Category Archives: DNA

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- As many of you know, I'm adopted. I'm one of four sisters placed for adoption with different families in Kentucky.

I connected with my sister Amy about 20 years ago.

I had always assumed my birth father would be from somewhere in Kentucky, but Dennis lives right here in the News 4 viewing area. He is retired after working for 40 years on the Mississippi gulf coast.

Then in February, thanks to a 23andme DNA kit, we met our sister Jill. We hadn't even known that she existed.

WATCH:News 4 Meteorologist discovers sister through a 23andMe DNA test

After that, the three of us started working on trying to find Crystal, the last of the sisters.

We found her in April.

Since then we've all been getting to know each other and, in late October, for the first time ever we all got together in my hometown of Lexington. We had such a good time. Crystal even presented us with matching sister bracelets symbolizing our unique bond.

WATCH:Months after initial report on DNA testing, Kristen Cornett finds another sister!

While there have been quite a few emotional highs on this journey, there were also some serious lows. I'd always been told that Crystal and I were full sisters, but when we found her and she did a DNA test, it turns out we are only half-sisters.

To get to the bottom of that mystery, I reached out to my half-brother Scott and asked him to take a DNA test. We were 99% certain he was my brother but I needed to know for sure.

You can imagine our shock then when the results came back and it turns out he and I weren't related at all, he was Crystal's brother.

KMOV Meteorologist Kristen Cornett was adopted when she was a child. Through the state of Kentucky and a DNA test, she was able to reconnect with two of her biological sisters.

So my entire paternal family, birth father, brothers, their wives, my nieces and nephew, people that I've gotten to know over the last 15 years, they weren't my family at all. They were Crystal's family.

That was a devastating blow. I considered just stopping there, but after a few weeks of soul searching, I realized that the missing knowledge was just too important to me. I had to at least try to unravel my DNA truth. So in late July I did another DNA kit, this one with Ancestry.com since it would have a different database of possible matches.

By mid-August I had my results, and sure enough, right at the top of my DNA relatives list I had a new close match: Nathan, who turns out is my half-brother.

After a couple of days I got up the nerve to email him. He responded quickly and I could tell by all the exclamation marks that he was as excited as I was.

As Nathan described, You know, I had uploaded my DNA results thinking I knew everything about my family.

During our interaction I told Nathan that I was born in Louisville, KY, my birth date, and my birth mothers name. He took it from there.

That's all I needed to know. So I took that information, I reached out to my father, and we kind of pieced everything together really quickly. So by the end of the day I had a new sister said Nathan.

Nathan lives in Texas and came to visit me a few weeks ago, we spent much of our visit getting into some pretty deep, personal conversations, and especially how he broke the news to his father, Dennis.

On April 13, it finally happened. I received an anonymous email from someone claiming she believed that she might be the person I was looking for. When she saw that we were searching, she thought it was only right to see if she was the one we were looking for.

As Nathan described it, He (Dennis) was a little shell-shocked but I think he slowly kind of came to terms and really started to embrace the thought.

I had always assumed my birth father would be from somewhere in Kentucky, but Dennis lives right here in the News 4 viewing area. He is retired after working for 40 years on the Mississippi gulf coast.

Dennis told me he, Graduated from Carlinville High School. I always thought I was going to be a farmer, took all the farmer classes, and ended up going to an electronics school in Louisville, Kentucky for two years.

And thats where the Kentucky connection comes in.

Dennis and I met for the first time in September for lunch. We talked for three hours.

We've been texting and chatting regularly since then.

Dennis has two sons. Tim is the youngest, and Nathan was the one who filled him in on the big news.

As Nathan put it, I called him up and he was thrilled. There wasn't even a question about it. He was so excited, he wanted to know you immediately, he wanted your information, he wanted to reach out, he was just thrilled to have a sister.

In September I was able to spend three days in Tennessee getting to know Tim. We had a great time and the conversation flowed easily, after all we had a few decades to catch up on.

It is a little unusual meeting close relatives as an adult, and I've been thinking a lot about how that's going to work. I talked to Dennis about how open his family has been to meeting me when they could have said they did not want to open the door to a relationship.

Dennis replied You're my daughter. So of course I feel like I want to [get to know you]. Family. Family has always been real important to me.

I feel so very fortunate that we found Crystal and she took that DNA test. Otherwise I likely would've never found out about Dennis, Nathan or Tim.

They've welcomed me into their family with open arms and I couldn't have ever dreamed it could all turn out so incredibly well. I feel very lucky.

