Category Archives: DNA

The quest began with a white box containing a tube and collection bag.The directions were simple. Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line, then replace the funnel on the tube with the blue liquid cap before you tighten to release the fluid and shake.Three weeks later, the results were in from Ancestry DNA.The first thing I saw was my DNA story, the so called "ethnicity estimate," a breakdown of where my ancestors came from.It estimated that 80 percent came from Africa, primarily Benin Togo, Camerooon and Ghana. The other 20 percent came from Europe, mainly England and Wales.The next page I looked at were DNA matches. There are 865 people identified as fourth cousins or closer, and a woman named Constance was at the top of the list.But who was Constance and how was she related to me?One clue: My biological father also appeared in her family tree.The problem was I didn't know anything about my biological father except that his name was Algie. My birth mother shared that information in 2007, six months before she died.I didn't know what to do next, so I called a cousin.Matt and I were both adopted. Our birth mothers are sisters. He suggested I call a cousin on his dad's side who knows a lot of people.Raymond didn't know Constance. But he knew Algie quite well. "Algie lived within walking distance of where I actually grew up," Raymond said. "We looked up to him because he was so suave,debonair. He owned his own cab company."Raymond offered to tell Algie's family, and soon I got a call from her sister Gwen. When I asked if she knew a Constance, she was quiet until she said, "Oh-Connie-our half sister."There were more calls and texts, this time from Connie herself. And just two weeks after our first conversation, I was on the road to Maryland to meet her in person.It felt so surreal and yet so normal. We were two sisters just being sisters.We shared stories over food and wine like we had known each other our whole lives.There was so much to talk about and so little time, but it wasn't long before Connie and her husband, Roland, came to Winston-Salem for the National Black Theatre Festival."I love you, and the more Im around you the deeper it gets," Connie told me.I could never have imagined that I would get a gift so wonderful and large at this stage of my life. I never could have dreamed this.

The quest began with a white box containing a tube and collection bag.

The directions were simple. Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line, then replace the funnel on the tube with the blue liquid cap before you tighten to release the fluid and shake.

Three weeks later, the results were in from Ancestry DNA.

The first thing I saw was my DNA story, the so called "ethnicity estimate," a breakdown of where my ancestors came from.

It estimated that 80 percent came from Africa, primarily Benin Togo, Camerooon and Ghana. The other 20 percent came from Europe, mainly England and Wales.

The next page I looked at were DNA matches. There are 865 people identified as fourth cousins or closer, and a woman named Constance was at the top of the list.

But who was Constance and how was she related to me?

One clue: My biological father also appeared in her family tree.

The problem was I didn't know anything about my biological father except that his name was Algie. My birth mother shared that information in 2007, six months before she died.

I didn't know what to do next, so I called a cousin.

Matt and I were both adopted. Our birth mothers are sisters. He suggested I call a cousin on his dad's side who knows a lot of people.

Raymond didn't know Constance. But he knew Algie quite well.

"Algie lived within walking distance of where I actually grew up," Raymond said. "We looked up to him because he was so suave,debonair. He owned his own cab company."

Raymond offered to tell Algie's family, and soon I got a call from her sister Gwen. When I asked if she knew a Constance, she was quiet until she said, "Oh-Connie-our half sister."

There were more calls and texts, this time from Connie herself. And just two weeks after our first conversation, I was on the road to Maryland to meet her in person.

It felt so surreal and yet so normal. We were two sisters just being sisters.

We shared stories over food and wine like we had known each other our whole lives.

There was so much to talk about and so little time, but it wasn't long before Connie and her husband, Roland, came to Winston-Salem for the National Black Theatre Festival.

"I love you, and the more Im around you the deeper it gets," Connie told me.

I could never have imagined that I would get a gift so wonderful and large at this stage of my life. I never could have dreamed this.

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Never could have dreamed this: DNA ancestry test kit leads Wanda Starke on journey to find sister - WXII12 Winston-Salem

Key point: The beginning of VTOL systems started with Russia.

For all the yelling and shouting over the Department of Defenses much-maligned F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, theres an unusual, often overlooked footnote in the trillion-dollar projects history: its origins as an experimental Soviet fighter that only fell into Lockheed Martins lap because a desperate Russian aerospace company needed some cold, hard cash.

Before the F-35, there was the Yak-141 Freestyle multi-role vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fighter born during a tumultuous period in Russian military history. Though the Yak-141s first flight in 1987 was a revolutionary contribution to the development of VTOL systems, the hovering death bird was largely developed as the Soviet Union came apart at the seams, and the newly-broke Russian military was in no position to continue development of the new aircraft after the Berlin Wall.

The Yak-141 manufacturer, Yakovlev, suddenly was faced with the reality of capitalism: namely, you need money to do cool things. And nearly 30 years after the first flight of the Yak-141, the U.S. Marine Corps is taking off vertically from carriers with its F-35Bs. Heres how the experimental Soviet fighter gave birth to the most controversial aircraft of the modern era.

