Category Archives: DNA

New forensic testing suggests two men serving life sentences for a 1994 rape and murder in Chicago were wrongfully convicted because DNA from the victim's underwear is linked to a serial rapist, a petition filed Monday in Cook County court alleges.

The DNA from the underwear matches the serial rapist, who is not named in the filing, with "almost scientific certainty," the filing states. DNA found under the victim's fingernails and on her sweatshirt does not match the men serving time for the crime, but the serial rapist could not be excluded as the source of that DNA, the petition said.

The Cook County state's attorney's office said it is doing an "intense review and investigation" into the case and is awaiting more DNA results.

A jury convicted Nevest Coleman and Darryl Fulton in the April 1994 rape and murder of Antwinica Bridgeman about three years after the crime.

At the time of the slaying, Coleman worked as a respected, well-liked member of the groundskeeping crew at Comiskey Park, court records show. Fulton lived near Coleman in Englewood.

Bridgeman had just celebrated her 20th birthday at a small gathering with friends attended by Coleman. She disappeared that night and was discovered weeks later in Coleman's basement.

Illinois Department of Corrections

Coleman and a friend found Bridgeman's body with a piece of concrete in her mouth and a pipe in her vagina.

Both Coleman, 25, and Fulton, 27, gave police confessions implicating themselves and another man in the crime. The two later said their confessions were coerced, and the third man would not give a statement after denying any involvement. Prosecutors dropped the charges against the third man.

Coleman's attorney Russell Ainsworth, with the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School, filed a motion Monday to temporarily vacate Coleman's sentence and have him released on bond pending the state's reinvestigation of the case. It also seeks to eventually have Coleman's conviction vacated.

Ainsworth's motion states that the "sole evidence" against Coleman was the confession, and his background did not fit with a rapist and murderer.

Coleman had no criminal history before Bridgeman's killing.

Judge Dennis Porter heard the original case in 1997 and also considered Ainsworth's argument on Monday. He delayed a ruling until Aug. 18 while prosecutors file a written argument against Ainsworth's motion.

Mark Rotert, head of the Cook County State's Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit, told the judge "we're not there yet" regarding vacating the sentence, and asked for more time.

More DNA testing is being done, and it could take months to sort out, Ainsworth said.

Fulton is represented by Kathleen Zellner, a Downers Grove attorney who has handled numerous wrongful conviction cases.

Nicholas Curran, one of Zellner's associates, attended Monday's hearing and said he is in favor of giving prosecutors more time.

Coleman will be transported from prison to attend the next hearing.

Ainsworth's motion details forensic reports that, he says, clear his client and Fulton.

A forensic report dated May 31 of this year notes Coleman, Fulton, the third man and Bridgeman's boyfriend were all excluded as the source of semen collected from the victim's underwear, the filing alleges.

A July 21 forensic report notes Coleman, Fulton, the third man and Bridgeman's boyfriend were also excluded as the source of semen collected from the victim's sweatshirt, but that stain could not exclude the serial rapist, the filing states.

Coleman also "testified that his confession was the product of coercion and false promises," the filing alleges.

Detectives involved with the case have subsequently seen some of their cases fall apart by DNA testing, the filing said.

The recent DNA testing blows a hole through the government's theory of what happened in this crime, Ainsworth said.

For Coleman and Fulton to have raped and murdered Bridgeman, the filing notes, "the victim would have to had consensual sex with a serial rapist (who was not her boyfriend), sex that left his semen on her underwear and sweatshirt, and then Mr. Coleman, Mr. Fulton and (the third man) subsequently raped the victim without leaving any of their DNA on her underwear, sweatshirt or fingernails."

After the hearing, a spokeswoman for State's Attorney Kim Foxx released a statement saying the case "remains the subject of an intense review and investigation by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office Conviction Integrity Unit."

Prosecutors are awaiting additional DNA results and have asked for an expedited examination from the laboratory. They "will continue to approach the investigation of Mr. Coleman and Mr. Fulton's convictions with urgency, and remain in contact with their counsel as the investigation proceeds," officials said.

Coleman's relatives filled a bench in the courtroom during Monday's hearing. Coleman's brother, Micquel, was in court alongside their sister Jennice. Micquel said he'll host Nevest at his Evanston home if he's freed.

Nevest Coleman has maintained his innocence since day one, his siblings noted. The family became emotional while listing the events he's missed while locked up, including the death of his parents.