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Family Found: After DNA tests revealed my long-lost sisters, I received shocking information about who my father was - KMOV.com

Smoke billowed out of a hole at the center of a grass-covered tepee as I passed plates of cured moose sausage, flat bread, cheese and cloudberry jam to the seven other strangers gathered in this traditional Sami home in Swedens northernmost Lapland region.

This was a complete digital detox: no electricity, cell signal or running water. Outside the conical dwelling (called a goathie in the indigenous Sami language), the air threatened to dip below freezing. Yet, with my toes curled into a reindeer pelt and the central fire invoking another round of storytelling, none of the modern sacrifices seemed to matter.

Owner Mikael Vinka regaled us with stories of herding his reindeer across the snow-dusted forests that blanket Swedens Arctic frontier a region the Sami call Sapmi. Over the next three days, he led us hiking into the birch-topped Vindel Mountains. We dared our bodies to enter a frigid lake before defrosting them in a fire-heated sauna. At night, we chased the faint chartreuse glow of the northern lights across an untainted sky.

When, on the final day, Mikael urged us to sit on a mossy mound and feel the energy of the Earth, the cynic in me wanted to crack. But I couldnt. Mikael had spoken of Lapland with such doe-eyed sincerity. He connected so deeply with his environment that he could disappear into it for days. I wanted that kind of unburdened freedom. I needed to feel what he felt too.

To reach the Vinka familys Sami Ecolodge meant a four-hour drive from the regional airport in Lulea to the hamlet of Ammarnas, followed by a 45-minute boat ride into the vast wilderness of Vindelfjallen Nature Reserve, one of the largest protected areas in Europe. I came all this way not only to purge myself from the trappings of cellphones, social media, work and city noise, but also to embark on a spiritual journey to try to discover who I am at my core.

Like an increasing number of Americans, Ive become curious about my heritage. How (if at all) has it molded me into the person Ive become? Results from one of those ubiquitous DNA kits suggest the highest percentage of my genetic code is from Sweden, so it felt like as good a place as any to begin.

I split my journey into three parts, each with a distinct objective. First Id explore the geography Swedens famous wildlands with those who maintain the deepest connection to them in the 21st century: the Sami. Then Id head south to uncover the history of my great-grandfathers journey to America in the seaport of Gothenburg. Finally, Id connect with the people specifically a few distant relatives to see what of the national character I could find lingering in myself.

My stay in the far north taught me that woodlands and rivers and overgrown ravines are not just feral spots on an ever-busier map; theyre our link to sanity, a global necessity and a Swedish birthright given to those lucky enough to live in a nation where 69% of the land is forested.

For the next stage of my journey the history leg I had to leave the musky dew of Lapland behind for the salty air of southerly Gothenburg.

It was from this industrial seaport along the rocky Bohuslan Coast that most of the 1.3 million Swedes who departed for a new life in America between 1850 and 1930 took their final steps on Swedish soil. After checking in at New Yorks Castle Garden (from 1855) or Ellis Island (from 1892), the majority settled in Chicago, Minneapolis and the greater Midwest, where the landscape and climate resembled home.

Swedes make up a tiny fabric of the American quilt, but this mass exodus of nearly 25% of the population left a big mark on Sweden. To learn more, I visited the House of Emigrants, a small museum in the citys old Customs House (now a casino), through which nearly all Swedish emigrants passed.

The museum looks at the reasons Swedes emigrated to America, the ship lines that took them there and what they left behind. In my great-grandfather Carl Johanssons case, it was a shot at a better life, the White Star Line (1911), and everything he knew and loved along with the extra s in his surname, discarded for simplicitys sake in his adopted homeland.

So important was this mass emigration to Swedens history that one of its most popular reality TV shows, The Great Swedish Adventure (Allt for Sverige), invites Americans with Swedish ancestry to come back and discover their roots. Like any good show, however, theres a catch: Along the way, cast members are kicked off for losing cultural and physical challenges. Only the winner meets their Swedish relatives for a family reunion.

I saved myself the humiliation of losing a Swedish reality show by contacting the descendants of Carls sister, Gerda, directly.

Gerdas great-granddaughter, Camilla Sandell, lives in a lovingly restored falu red cottage in the countryside just outside Gothenburg. When she heard Id be in town, she bought loads of crustaceans from a local fisherman, set a table with white wine and nutty Vasterbotten cheese, and invited the extended family for a crayfish party a feast typical of Swedens West Coast, where the critters run wild.

Its a strange thing to meet a family who shares some of your bloodlines but grew up in another land, speaks a different language and has its own customs. Yet its equally bizarre how little that seems to matter by the second glass of wine. In fact, it struck me sitting at that dinner table with 10 Swedes that my preference for deference, for humility, for having enough of a personality but not too much to cause a scene makes me rather Swedish at my core.