The Soviets get vertical

The Yak-141 was the supposed to be a major technological leap in Soviet Unions VTOL program, which kicked into high gear in the 1970s after the Soviet Union took note of the iconic Harriers development in the UK. But the program initially had trouble getting off the ground due to the dismal performance of the Yak-141s predecessor the Yak-38 Forger, which Soviet military officials deemed, well, a pile of flying dog dung following its unveiling in 1971.

Despite its functional VTOL system, it lacked the extended combat range of the Harrier as well as reliable radar system and appropriately lethal armament not to mention the Yak-38s terrifying automatic ejection seat that both saved lives and surprised the heck out of the pilot when it shot them out of the plane without warning. Although the National Interest argues that the Yak-38 was a concept aircraft that was pushed into service to help fill holes in Soviet Naval Aviation and never meant for frontline combat, it was the operational VTOL aircraft in the Soviet arsenal for a decade.

The Yak-141 was specifically designed by Yakovlev to address the shortcomings of the Yak-38, namely speed and range. Two flying prototypes were green-lit and flew in 1987, and the aircraft broke several records that, according to Yakovlev, make it the first aircraft to perform both VTOL flight and supersonic level flight.

But after one of only two prototypes exploded while landing on the aircraft carrier Admiral Groshev in September of 1991, the program was effectively crippled. The Soviet Union was finishing its own economic and political disaster, and the resulting tumult that swept across the Russian military establishment creating a mountain of problems for Yakovlev to overcome if they wanted to see the Yak-141 fly again.

The Cold War melts

Luckily for Yakovlev, Americas favorite plucky multi-billion dollar defense contractor raced in to save the day. As the Iron Curtain receded across Europe, defense giant Lockheed Martin started to pour money into Yak-141 program in order to glean some sweet, sweet former Soviet engineering secrets. The two companies allegedly signed an agreement in 1991 (but not revealed until 1995) that outlined funding for additional Yak-141 prototypes, including a plan to fly the remaining operational prototype the Farnborough Airshow in September 1992.

While Lockheed most likely had zero intention of helping produce the Yak-141 for export; it would make more sense that the entire contract was a cover for procuring testing data on the Yak-141 program, including most importantly any VTOL data obtained through years of testing and development. And Lockheed wasnt the only American organization looking to learn from the Soviet-era VTOL program. Consider this document from 1993 that NASA published on the Yak VTOL technology:

Military hardware that had once been highly classified and the basis for our own defense planning was now openly marketed at airshows around the world...This environment permitted a visit to the Yakovlev Design Bureau, (YAK) for a vertical/short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) technology assessment. Yakovlev is the FSU's sole Design Bureau with experience in VSTOL aircraft and has developed two flying examples, the YAK-38 'FORGER' and YAK-141 'FREESTYLE'

Its that critical data that likely helped shape the development of the engine systems that are the heart and soul of the modern F-35.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter takes off

After the Yakovlev-Lockheed partnership was publically revealed in 1995 and formally ended in 1997, but the Yak-141s unique designs persisted. When Lockheed entered a VTOL variant of its X-35 demonstrator into the Pentagons Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in 1994, the submitted engine design proposal was radically different from initial proposal developed prior to the Yakovlev deal. Indeed, the VTOL design was changed to ASTOVL Configuration 141; while it is possible that this name was a coincidence, its worth noting for the possible reference to the Yak-141.

It seems likely that the Yak-141 test data was most applied to Lockheeds VTOL engine design in some way, although the classified nature of the Joint Strike Fighter program makes a clear connection elusive. Air Force Magazine even mentioned the Yak connection in a 1998 feature on Joint Strike Fighter after Lockheeds F-35 was selected for production.

The swiveling rear exhaust is a licensed design from the Yakovlev design bureau in Russia, which tried it out on the Yak-141 STOVL fighter. It was all or nothing If the propulsion concept didnt work, we obviously werent going to be competitive. Daniels, the Boeing executive, said the lift fan concept was probably the single most important feature of the competition.

To be clear, the F-35s overall design is not modeled after the Yak-141: The former used a different method for stabilization (see the two jets firing on the front of the plane) and had a different aerodynamic profile. But its almost certain that the data gleaned from the old Soviet VTOL project were most likely utilized in the development of the VTOL variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. And that means the F-35 owes at least part of its existence to a Soviet-era weapons program that never truly took flight.

The Yak-141 Freestyle may not technically count as a predecessor to the F-35, but the JSF does seem to have at least some Russian DNA floating around its engine design and as the F-35 came to fruition in the United States, the Yak-141 Freestyle died a quiet death in Russia. However, if a resurgent Russian defense industry chooses to move forward with a carrier-based VTOL aircraft, at least one Russian legislator has called for the Yak-141 to be revived, most likely with a stealthier new look for a new Cold War.