"We just want him out," Jennice Coleman said.

Coleman's two children, Chanequa and Nicholas, who are 25 and 23, also came to support their father. The children described Coleman as an attentive dad even behind bars, asking about what's going on in their lives and offering advice.

"I feel like he's here, but he's not," Nicholas Coleman said.

gpratt@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @royalpratt

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DNA in 1994 murder points to serial rapist, not 2 men serving life ... - Chicago Tribune

Every time Rebecca Castle sat down to eat her favorite foods, she says she suffered excruciating abdominal pain.

"I cut out carbs. I wasn't eating dairy," she said. Nevertheless, she experienced sharp, shooting pain, bloating and distention for more than two years.

Castle saw multiple doctors. Then she spent several hundred dollars to take a DNA metabolic test.

What she learned? "I was allergic to starch," she said. "That's mostly root vegetables, corn, peas, sweet potatoes."

Nutritionist Nicci Schock says a typical client for such a DNA test is an athlete looking to improve performance. "And then folks like Rebecca, they know their body and they know something is off."

Proponents of metabolic tests say dietary recommendations are based on a patient's genetic profile.

Nutrigenomix

Ahmed El-Sohemy, the chief science officer at Nutrigenomix, said, "Even though it's a genetic test, it's effectively dietary advice and counseling an individual on how to eat better.

"Individual genetic differences can help us understand why some people respond differently from others."

Nutrigenomix markets a DNA test that looks at 45 genetic markers. The company makes recommendations based on the patient's genetic profile, pointing out attributes like "an elevated risk for low iron."

"We're talking about metabolic tests," El-Sohemy told correspondent Michelle Miller. "They're genetic tests, but they affect the way that you metabolize various substances that you consume."

But Dr. David Agus, a CBS News contributor, says DNA tests for diet and exercise recommendations are not validated by medical research.

"There are very few of them that actually have data behind them," he said. "And to me, that's a problem. You know, you have companies like 23andMe that were taken off the market for several years because they had to show data with regard to human disease. Well, I think this same thing needs to happen with nutrition and exercise."

The FDA says it supports tests "that may provide consumers with direct genetic information that can inform health related decisions."

But the agency points out it "does not actively regulate these products."

"2,400 years ago, Hippocrates did something amazing: he would eat something, and he would write down how he felt after he ate it," Dr. Agus said. "To me, that's the best way in the world to know what's right for you."

Rebecca Castle says the test produced more than 30 pages of results about her body, which means she can now avoid the foods that set off her stomach.

"I think it's worth it," she said. "You don't need your blood taken; you're literally just spitting into a test tube. You could do it in your sleep!"

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Questions over DNA tests sold for nutritional advice - CBS News - CBS News

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) When it comes to finding a perfect meal plan or diet, the answer could be as simple as checking your DNA.

As CBS2s Dr. Max Gomez reported, several companies are jumping on the nutrigenomics bandwagon the emerging science of how nutrition interacts with your individual DNA.

Every time Rebecca Castle sat down to eat her favorite food, she says she suffered excruciating abdominal pain.

Yeah its terrible, terrible, like, sharp shooting pain, bloating, distention, she said.

That pain went on for more than two years. Castle saw multiple doctors and then took a saliva DNA metabolic test.

I was allergic to starch, she said. Thats mostly root vegetables, corn, peas, sweet potatoes.

Ahmed El-Sohemy is the chief scientific officer at Nutrigenomix.

Individual genetic differences can help us understand why some people respond differently from others, El-Sohemy said.

Nutrigenomix says their DNA test looks at a persons 45 genetic markers. The company makes recommendations based on the patients genetic profile, pointing out attributes like an elevated risk for low iron.

Were talking about metabolic tests, El-Sohemy said. Theyre genetic tests, but they affect the way that you metabolize various substances that you consume.

Dr. David Agus is a CBS News contributor.

DNA tests for diet and exercise just are not validated, Agus said. There are very few of them that actually have data behind them.

The Nutrigenomix website cites a number of stories in the lay press, but CBS2 could not find any scientific stories that supported the companys claims.

A recent journal article said that a definite association between the genes usually examined in nutrigenomics testing and several diet-related diseases is lacking.

The company website has a disclaimer in very small print: Nutrigenomix reports are for information purposes only and are not intended to be used as medical advice.