My parents had visited some of these relatives in Sweden a decade prior. They put together a genealogy-inspired DVD for me and my siblings and gave it to us for Christmas. To say I was mildly intrigued would be generous.

Ive spent most of my adult life traveling the globe for work, but never once put Sweden on the agenda. I cant say why. As a kid, the mere fact of having the most popular last name in Sweden was enough for me to cheer for their soccer team in World Cups and study the country for geography projects. It was always the most tangible connection I had to somewhere else.

But to visit? Perhaps it wasnt exotic enough. Ive always been attracted to everything wholly foreign, so it was quite a surprise to find during my two weeks in Sweden that something startlingly familiar, something in my DNA, could shock my senses even more.

When all the crayfish were decapitated and wine bottles emptied, Camilla reached into her closet for a box. Inside was a black top hat, the kind you might see in period movies, from another shared relative named Axel Johansson. The newspapers protecting it were from the 1940s. Despite my protests, she wanted me to have it.

Theres an old Swedish fable about a hat that takes on a new life with each person who wears it. If I brought my long dead relatives hat back home with me, Camilla said, I would not only have something to remember them by, but the hat could have a new story.

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DNA tourism: Tracing ancestry on a wild trip in Sweden leads to rewards and a dapper souvenir - The Spokesman-Review

A man accusedof sexually assaulting10 women, killing one of them, in Washingtonand Maryland in the 1990s, wasarrested, authorities said Thursday.

Giles Daniel Warrick, 60,was arrested in Conway, South Carolina, on multiple rape charges and a murder charge in D.C. and Maryland.

The arrest came through the use of DNA evidence collected from crime scenes and connected to Warrickthrough forensicgenealogy, authorities said. Police in D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, and the FBI led the investigation.

Warrick, in custody in South Carolina, will be extradited to D.C., MetroPolice ChiefPeter Newshamsaid at a news conference Thursday.

From 1991 to 1998, the Potomac River Rapist "brazenly and brutally preyed upon women in the Washington area," the FBI said in a 2011 plea for information on the assailant.

Napkin leads to arrest: He threw away a napkin at a hockey game. Police used it to charge him with a 1993 murder

From Ted Bundy to Jack the Ripper,new DNA technology is solving murder mysteries, finding serial killers, and exonerating innocents. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

Two of the rapes, including the murder of Christine Mirzayan,29, the assailant's last known victim,occurred in D.C. Eight others occurred in Montgomery County. Warrick faces charges for both D.C. cases but only six Maryland cases have linkedDNA evidence, police said.

The two D.C. attacks occurred within 2 miles of each otherabout two years apart. The first victim in D.C., a58-year-old woman, was sexually assaulted inJuly 1996, police said.

Mirzayan, who workedas a policy fellow in D.C. and livedat Georgetown University in August 1998, was raped and fatally beaten with a rock. She had recently gotten married after earning a Ph.D. in California.

"I can't begin to imagine what these families have suffered over these 29 years," Newsham said at a news conference Thursday.

In Montgomery County, police said the man would "cut the phone lines, force entry into homes, cover the victims heads and sexually assault them." The first assault was inMay 1991. The last known Maryland assault occurred in November1997.

The string of assaults spanned across the large D.C. suburb and dipped down into the District. As the attacks continued over the years, they got "progressively more violent," Newsham said.

'Unregulated wild west?'DNA is cracking mysteries and cold cases. But is genome sleuthing the unregulated wild west?

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones said a detective used genealogy companies, which allow people to track down their ancestry and family, to build out a "family tree" in the case.

Authorities connected the DNA from crime scenes with family members who had their data publicly online. Policereached out to family members to try to find a suspect who had lived in the D.C. area in the 1990s, which led them to Warrick.

"This is a tool. It's public information that's out. I know there's a lot of debate about it now, but the reality is that it is proven that we are now able to give victims ... a little bit of justice, you might say, a closure," Jones said.

The case follows many cold-case arrests nationwide that employ genealogical data to track down suspects.

Jones said it's possible there are additional victims in the area unknown by police.

Warrick lived in the D.C. metropolitan area for years and recently moved to South Carolina, Jones said. At the time of the attacks, Warrick worked as a landscaper and a contractor for a utilitycompany.

"We're hoping this will bring some closure to the families," Newsham said, describing the arrest as "bittersweet."

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller

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'Potomac River Rapist' serially assaulted women in DC area in '90s, and police have suspect - USA TODAY

Researchers in Spain have made a discovery that has important implications for treatment strategies to prevent mitochondrial diseases from being passed from mother to child.