This article by Brad Howard originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. This article first appeared in 2018.

Image: Wikipedia.

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Could The F-35 Really Be American-Built (But Have Russian 'DNA') - The National Interest Online

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) German Shepherd, Poodle, Doberman are common dog breeds that many of us can identify by simply looking at a dog.

However, identifying a dogs breed may not be as easy as we think.

Some studies in the past have indicated that we arent very good at knowing what breeds make a dog up by just looking at them. We have no better chance of guessing than flipping a coin.

Dr. Lucy Fuller, a veterinarian at Charleston Animal Society, explains that dog DNA tests can give a deeper look into all of the breeds that make up a dog.

There are various different types of dog DNA kits but the process is similar in most of them and the process is pretty simple.

Chelsea Rene used a DNA test on three of her dogs that came from three different backgrounds and sent us the results.

See her results below:

You take a swab that comes with the kit and then swab your dogs cheeks to get some cells. Once you get the cells, you send the swab to a lab where they can collect the cells and break them apart then sequence the genome, which will lead to the results.

The dog DNA tests can be used for more than just discovering a dogs breed, it can also help keep them healthy.

Some of these kits allow you to look for certain gene deficienciestheres one called the MDR1 Gene that certain breeds of dogs lack and when you lack that gene, you cant process certain types of drugs properly, so you have to be careful of what drugs you give

The Charleston Animal Society used a dog DNA test on a dog that got a lot of attention a few years ago.

Caitlyn was the dog that was found with her mouth muzzle taped shut in May 2015.

She got so much attention that Charleston Animal Society decided to get a DNA test on her and the results can be seen below:

Cynthia Ohn adopted her dog, Addison, from Charleston Animal Society and received the results of a DNA test that was done by Addisons previous owner.

Although, Ohn said that she probably wouldnt have thought about doing the DNA test herself, it was fun to see the results.

Addisons results can be seen below:

My dog looks like a Yellow Lab and Shar-Pei mix, but it turns out that hes pretty much every dog species known to man.

There are some people who end up being surprised by the results of their dogs test but the surprising result may come down to simple dog genetics.

Dogs can mix genes even more than people can within a litterIts possible for them to have more than one father for a litterso you might get, even amongst a litter of dogs, you might get more genetic diversity than you would in twins.

Although results may not be 100% accurate, dog DNA kits can be a fun way to see what exactly your dog is made of.

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Dog DNA Tests: How to discover what your dogs true breed is? - WCBD News 2

Thats where things stood in late 2018, when Wilkowitzs son asked if shed heard the story of the Golden State Killer.

She hadnt, so he told her how earlier that year authorities charged a former police officer with a series of rapes and murders committed in California between 1974 and 1986.

That case, the first to use investigative genetic genealogy to solve a violent crime, sparked a wave of interest in the technique. Parabon, which did not work on the Golden State Killer case, has since helped police solve dozens of murders and rapes, led by the companys in-house genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore.

Wilkowitzs son suggested she contact Moore. She took the advice, asking Moore in a Facebook message to consider researching Eves killing. Moore responded that she wanted to help but could not, because New York wouldnt allow it. She promised to look into the case if Parabon was granted its permit.

Wilkowitz emailed a top official at the New York Department of Health, who confirmed what Moore told her.

New York regulates private companies performing DNA forensic testing to ensure that all testing is scientifically sound and performed with the appropriate controls in place, Anne Walsh, the head of the departments Forensic Identity Section, wrote to Wilkowitz.

Before doing the DNA work required for investigative genetic genealogy, a company must obtain a forensic identity permit from the New York State Department of Health. The agency requires the permit from all private laboratories looking to test materials derived from the human body for the purpose of forensic identification, to ensure that the testing is done properly, according to Jonah Bruno, an agency spokesman. Permits are issued for a variety of testing methods. The process of obtaining the permit is rigorous, requiring regular training, inspections and proficiency testing and the hiring of a qualified lab director.

Parabon began seeking a permit after the company got a warning in 2017 from the Department of Health for helping the New York City Police Department use a DNA analysis similar to whats used in genetic genealogy to develop leads on a murder suspect and the identity of a dead woman.

The company has been trying to meet the permit requirements for more than a year, according to Parabon CEO Steven Armentrout. I think were close, Armentrout said in an October email.

The delay has frustrated law enforcement authorities and some elected officials, including New York State Sen. Phil Boyle, a Republican who represents parts of Suffolk County and wants to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to the use of investigative genetic genealogy.

It works, but for some reason the Department of Health is slow to get off the mark and were the only state that doesnt allow it, Boyle said.

Defense lawyers and privacy advocates said they are thankful for the restrictions in New York.