Still, Castle said the test worked for her,

I think its worth it, she said. You dont need your blood taken. Youre literally just spitting into a test tube.

There is a kernel of science behind the interaction of nutrition and genetics. Bu the ability to use your own genome to predict how you will respond to specific nutrients that science is not there yet.

The tests run about $300 to $500 and are not covered by insurance.

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Company Claims DNA Test Can Predict Dietary Problems CBS ... - CBS New York

Researchers have turned skin cells into blood vessel tissue to save a mouse's wounded leg. They were able to do that simply by tapping the wound with a chip that uses nanotechnology to inject new DNA into the cells.

This step follows a number of significant advances in techniques to turn one type of cell into another. Scientists hope this so-called cell reprogramming can one day be used to regenerate damaged tissue, or cure conditions such as Parkinson's disease.

The research, published Monday in Nature Nanotechnology, combines existing biotechnology and nanotechnology to create a new technique called tissue nano-transfection. The researchers turned skin cells into brain cells, in addition to demonstrating the therapeutic benefit of turning them into vascular cells.

Maintaining blood flow to deliver nutrients around a wound is critical for recovery, so by making more blood vessel cells, researchers found that a mouse's wounded limb was more likely to survive.

A brief electric current causes the chip to eject DNA fragments that reprogram the cells. The particles only enter the very top layer of cells, so L. James Lee, a biomolecular engineer at Ohio State University and study co-author, said he was surprised to find reprogrammed cells deep within the tissue.

"Within 24 hours after the transfection, we actually observed the propagation of the biological functions deep inside the skin," Lee told VOA. "So we were very surprised that it actually works for tissue." Lee said it wasn't yet entirely clear why this was possible.

Masato Nakafuku, who studies cell reprogramming at the University of Cincinnati and was not associated with the research, told VOA that he, too, was surprised "to see very efficient generation of the [vascular] cells."

Nakafuku added a cautionary note: It is not clear that that tissue nano-transfection will work on animals as large as humans, since the treatment would have to reprogram cells much deeper in the tissue in order to be effective.

Lee told VOA he is hopeful that upcoming human trials will prove the real-world effectiveness of tissue nano-transfection.

In theory, tissue nano-transfection should be able to turn any cell in the body into any other cell type. That could make therapeutic applications of cell reprogramming easier and safer, because cells would stay in the body during reprogramming. If cells are removed from the body, reprogrammed and then returned, they could be attacked by the immune system.

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Scientists Reprogram Cells' DNA Using Nanotechnology - Voice of America

A special team of immigration advocates, working in collaboration with forensic experts, will be in Manhattan later this month to get DNA samples from New York City area immigrant families whose relatives are missing and may have died crossing the deserts of the American southwest.

While the death of 10 migrants in a sweltering tractor trailer in San Antonio a few weeks ago is the latest example of perils associated with human smuggling, thousands of immigrants have been turning up dead for years as they try to cross the U.S. border areas of Arizona and Texas on foot, experts say.

I would characterize the scope of the loss of human life on the border as catastrophic, said Robin Reineke, co-founder of the nonprofit Colibri Center for Human Rights in Tucson, Arizona, the group organizing DNA collection effort in the city. The true number of dead and missing are unknown, but are easily above 10,000.

Another expert said forensic teams excavating cemeteries in Texas sometimes find four bodies in a grave. There are huge numbers of deaths which nobody is paying attention to, said Lori Baker, an official of Baylor University who in 2003 started the Reuniting Families Project to help identify remains of immigrants.

Reineke said that her staff has information that more than 200 New York City families are trying to find missing relatives with whom they lost contact during smuggling attempts. Colibri staff will be in Manhattan from Friday to Aug. 15. Because of concerns about the undocumented status of some of the families, Colibri is not identifying the sampling location.

Colibris push to get DNA reference samples from New York families is part of a wider effort to overcome the reluctance of immigrants to cooperate with law enforcement agencies that have the ability to check DNA profiles with those already on file from retrieved bodies. In the past, the University of North Texas would generate DNA profiles to compare with the law enforcement database known as CODIS, which Reineke said requires genetic profiles be submitted from police agencies.

But early this year, the National Institutes of Justice diverted funding from DNA testing of missing migrants to the screening of a nationwide backlog of rape kits.