Specifically, they found that the mechanisms involved in the transfer of mitochondrial genetic material from a mother to her offspring is controlled at two distinct times: during egg development before conception, and at the early stages of embryo growth.

Their study, Regulation of Mother-to-Offspring Transmission of mtDNA Heteroplasmy, was published in Cell Metabolism.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the DNA thats solely found in the cellular energy factories called mitochondria. It is important for many of the biochemical pathways involved in the production of cellular energy, and any defect in mtDNA can lead to mitochondrial disease, hindering the cells ability to generate enough energy in tissues such as muscles and the brain.

Importantly, mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother, while the other type of DNA, nuclear DNA, is inherited from both parents.

A cell can have some mitochondria with a mutation in their mtDNA and some that do not, a phenomenon known as heteroplasmy. Most disease-causing mutations are only present in a percentage of all mitochondrial DNA molecules, therefore the mutated mtDNA will only cause disease when its copy number exceeds a biologically defined threshold.

So far, animal studies have not helped to clarify how the variation happens when mtDNA is transferred from mother to offspring.

In the study, investigators at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research set out to investigate the transfer of mitochondrial DNA from mother to offspring in mice. Animals were engineered to have two distinct mitochondrial DNA stably coexisting in every cell.

Results revealed that in a heteroplasmic scenario when the mothers mitochondria contain more than one variant of mtDNA the transfer of the mothers mitochondrial genetic material to her offspring is controlled at two distinct times during development: before conception, during egg (oocyte) synthesis, and at the early stages of embryo development.

This control is aimed to prevent the co-occurrence of various types of mitochondrial DNAs in the new individual, which, in turn, can cause mitochondrial disease, said researchers in a press release.

These findings reveal the complex mechanisms underlying the decision to select one mitochondrial genome or another, and the reason for this choice, said Jos Antonio Enrquez, PhD, the studys lead author.

mtDNA heteroplasmy was found to alter embryo metabolism by inducing the mitochondria to produce abnormally high amounts of free radicals, compromising the cells ability to detoxify themselves, which consequently changes the morphology of the inner membrane of the mitochondria and endangers cellular energy production.

Understanding the mechanisms that regulate the segregation of the mitochondrial genome is necessary for the development of strategies to prevent mother-to-child transfer of mutated mitochondrial DNA that cause mitochondrial diseases, said the studys first-author Ana Latorre-Pellicer, PhD.

Although heteroplasmy is a rather rare phenomenon, knowing how the mtDNA inheritance process works between mothers and their offspring is important, for instance, for scientists to learn how to prevent different types of mtDNA from co-existing in the same cell following mitochondrial replacement therapy, a strategy that can be used on people with severe mitochondrial disease to avoid passing the disease to their children. The technique used to create a so-called three-parent embryo involves transferring the mothers nuclear DNA (the type of DNA that encodes most of the genome) into a donated egg with healthy mitochondria, thereby eliminating the chance of the baby carrying the mothers mitochondrial DNA mutation.

With over three years of experience in the medical communications business, Catarina holds a BSc. in Biomedical Sciences and a MSc. in Neurosciences. Apart from writing, she has been involved in patient-oriented translational and clinical research.

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Margarida graduated with a BS in Health Sciences from the University of Lisbon and a MSc in Biotechnology from Instituto Superior Tcnico (IST-UL). She worked as a molecular biologist research associate at a Cambridge UK-based biotech company that discovers and develops therapeutic, fully human monoclonal antibodies.

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Scientists Find How Mitochondrial DNA is Transferred from Mother to Child - Mitochondrial Disease News

It goes without saying that DNA tests are wildly popular holiday gifts each year, which is why theyre always among the best-selling products during Black Friday. Well, guess what: the hottest DNA test from Black Friday last year is already back down to its lowest price ever! Head over to Amazon and you can snag a $200 23andMe DNA Test Health + Ancestry Personal Genetic Service for just $99. Ive given this kit as a gift a bunch of time and people always love it!

Heres some of the key info from the product page:

Follow @BGRDeals on Twitter to keep up with the latest and greatest deals from around the web. Quantities may be limited. Prices are subject to change without notice and coupons may expire at any time. Some deals may not be available to all customers. BGR may receive a commission on orders placed through this article.

Image Source: Sander Koning/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

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23andMes wildly popular $200 DNA test is already down to its Black Friday price of $99 - BGR

A privacy rights group is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for answers about its use of Rapid DNA technology on migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint in federal court in San Francisco earlier this week, asking a judge to force the DHS to share information on its use of Rapid DNA testing.