Genetic genealogy relies on the same kind of analysis used by direct-to-consumer DNA tests, revealing a lot about peoples lineage including adoptions and out-of-wedlock births and their predispositions to certain health conditions. Critics worry about the government misusing that information.

Critics also worry that people who have shared their profiles on public databases dont understand that they can be used to arrest a relative. And they worry about abuse of the technology by people who are unqualified or unscrupulous.

Its easy to be like, this is terrible, New Yorkers dont have access to justice and victims feel that way, said Erin Murphy, an NYU law professor who researches the expanding use of DNA testing in the criminal justice system. But the system is playing with fire by treating genetic genealogy like its no big deal, she added.

There are private companies and government agencies getting access to our genomic material, and we are moving blindly ahead. I understand the urgency, but we do need to pause, Murphy said.

Moore, of Parabon, said she was itching to work on the Wilkowitz case assuming there was enough DNA available from the suspect for the advanced analysis. She also said she understood the need for regulations. However, for a new technology like this, there has to be a way to get it expedited for approval so families arent waiting, Moore said. And its a matter of public safety.

Beyrer said that if investigative genetic genealogy became an option, the Wilkowitz case would be one of the first unsolved murders hed want to submit. It is the only cold case whose files he keeps in his office. Genetic genealogy is a huge advance and it could blow this case open, he said.

Wilkowitz is newly divorced, and her children have left Long Island. She recently moved to Rhode Island, where she works at a child-care center. The experience forced her to pare her possessions. In her temporary living space, at a friends home, she keeps a framed photograph of her and Eve standing at their doorstep in Oakdale, one of their last pictures together.

In a storage box, there is a portrait of her family long before the murder. There are snapshots of Eve at various ages, up until soon before she was killed. There is a baggie full of clothing tags with Eves name stitched on them, saved by their mother when they were young children.

These are the only keepsakes of her sister.

Read more here:
Her sister was murdered in 1980. New DNA methods could crack the case, but NY won't allow it. - NBC News

CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo. (KDVR/CNN VAN) In the eighth day of the Patrick Frazee murder trial, an investigator testified tests show blood splatters in Kelsey Berreth's condo are consistent with her DNA.

Jurors also heard from some of Berreths coworkers who say they were concerned about her before her disappearance on Thanksgiving Day, 2018.

Frazee, her fiance, is suspected of killing her.

Some of Berreths former coworkers said in court Wednesday that she had asked for a leave absence from her flight instructor job at Doss Aviation just before she disappeared.

The jury was told she had been suffering from mental fatigue.

"She had gotten into a confrontation with Patrick he was acting like a (expletive)," said one friend.

A forensic anthropologist talked about a tooth found on Frazee's property. An image of the tooth was displayed to the jury on a large screen.

This tooth has been broken. This is not a whole tooth. I think its human," the anthropologist said.

Another investigator later said the fragment did not provide enough DNA to determine its source.

Investigators have theorized Frazee burned Berreths body and the tooth was left behind.

On Wednesday, the judge said nearly 70 witnesses have testified so far.

Closing arguments could be made as soon as Friday.

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DNA, blood samples support theory Kelsey Berreth was killed in her condo - KMVT

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On the day she was to graduate from the Memphis Naval Air Station in 1985, Marine L. Cpl. Suzanne M. Collins nude and mutilated body was found under a tree in a Millington park. She had been raped and impaled by a tree branch, strangled and severely beaten.

The 19-year-old had wanted to become a jet pilot even though she had been told that women werent allowed to fly jet planes.

In 2006, after years of legal wrangling and multiple stays of execution, Sedley Alley was killed by the state by lethal injection, convicted of kidnapping, murdering and raping Collins.

Now, Alleys daughter, administrator of his estate, is asking 13 years after her fathers death that DNA be tested for the first time.

A judge could rule on whether to test the DNA as early as Monday.

Marine Corps Lance Corporal Suzanne Collins, 19, was murdered in 1985 in Millington.(Photo: U.S. Marine Corps)

But there are multiple narratives surrounding Collins brutal death, Alleys years of appealsand whether testing the DNA today could reveal Alleys innocence or confirm his guilt.

In one narrative,put forth by Alleys defense in the original trial, Alley had multiple personality disorder and couldnt be responsible for the crime. That tale involves a personality named Death, riding on a white horse and wearing a black cape and hood.

Another narrative, put forward by the prosecution,depicts Alley as a perverse man with little empathy, fascinated by violent sex, who may have been spotted by the young Marine while committing a burglary at an admirals home.

Today, those advocating for DNA testing say Alley was coerced by police into making a false confession, and that he consistently said he had no memory of the night Collins was murdered and that the evidence used against him, along with his original confession, doesnt add up.

Whether the judge decides to move forward with the testing of the DNA may not hinge on any of those narratives, but rather on a technical argument: That of whether the estate of a dead man has the right to petition for post-conviction relief.

