extremely good.

Snapshot can predict the shape of a persons face. Within the face, it will predict the terrorist or criminals eye color and hair color. The tech can reveal skin color, going so far as to add the degree of freckling or pigmentation.

And it can accurately predict not just the appearance of the criminal, but also biogeographic ancestry in great detail as well.

In the simplest terms, the Parabon Snapshot uses DNA to build a picture of what a criminal looks like.

Effectively, Snapshot reverse engineers the DNA to provide a picture. It can do this because DNA carries genetic instruction that dictates a persons physical characteristics. Snapshot understands how this genetic data translates into physical appearance.

If you give Snapshot a DNA sample, it can then read thousands of the genotypes also known as genetic variants and translate them into a visual image of a perpetrator.

This is a big leap ahead for the use of DNA in capturing terrorists and criminals.

Just like how each persons fingerprint is unique, the same is true for DNA. A forensic DNA sample from a crime scene or terrorist strike can be matched to a database, for example, to try to identify the culprit.

But now if there is no match in a database, then there is still a way to use the DNA to put a face to the crime.

Investigators can use the DNA as a human blueprint too and have Snapshot transform it into a picture.

Early adopters in law enforcement, military and counter terrorism team have had great success with this new tool. It has been so successful that in that short span of time, Snapshot has been used by more than 80 agencies and Snapshot analysis has been undertaken in ten countries.

Investigators have been using Snapshot to help solve tough current criminal cases as well as crack cold cases.

Detectives from the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland,for example, recently used the Parabon technology to create a composite for a suspect in a series of unsolved burglaries and rapes that occurred between June 19, 2010 and Sept. 2, 2012.

(The Montgomery County Police Department held a news conference on Monday to discuss an unsolved 1992 homicide and to release a new suspect composite that has been produced by Parabon NanoLabs. Courtesy ofmyMCMediaand YouTube. Posted on June 12, 2017)

The technology has alsoreportedlybeen used by police in Florida to make arrests related to a 2011 homicide.

Rockingham County Sherriffs Office in North Carolina also used Parabon technology during its successful investigation intothemurdersof Douglas Troy andLaDonna French.

Although there was lots of different DNA at the crime scene, there was no police database match. In Januray 2015,a month after the debut of Parabons Snapshot service,Rockingham County Sherriffs Office contacted the company.

Jos Alvarez, Jr.was arrested for the murder in August 2015.

In July 2016 Alvarez pled guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

(Learn More. Courtesy ofQ13 Fox News, Dark Sleuth and YouTube. Posted on April 6, 2016)

Other applications

Beyond a military and law enforcement tool, Parabonsaysit is developing other potential applications for their research, including the ability to predict the risk of developing Alzheimers Disease.

Original posthttp://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/07/06/new-dna-technology-creates-digital-sketch-terrorists-faces.html

To contact Parabon, visit their website athttps://snapshot.parabon-nanolabs.com/.

For ordering information, please emailsnapshot@parabon-nanolabs.comor call(703) 689-9689 x251

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New DNA Tech Creates Digital 'Sketch' of Terrorists' Faces (Video) - 107.180.56.147 (press release) (registration) (blog)