The complaint highlights how little the DHS has so far shared about its use of DNA testing at the border.

The EFF has demanded to know how many people, including children have had their DNA collected at the border, how accurate the DNA tests are, as well as what exact gene processing is being used to identify parent-child relationships.

The lawsuit also asks the DHS to hand over its training materials, consent forms and a sample of the privacy statements families are being given, in addition to demanding to know the locations of DHS's Rapid DNA pilot programs.

The bid to obtain more information about the program comes months after the DHS started using Rapid DNA testing on adults and children presenting themselves at the U.S. border.

The department had sought to use the program to identify "fraudulent" families, or adults and children who were not biologically related, but presenting as families at the border.

However, the EFF has argued that it has done so with little oversight and without sharing enough information about its process or how the program is being expanded.

"Congress has never authorized ICE to conduct Rapid DNA testing on migrant families at the border, yet DHS has deployed this privacy-invasive technology without explaining how accurate the testing is, whether families can challenge the results, or how the program may be expanded in the future," said EFF Staff Attorney Saira Hussain in a statement shared in a press release.

The organization's complaint comes amid a DHS proposal to expand the collection of DNA of detained migrants and store that information in a federal criminal database.

Already the DHS has gained widespread condemnation over that plan. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and thousands of supporters have urged the Trump administration to abandon the plan, with thousands of public comments filed in the Federal Register.

"This unjustifiable step towards full population surveillance threatens to subvert our foundational values of freedom, autonomy, and presumed innocence," said Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project in a statement shared with Newsweek.

"Under this dehumanizing plan, immigrants who already have no control over their movements, their health, or their futures would also lose control over their genetic blueprints," Eidelman said. "The administration should heed the calls of the thousands of people demanding it abandon this dangerous and xenophobic plan."

Newsweek has contacted the DHS for comment for this article.

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the spike in the number of family units detained at the southern border.

This article was updated to include an infographic.

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DHS Sued for Answers About Its Use of DNA Testing at the Border - Newsweek

When an undiagnosed rare genetic disease caused his young sons kidneys to fail, Professor Chris Toumazou vowed to find a way of uncovering hidden health risks.

The professor of biomedical engineering realised that, although his sons condition could not have been prevented, the family could have managed his lifestyle very differently had they known about his condition.

So, he embarked on a mission to help people change their lifestyles and avoid getting sick.

Lifestyle, he says, has a huge impact on many undiagnosed conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Changing behaviour could save lives.

The result of his research is a simple wristband that uses your DNA to help you make healthy choices as you shop for groceries.

By analysing the part of your genetic code determining susceptibility to nutrition-related health conditions like diabetes, DNANudge tells you which foods are best for you, and which you should avoid.

DNANudge analyses your genetic code and tells you which foods are best for you, and which you should avoid.

Image: DNANudge

The wristband scans shop barcodes and shows a green light if a product is OK and red if it may be harmful in the long run. The wristband's linked smartphone app suggests healthier alternatives when the red light comes on.

Following his sons acute illness, Toumazou also invented a microchip that can read an individuals DNA from a simple mouth swab sample. Its now used to upload a DNA profile to the new wristband a process that takes an hour instead of up to eight weeks for a conventional DNA test.

"We're not telling people they can't eat biscuits, that they should eat grapes. No, they can eat biscuits, but eat the better biscuits based upon your DNA and lifestyle," says Toumazou.

"It's using biology to nudge and guide you to have a healthier lifestyle in the long term."

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the worlds attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will helpnot harmhumanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, blockchain, data policy, digital trade, drones, internet of things (IoT), precision medicine and environmental innovations.

Learn more about the groundbreaking work that the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is doing to prepare us for the future.

Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

The device also helps to promote overall health by warning if you are inactive for too long. An orange light means it's time to get up and move about.

One in 10 people with pre-diabetes, a reversible condition, will go on to develop type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 400 million people worldwide. Early diagnosis can enable people to change their lifestyles and avoid developing the full-blown condition.

And what about Toumazous son Marcus? Well, his story has a happy ending. After months in dialysis he received a kidney transplant and is now in good health.

He even met the Queen at the opening of his fathers new lab in London. He told her his father was changing healthcare by making microchips for the human body.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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This wristband tells you what food to buy based on your DNA - World Economic Forum

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Life on Earth uses DNA and RNA to store and utilize genetic information, but what if theres another way? A new analysis from researchers at Emory University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology suggests a plethora of molecules could serve the same basic task of organizing and storing genetic information. They estimate more than a million possible stand-ins for DNA, some of which could help us fight disease or help us know what to expect as we search for alien life.