Although the Tennessee courts denied the request for DNA testing prior to Alley's execution, a ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court would later open the doorfor the possibility of items from the crime scene being tested, according to the petition by April Alley, Alleys daughter.

April Alley is represented by The Innocence Project, a nonprofit that advocates for DNA testing and criminal justice reform.

April Alley, daughter of Sedley Alley, listens as Barry Scheck, Innocence Project co-director, speaks Oct. 14, 2019, during a hearing at the Shelby County courthouse in Memphis.(Photo: Max Gersh / The Commercial Appeal)

Innocence Project attorneys have argued that stains on the t-shirt Collins was wearing and on her bra should be tested, as well as DNA from red underwear found by her body that the prosecution had argued belonged to the assailant.

Although April Alley immediately raised the possibility of calling for testing of the DNA after her fathers execution, the renewed push comes after The Innocence Project learned another man who took courses from the same training school in Millington as Collins is under indictment for homicide and rape and may be a serial offender, according to their petition.

Kelley Henry, a federal public defender who once worked with Sedley Alley, said a medical examiners report also placed the time of Collins death at a time that we can prove Sedleys whereabouts.

That document, which had been suppressed, led to a full-scale reexamination of the case with fresh eyes, Henry wrote in an email.

Sedley Alley: Thirteen years after death-row inmate executed, court asked to test DNA that could exonerate Tennessee man

In an October hearing, Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan heard arguments about whether DNA testing should be allowed.

There, Steve Jones, assistant district attorney general, argued Tennessee law guarantees a right to post-conviction relief for "a person convicted or sentenced. In this case, the petition was filed by the estate for Sedley Alley, not the person, he said, making it not applicable.

The states response to the Alley estates petition says, If the General Assembly had wanted to extend that standing to estates of deceased persons, it surely could have done so. It did not.

Theres also the question of whether the DNA could actually exonerate Alley. Those supporting the petition say if several items produced a male DNA profile that matched each other, but not Sedley Alley, that would suggest someone other than Alley committed the crime. And, if the DNA matched someone in an offender database, that would be powerful exculpatory evidence, they wrote.

But the state has argued there is already overwhelming evidence for Alleys guilt.

And, they pointed out, in their response, Alley confessed.

Death row inmate Sedley Alley, who was executed in 2006.(Photo: File)

Sedley Alley said a figure called Death, wearing a black cape and hood and riding a white horse, was with him on the night he raped and killed Marine L. Cpl. Suzanne M. Collins, a psychiatrist testified yesterday, began a Commercial Appeal article describing Alleys trial on March 17, 1987.

However, the assistant district attorney general read letters Alley wrote in which he told family of his plans to plead temporary insanity.

A taped confession was different: In it, Alley said he killed Collins in a drunken accident, striking her with his car, then stabbing her in the head with a screwdriver when she came upon him unexpectedly; Then he disrobed her and mutilated her body to stage it like a rape, he said.

After Alley was arrested, he confessed and even led police to the scene of the crime and the tree where he said he removed the limb used in the attack

A county medical examiner testified her injuries did not show she had been struck by a car or stabbed in the head (although she was beaten, and a screwdriver found nearby).

Mental health specialists from the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute, where Alley had been kept pre-trial, testified Alley faked mental illness while there to develop an insanity defense.

The prosecution used all of this to say Alley was self-serving, that he had brutally murdered Collins, minimized his responsibility in his confession and tried to plead insanity to shift the blame.

Rebecca Easley, a victims advocate who became a friend of Collins parents, said they were convinced of his guilt.

They were wonderful people, just the nicest people youd ever want to meet, she said. Theyre not the type of people that would want an innocent person to be executed. Thats for certain. They had no doubt. They had no doubt, they didnt question (his guilt) at all.

But advocates for Alley and now his daughter say the inconsistencies between Alleys confession, the crime scene and his defense point to something different: That he was innocent, coerced into a false confession by the police.

Sedley consistently said that he was coerced by the police, that they put a gun to his head, and that he had no memory of the night that Ms. Collins was murdered, Henry said. He always said that if he did it that he deserved to be executed, but he just did not believe that he did.

Alleys lawyers did not formally raise the claim of Alleys innocence until 2004, just 30 days before his scheduled execution.

There are other pieces of evidence or lack thereof that The Innocence Project points to. A witness description did not match Alley, no fingerprints from Collins were found in his vehicle, blood on the headlights belonged to an animal, their petition says. Small traces of blood found elsewhere on the car was Collins blood type, but also the same blood type as Alley.

And, an expert whose testimony they included in their petition said, the officers who interrogated Alley before taping his confession contaminated, and thus tainted, Mr. Alleys statement by supplying him with non-public crime details that he then regurgitated back to them in his confession.