DNA (and RNA) consist of several components that make up the familiar double helix. There are the base pairs like adenine and guanine, a sugar (deoxyribose for DNA and ribose for RNA), and a phosphate group. The sugar and phosphate give nucleic acid an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. We already know there are many alternatives to the five bases at work in DNA and RNA on Earth, but the new study looks at how the scaffolding of nucleic acid could vary.

The team used a computer simulation to explore a so-called chemical space within certain constraints. To choose the constraints, the team had to distill what makes nucleic acid molecules distinct. They settled on organic molecules that can assemble into a linear polymer with at least two attachment points, plus a place for nitrogen bases to connect. The substructure of the molecule also needs to be stable in a polymer configuration. Since these molecules dont contain the traditional sugars and phosphorus, you cant call them DNA theyre some other kind of nucleic acid with potentially similar properties.

A few alternate nucleic acids.

The analysis points to more than 1,160,000 potential nucleic acid molecules. That number exceeded even the most extreme estimates beforehand, but researchers can now start looking at these molecules in a laboratory setting to see if they can work as a DNA alternative. The team says this shows evolution on Earth may have experimented with several different molecular designs for storing genetic information before DNA ultimately won out.

Researchers around the world are working on therapeutic drugs that resemble nucleic acid, some of which could help combat viruses and cancer. A better understanding of these DNA alternatives could make those treatments more effective. And then theres the importance to exobiology research. If were looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life, it might help to remember they could have genetic material using one of the other million possible molecules.

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Researchers Find More Than 1 Million Alternatives to DNA - ExtremeTech

The 4,000-square-foot suite, tucked into a small office park in the heart of San Diegos biotech corridor, is about as small and unassuming as a university biology-lab classroom. But the 16 people who work here at Molecular Assemblies are chasing a goal that could revolutionize synthetic biology: the ability to write DNA molecules using enzymes.

The field of synthetic biology has, for years, been promising the ability to custom-design organisms that serve as everything from new antibiotics to plastic eaters. But despite substantial advances in both sequencing and editing DNA, one of the big holdups in fulfilling this potential is that whipping up DNA to order is slow andespecially for long moleculesexpensive. In truth, the way scientists write DNA hasnt changed much since the process was first developed in 1981. Its slow, laborious, and environmentally hazardous.

But several startup companies believe they can do it cheaper, faster, and more accurately with a new method. They believe that using enzymes, which is how DNA is written in nature, is the way to go.

Molecular Assemblies recently raised $12.2 million in an initial round of funding, though its far from alone in its quest to use enzymes for building DNA. At least seven startups are trying to do it. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, who have published the only paper so far to describe a successful enzymatic approach, founded Ansa Biotechnologies to commercialize it. Ansa, like Molecular Assemblies, is building its business model around providing DNA to customers who send in orders. But another contender, DNA Script, recently announced $38.5 million in a second round of funding for a benchtop machine that would enable labs and hospitals to build DNA themselves.

Today, commercially available DNA synthesis uses a process called phosphoramidite chemistry, which relies on toxic, flammable reagents that create hazardous waste. The process has important limitationsmost companies that build DNA this way top off at lengths of about 100 to 150 base pairs, which isnt even as long as many genes, and the harsh chemistry involved in adding each A, G, C, or T can start to degrade the already-written part as the molecule grows longer. This method also produces molecules that arent compatible with water-based biology. Thats acceptable if you want to use DNA as a form of data storage, but to be useful in biological applications, DNA made through phosphoramidite chemistry has to be put through additional processing, which increases the cost.

Its amazing that they get chemical synthesis of DNA to work, says Andrew Hessel, president of Humane Genomics, which is developing new cancer therapies by reprogramming viruses, and co-founder of Genome Project-write. GP-write, as its known, an international effort to explore the prospects of redesigning human cells, just concluded its annual meeting in New York City. The reality is that nature uses enzymes to write DNA, and that is an incredibly complex process. Every time a cell in your body divides, it has to write a whole human genome perfectly without any additional modifications.

As synthetic biology advances, researchers want longer and longer segments of DNAideally, at least the length of genes. The longer the DNA molecule, the fewer the segments that scientists have to stitch together to make a desired sequence, which should reduce the cost and the chances for errors to be introduced.

Those involved in Hessels GP-write project have their sights set on writing full genomes, which would allow them to engineer human cells (and other organisms cells) so as to better understand health and disease. For example, some scientists involved in GP-write are exploring ways of making cells resistant to viruses. Others are investigating how cells could produce essential nutrients that people now have to derive from food. But making genome-length DNAeven bacterial genomesusing chemical synthesis is currently cost-prohibitive.

William Efcavitch, chief science officer and co-founder of Molecular Assemblies, helped lead the development and commercialization of the original phosphoramidite method in the early 1980s, but now he says its clear a better approach is required. Rather than trying to push 35-year-old chemistry to make longer strands, we said: Lets start with an enzymatic process that can already make long strands and teach it to do it in a user-friendly fashion, says Efcavitch.

You have to control the enzyme and tell it what to write. And thats tricky.

The challenge is that in their natural habitat within a cell, enzymes dont create DNA from scratch. Instead, they duplicate a pre-existing strand by pulling nucleic acids, one by one, to the growing molecule. So Molecular Assemblies and most of the other companies have turned to the only enzyme known to build DNA without a template. This DNA-creating enzyme, or polymerase, is called terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT). Typically found in vertebrate immune cells, it is responsible for building the new and ever-changing antigen receptors a cell needs to fight unfamiliar viruses and bacteria.

TdT evolved to make long strands of DNA in a random fashion, but the new breed of DNA-writing startups think they can program it. All of them, however, are still working to figure out exactly how. The challenge with enzymatic synthesis from scratch is that you have to control the enzyme and tell it what to write, Hessel says. And thats tricky.

Chemical synthesis uses a computer to control a system that adds A, G, C, or Tone drop at a timein a four-step process: The DNA molecule is extended by one nucleotide held in place with an unstable bond; then the incomplete end is capped off; then the newly linked nucleotide is stabilized; and then the molecule is prepared for the next addition. Enzymatic synthesis eliminates two of those steps: the polymerase just needs to be stopped and started for each additional nucleotide. Right now, Efcavitch says, were trying to optimize those two steps.

The enzymatic synthesis startups have shown modest success. Ansa has built short DNA fragments called oligonucleotides (or oligos) of 50 base pairs. DNA Script has hit 200, and another companyCamena Biosciencerecently announced it had reached 300. Molecular Assemblies wont specify how long its oligos have gotten other than to say they havent yet reached 150.

The companies claims remain largely untested by the synthetic biology community.

There have been almost no publications, says Calin Plesa, a synthetic biology researcherat the University of Oregon. Its been very difficult to know whats beengoing on inside these companies.

Plesa himself is a heavy user of synthetic DNA for building DNA libraries, as is Sri Kosuri, a synthetic biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-founder of a startup called Octant. Kosuri describes himself as a synthetic DNA addict whose lab consumes large amounts of oligonucleotides to explore the relationship between DNA sequences and their functions. He appreciates how the companies pursuing enzymatic DNA synthesis are trying to improve the accuracy of the technology. Accuracy is an issue. Its what limits even our own work, Kosuri says. But he adds that it doesnt yet appear that the DNA-writing startups have gotten the enzymatic process near the accuracy of phosphoramidite chemistry.

George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University who is a cofounder of both the Human Genome Project and GP-write, says chemical DNA synthesis methods generally induce an error every 1 in 300 bases. Error-correction methods can improve the figure to 1 in 10,000. When enzymes naturally copy a strand of DNA in cells, however, the error rate is close to one in a billion. But he agrees with Kosuri that no enyzmatic synthesis company has come even close to such low error rates. Right now, theres no evidence than enzymatics is more accurate [than chemical synthesis]. I think its likely but not proven, Church says.

Today, the longest oligonucleotides being produced are coming out of South San Francisco-based Twist Bioscience, which has miniaturized the chemistry using a silicon chip with thousands of tiny wells, creating a platform that that can make one million oligos simultaneously. They are used for screening, diagnostics, therapeutics, and genetic research. Twist can now make oligos up to 300 base pairs long in these wells, more than twice what most enzymatic companies are capable of at the moment.

But Twist Bioscience CEO Emily Leproust saysthat if a better method of synthesizing DNA presents itself, Twists method canaccommodate it. We dont really have a dog in the fight, she says. If thereis better [synthesis through] enzyme chemistry, Ill be the first customer. Oncethe approach reaches one of any number of milestoneslonger, fewer errors, orfaster productionshed be on board. Ill take cheaper but frankly Ill paymore if its faster or better or longer.

Shes confident that one or more of the companies pursingthe enzymatic approach will hit the target eventually. I dont think they haveto break any rule of physics to get thereI think its just engineering, shesays. Its a question of how much money do you need, and how much time do youneed, and can you recoup that investment in commercialization.

Church and Hessel both agree that enzymatic synthesis will start to gain traction soon. I fully expect that bacterial-scale genomes will be within anyones reach within the next 10 years, Hessel says. And that would be just the start. I dont think weve started to unlock the possibilities here. I cant wait to see how these tools and technologies change the world.