Tennessee executions since 2000: Sedley Alley; Date of Execution: June 28, 2006 (For Murder)(Photo: File Photo)

In August 1989, the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Alleys death sentence, saying it was not imposed in arbitrary fashion, that the evidence supports the jurys findings of aggravating circumstancesand that the sentence of death was not disproportionate to the penalty in similar cases.

When the Board of Probation and Parole decided 4-3 that a reprieve should be allowed for Alley to seek DNA testing, Gov. Phil Bredesen wrote, Based on the overwhelming weight of the evidence against him, I believe Mr. Alley to be guilty of this heinous crime. However, I am acutely aware that in capital cases mistakes cannot be corrected, and so out of respect for the Boards recommendation, I am reluctantly issuing a reprieve for fifteen days.

Today, the state argued in their response to April Alleys petition that Sedley Alley already had his day in court.

He challenged his conviction and sentences many times over, they wrote. He had a full and fulsome trial followed by a direct appeal. He had a full post-conviction review.

For April Alley, according to the petition, hearing her father tell her that he had been coerced into confessing haunt(s) her to this day.

April Alley wants to know the truth, the petition reads. If her father was innocent, she wants to know who really committed the crime for the sake of everyone involved in this tragic event, and to make sure that person never commits another crime.

What Skahan, the judge, will decide is uncertain.

Barry Scheck,co-director of the Innocence Project, was unavailable for comment, and a representative of the Shelby County District Attorney Generals Office said Jones didnt want to comment.

Henry said she quit predicting what courts will do a long time ago.

Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

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Why some believe and others reject that DNA could vindicate man executed for murder - Commercial Appeal

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

And also, give me your DNA.

One hundred sixteen years after the patriotic poet Emma Lazaruss words were etched onto the base of the Statue of Liberty, we as a nation have moved to warehouse en masse the molecule that many consider an integral component of a persons unique self, DNA.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has released a new proposed rule to facilitate collection of DNA from all migrants detained at our borders, including children, for the federal criminal database. The move comes in an effort to identify criminals among the migrants that cross our southern border. However, its sheer enactment presumes that all migrants are or will be criminals, rather than the tired, poor, and yearning families that comprise the majority of Central American migrant families.

Migrants are not de facto criminals. Somemight be, but treating all migrants as criminal suspects by taking their DNA for a criminal database is tantamount to creating a surveillance database of one sect of the American population.

Back when the use of DNA was in its infancy, some brilliant scientists recognized that storing DNA data on convicted criminals would help solve previously unsolved crimes.

As it turns out, DNA data collected from arrested (but not convicted) people can also solve crimes, while storing that data can also assist in solving future crimes.

In 2008, the federal law that governs the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) changed to allow collection of DNA from federal arrestees and also from immigrant detainees.

In 2009 when the law was implemented, immigrant detainees were rarely legally processed as criminals. This is because crossing the border illegally is a minor offense, and many detainees present themselves at the border for asylum.

Back then, it was exceedingly expensive to consider collecting DNA from the hundreds of thousands of detainees. Moreover, processes were not in place to make it work.

Immigration officials would have needed to procure DNA samples from people who spoke another language and send these samples to the FBI to be included in a database that had strict requirements for uploading the sensitive DNA data. It would have necessitated extensive training and infrastructure to accommodate all those samples.

On the immigration front, DNA collection didnt make sense traditional fingerprint databases are far more efficient for detecting repeat border-crossers. Sending DNA to the FBI was a one-way ticket, by law, with privacy protections preventing the sharing of DNA data with other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). For these reasons, the attorney general at that time provided an exemption for collecting DNA from detainees.

Now, with immigration at the center of the U.S. political agenda, some of this has changed. Migrants at the U.S. southern border are processed as criminals under a zero-tolerance policy. The growth of and technological improvements to CODIS in the past decade have demonstrated its increased capacity to solve crimes.

The Rapid DNA Act of 2017 makes it possible to expedite processing DNA outside of laboratories. And this years pilot program to use rapid DNA instruments at the border has shown success in detecting fraudulent biological relationship claims.

The DOJs proposed regulation will allow cooperation between the FBI and DHS to enable the DNA sample procurement and cross-agency communication necessary to overcome some of these obstacles. Fingerprinting is still faster and cheaper for detecting repeat border-crossers, but rapid DNA will eventually catch up and the cost will continue to come down.

Americans must be mindful of the principles behind this proposal, which is open for public comment until Nov. 12. Some migrants might be criminals, wanted for prior crimes, as are some of the people that walk into any bus station or department store each day. So yes, collecting DNA from migrants will be useful in solving both past and future crimes.

As the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reminded us in 2013 when heopposed the collection of DNA from arrestees, the implementation of vast collection of DNA could have far-reaching ramifications:

Today's judgment will, to be sure, have the beneficial effect of solving more crimes; then again, so would the taking of DNA samples from anyone who flies on an airplane (surely the Transportation Security Administration needs to know the identity of the flying public), applies for a driver's license, or attends a public school. Perhaps the construction of such a genetic panopticon is wise. But I doubt that the proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection.

Collecting DNA from select groups of non-criminal migrants skews the criminal database to be comprised of primarily minorities. The justice system is already skewed, withmore people of color in CODIS. If the goal is to grow the database by collecting DNA from innocent people to solve crimes, then auniversal DNA database of all Americans and visitors would be far moreequitable. A universal DNA database could haveoversight, an ethics board to consider cases and appropriate use, and it would certainly solve more crimes.

If we as Americans are uncomfortable with a universal DNA database, then let us instead embrace our tired, poor and yearning fellow humans and return to solving crimes through our competent police investigations, rather than through broadening DNA data acquisitions.

And let us remember these words of wisdom from Dwight Eisenhower: A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

Sara H. Katsanis is an assistant research professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also is a researcher at Stanley Manne Childrens Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago.

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Give me your tired, your poor and your DNA | TheHill - The Hill

When two species, be they large seabirds and their parasites or tiny bacteria and their viral enemies, share an environment over evolutionary time, they are said to co-evolve. This simply means that they have learned how to deal with each other. Sometimes different species learn to peacefullycoexist (and even help each other), but less friendly interactions are also common.Thiskind of feuding leads to the constant development by each species of new strategies for taking advantage of its enemies, or for defending itself.Recently, researchers have adapted some of these ancient biological tricks, such as CRISPR, to be wieldedagainst the diseases that currently plague us.

Matteo Farinella

A powerful genome editing technology, CRISPRallows researchers to alter DNA sequences, and has becomea versatile tool of modern molecular biology and medicine.Butlong before humans developed this technology, CRISPR systems naturallyevolved in bacteria as antiviral immune responses. It seems fitting,therefore, that some of the most promising applications for CRISPR are developingantiviral therapies.

Recently, Americanresearchers successfully used CRISPR to eliminate HIV in mice. HIV is a retrovirus a type of virus that inserts copies of its own genetic code into the genomes of the cells that it infects. An existing HIV treatment, LASER ART (which stands for long-acting slow effective release antiretroviral therapy), isvery effective at stopping the production and insertion of new copies of the virus, but itcan't remove genetic codethat has already been created. In other words, modern therapies can stop the HIV infection from spreading, but cant eliminate it entirely. That's whyHIV is considereda chronic disease that requires lifelong treatment.

A permanent cure for HIV (and other retroviral diseases) would require removing or inactivating the viral DNA that is mixed with the hosts own genome. Conveniently, cutting through unwanted DNA sequences is CRISPRs specialty.

Inbacteria infected by viruses in natural conditions,special enzymes recognizethe intrusion of foreign DNA.They use that DNA as a template to produce guide RNAs, whichCas9, a DNA-cutting enzyme, can use to find its intended targets. The next time a bacterium encounters this foreign DNA,Cas9 can recognize and destroy it. This protects the bacterium from repeated infection by the same viruses.

With CRISPR, scientistscan use artificially-createdguide RNAs to direct Cas9 to the targets they're interested in. In this particular HIV study,after suppressingthe HIVinfection with LASER ART, the researchers treated the mice with edited guide RNAs that excised the viral DNA from the genome actually "curing" the mice of the chronic disease.

Although this approach is incredibly promising, an important caveat is that the editing worked in less than half the mice.

Rama on Wikimedia Commons

Although this approach is incredibly promising, an important caveat is that the editing worked inless than half the mice. The excision of the viral DNA was incomplete in the rest. It is plausible that theexcision efficiency could be improved by increasing the duration of CRISPR-Cas9 treatment. But a worrying possibility is that the HIV virus will quickly develop mutations that help it avoid detection by the synthetic guide RNA. This exact scenario was encountered in a recent attempt to use a similar CRISPR technique to protect the food crop cassava from gemini viruses (note: the lead author of this cassava study, Devang Mehta, is a Massive contributor). Native bacterial CRISPR systems would naturally develop new guide RNAs to combat the new viral strains. But for use in mice, cassava, or humans, scientistsmight find themselves forced to constantly re-engineer synthetic guides, or to use multiple guides for simultaneous targeting of different parts of the viral genes.

We've seen similar arms races with other types of medical treatments derived from natural sources. The first modern antibiotic, penicillin, was isolated from a mold. Many clinically-useful antibacterial agents have since been isolated from microbes but the problem of antibacterial resistance is growing.Whenconventional antibiotics fail, doctors have recently started turning toviruses that can be used tospecifically target bacteria to fight off infection, a strategy known as phage therapy.

This demonstration of CRISPR as an antiviral therapy may be among the first of many but it is part of a longstanding trend of borrowing tools from simple organisms for our own battles.