Read the rest here:
The Dawn of Cheap and Easy DNA Writing - NEO.LIFE

After watching Ant & Decs DNA Journey on ITV, I can confidently say that one thing it failed to do for me and which genetics could definitively answer is clarify which one is Ant and which one is Dec. Alas, this mystery remains unsolved.

Aside from that, the documentary is entertaining enough. In the first episode, Ant and Dec travel around, talking to genealogists and distant relatives who have been identified by having similar bits of DNA to them like Who Do You Think You Are? but with bonus genetics. We are introduced to Dixie Carter, who is described as a genetic cousin to Dec, though I couldnt tell precisely what relation she is. The two shared an ancestor from around 150 years ago, and her presence provides light relief as she is a Texan wrestling promoter.

It is, of course, incumbent on science to spoil the fun. A common ancestor six generations into the past, like the one shared between Dixie and Dec, is one of 64 great-great-great-great-grandparents you have. Maybe Dixie was simply the most exciting relative the producers found. Without DNA analysis, the Geordie duo would not have traced her and other distant relatives, but the truth is that there is very little meaningful genetic relationship there.

Geneticists did not anticipate that the human genome would become such a saleable commodity. Its estimated that more than 26m commercial genetic tests have been taken worldwide, mainly trading on the beguiling promise of revealing something about your ancestry.

The show is sponsored by the biggest of these companies, Ancestry, who are credible, and whose data your data is put to interesting use, such as producing scientific papers that analyse the genetic structure of modern Americans. Also in the programme were Alistair Moffat and Jim Wilson, founders of another, now defunct, company called BritainsDNA, which made headlines for some absurd and ahistorical claims over the years, including saying that it had traced the descendants of the Queen of Sheba (a Biblical character who may or may not have existed) and those of Eve, sticking with the Biblical theme. It was even behind claims that climate change would make ginger people extinct.

In 2012, Moffat threatened legal action against geneticists at UCL (to which I am affiliated) who had criticised some of the companys claims. A paper in the peer-reviewed journal Genealogy documents this saga and the way BritainsDNA made a number of dubious claims both directly to its customers and in the media. Companies like that devalue the business of genetic genealogy, so it is troubling to see its key players Moffat effectively introduces the show feature so prominently in Ant and Decs show.

The marketing ploy of the genetics industry is to tell stories of belonging. This can be powerful because everyone craves autobiographical meaning. But the power of genetics to deliver narrative satisfaction is profoundly limited. All genetic genealogy companies play upon this to a certain extent. California-based 23andMe capitalised on the 2018 football World Cup finals with adverts suggesting you should root for your roots by supporting the countries that reflect your unique DNA, thus indicating that their marketing department clearly have no idea about football fandom.

Family trees may be the ties that bind us, but those trees are pollarded

Personal testimony on the Ancestry website has Mark discovering that instead of being 100% British, as he had always believed, he is only 40% British, 25% German and 35% Greek. Mark: its cool that you discovered you may have ancestry from Greece and Germany, though these results dont and probably cant tell you who those people were or how closely you are related to them. But regardless, you remain British, because thats how citizenship works.

The maths of ancestry is a bit bewildering, but there are two steadying anchors. The first is that everyone has two parents. This means that the number of ancestors you have doubles every generation into the past. The second is that there are more people alive today than at any point in history. These two things may seem at odds: the number of ancestors you have goes up as we go back in time, but the number of people alive goes up as we go forward in time. The answer to this apparent conundrum is that we are all inbred.

Sooner or later the number of positions on our family tree are filled with the same people over and over, until at some point all the branches coalesce. Everybody now is descended from everybody then. For Europe, that time is about a thousand years ago. All people of long-standing European descent have the same ancestors a thousand years ago. Whats more, due to the way DNA is chopped up during the creation of sperm and egg cells, we lose genetic information from our actual ancestors, meaning that you have no DNA in common with half of your blood relatives from only three centuries ago.

Scientists are not in the business of telling you how to spend your hard-earned cash, but if you want to find out you have Irish, Scottish or even Viking ancestors, look in the mirror. If you want to find out you have royalty in your family tree, as I show in my book A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, you do. If you think these things matter, or reveal hidden secrets about your identity, there I cannot help. Family trees may be the ties that bind us, but those trees are pollarded. Most of your ancestry is lost and can never be recovered, not with historical certificates or DNA, despite its many explanatory powers. You, me, Ant and/or Dec we are all descended from multitudes.

Adam Rutherford is a geneticist and author

Continued here:
Ant and Decs DNA test merely tells us that were all inbred - The Guardian