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Researchers use CRISPR to eliminate HIV in mice, DNA and all - Massive Science

Heard about Ancestry DNA but nervous to try it out yourself? Two of our employees took the test to find out how it works and if it's worth it. Melissa Rorech, Reviewed.com

Ancestry has long appealed to people eager to learn about their family roots. Now thecompany known for its popular DNA kits is diving into a new area of discovery health.

Tuesday, Ancestry launchedAncestryHealth, built around two DNA-screening-based offerings that are designed to help customers determine whether they have predispositions for certain diseases and disorders.

The basic AncestryHealth Core servicepromises a set of personal healthand wellness reports based on the DNA samples you submit that you can share with your medical provider. These physician-ordered and -certified lab tests will use genotyping technology that may help uncover potential genetic risks related toheart disease, hereditary cancers and blood-related disorders,as well as the risks associated with carrying certain genes(cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs or sickle cell anemia).

Oversight will be provided by Ancestry partner PWNHealth, an independent network of board-certified physicians and genetic counselors. When you get started, youll be asked a series of questions related to your health history.

The Core service costs $149 and includes the kit for submitting your DNA.If you are anAncestryDNA member, you can add AncestryHealth Core for $49; theres no need to submit a new DNA sample.

AncestryHealth will provide reports on your genetic predispositions for certain diseases or disorders.(Photo: Ancestry)

The second offering, AncestryHealth Plus, is a subscription service launching in early 2020, that will use a next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform to deliver far more in-depth data on an expanded set of health and wellness conditions. These include risks associated with the nervous system and connective tissues. The Plus service will initially be made available only to AncestryDNA members. It will cost $199 with a recurring subscription fee of $49 for six months of updates.

Your genes dont need to be your destiny, says Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis. Understanding your familial and inherited health risks can help you take action with your doctor to improve your chances of better health outcomes."

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Ancestrys chief rival, 23andMe, already provides services built around DNA and health. Ancestry has had designs on the health market for years, and in 2015, it launched an alpha version of a tool to helpfamilies get a better handle on their health. The service never really went very far, and it has taken this long for Ancestry to jump back in.

When it comes to DNA and health, people generally fall into three buckets: those who want to know everything, those who want to know nothing (not someone likely to follow this path in the first place) and people somewhere in the middle.

If a potential issue is discovered,customers can take advantage of genetic counseling support (webinars, FAQs and such) from PWNHealth that are included as part of both services.

Customers will maintain full consent and control over their private health data, says Marjan Champine, genetics counselor manager at Ancestry. They will have the option to supply data for research purposes, but it is entirely up to them.

If you are an active AncestryDNA member engaged in genealogy, Champine says, youll be able to pull in the structure of your family history into a tool on the health side,butgenetic health data will benot show upon the genealogy side.

Champine says there is no mechanism within the Ancestryservice to share health information with family members.

There is otherwise a partition between these two areas of the business, she says.

Email:ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter

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The bones were found on Nikumaroro, a remote island in the western Pacific Ocean, in 1940. But it wasn't until a 2018 study that people began to suspect they could belong to Earhart. That's when researcher Richard Jantz re-examined their measurements and found they closely matched those of the missing pilot.

Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist at the University of South Florida, plans to use DNA testing to confirm the theory. Kimmerle sent samples off for DNA testing and is awaiting the results.

She was invited by National Geographic and appears in an upcoming documentary about the pilot.

Whether or not the bones are positively identified as Earhart's, Kimmerle says she sees this as an exciting opportunity to focus on the legendary woman's life, rather than the story of her death.

"I think a lot of the focus is always on the mystery," she told CNN. "And, certainly, we always want to solve that and find out what happened. But whether this is her or not, (the real value) in a historic case like this that gets so much attention is really looking at that person's life and what they achieved."

The day she disappeared from the sky

As a determined record-breaker, Earhart committed herself to becoming the first woman to fly around the world. In June 1937, she took off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, with her navigator Fred Noonan, intending to land on Howland Island in the Pacific.

On July 2, when approaching Howland Island, the pair radioed the US Coast Guard that they were low on fuel and having difficulty finding the island.

That day, the pair disappeared from the skies forever.

The US Navy and Coast Guards searched for the missing pilot and her navigator for weeks, but could never find ruins of the crash or the pair.

A symbol of women's empowerment

In 1932, she became the first woman -- and the second pilot after Charles Lindbergh -- to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Later that year, she became to first woman to make a nonstop solo flight across the United States, beginning in Los Angeles and arriving in Newark, New Jersey, 19 hours and five minutes later.

Correction: An earlier version of this piece misspelled Amelia Earhart's name and misidentified Papua New Guinea.

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Researchers hope DNA testing may finally prove whether bones found on a remote island were Amelia Earhart's - CNN