Colibri gets around the CODIS restriction by sending its collected samples to the private Bode Cellmark Forensics in Virginia. Bode Cellmark has the largest private collection of DNA profiles for unidentified bodies found in Arizona, Reineke said. She explained that Hesss office, in collaboration with the Mexican Consulate, has sent samples for all unidentified remains to Bode Cellmark since about 2002, creating a large database for comparison.

In New York City, the chief medical examiner in 2014 got a DNA hit and identified Manuel Merchan, a 33-year-old man from Ecuador whose remains were found in Brook County, Texas, in 2015. Merchans family lives in Westchester County.

In Pima County, Arizona, the remains of 2,600 migrants, known as undocumented border crossers, have been collected since 2002, said Dr. Greg Hess, the countys medical examiner. Hess said he handled 154 bodies last year, a relatively small part of his annual caseload of 3,000.

It is about the same type of situation like having a plane crash a year, Hess said of the dead migrant workload.

Many remains are nothing more than skeletons and sometimes just bone fragments. Some carry identification documents but they may be forgeries. Dental records are often of no use since some countries have poor record keeping practices. Tattoos, styles of clothing and fingerprints sometimes provide leads.

Bones may be scattered even ants may take fragments into their tunnels, said Jason DeLeon, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan who studies migrant deaths.

During one hike through the Arizona desert, De Leon and his colleagues came across the decomposing body of an Ecuadorean woman. The remains were identified by fingerprints as that of Carmita Maricela Zhagui, 28, who was trying to join her family in Queens, De Leon said.

People interested in giving DNA samples to the Colibri Center during its New York City area initiative 15 can contact the organization by sending an email to info@colibricenter.org.

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Immigration advocates seek DNA samples from NYC migrant families to help ID missing, dead relatives - amNY

Deoxryrobonucleic Acid (commonly known as DNA) is one of the latest and most revealing tools that wannabe genealogists like me have to trace our ancestors.

I have done family tree explorations using the usual means of research: documents, books and family lore. By those means, I traced my ancestors from western Europe to America and then to Bedford and Blair counties. DNA analysis has allowed me to look back many centuries before.

Each of us has a unique DNA makeup that can be traced back to the beginning of mankind. The DNA of my Y chromosome has been passed down almost unchanged from fathers to sons. Document research on my family dates to one Daniel Augustus Wentz, born in 1809 in Bedford County. Everyone before him is unknown to me. DNA analysis offered the possibility of learning about family members before 1809.

About 10 years ago, the National Geographic Society announced a project called Genographic, in which it compared DNA saliva samples from people like me to places in the world that had matching samples. In that way, they could provide a world map showing the route my ancestors took to reach America.

In the National Geographic undertaking, my saliva DNA was coded and then plugged into a chart that showed where similar DNA was distributed throughout the world. For example, if my DNA was coded as 9X, then a computer looked for where other 9Xs are located. I knew my forefather immigrated from western Europe, but where did his forefather come from?

The source of my 9X DNA originated in what is present-day Tanzania, in east Africa. Then my ancestors migrated north to what is Egypt, through Israel and Turkey and westward across Europe. In other words, as my ancestors moved from Africa millennia ago, probably trying to escape famine or some form of predator, they left behind along the route family members whose DNA exist today in those areas of Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

A more recent DNA project was sponsored by Ancestry.com and used DNA saliva samples to pinpoint ethnicity (the nationalities of my ancestors and the geographic areas they are most connected with).

This Ancestry DNA analysis established my familys primary habitats thousands of years ago as 68 percent Western Europe (Germany), with 15 percent Irish and 7 percent Italy/Greece. The Irish and Italy/Greece migrations were news to me.

As for the place in America that claims the most Wentz DNA, the Ancestry map shows it to be western Pennsylvania. That finding confirmed my confidence in the National Geographic and Ancestry analyses because all they knew about me personally was my primary residence in Virginia. Knowing that my family lived in the Blair/Bedford area for more than two centuries, an analysis claiming a significant concentration anywhere else in America would have raised huge suspicions in my mind.

The most interesting finding of the Ancestry analysis is that it is likely my first German ancestor arrived in America during the colonial period from 1607 to 1776. That is much earlier than I imagined, and is worth knowing and passing along to my children and grandchildren.

James Wentz writes a monthly column for the Mirror.

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DNA analysis helps add branches to family tree - Altoona Mirror

Five years ago, Alice Collins Plebuch made a decision that would alter her future or really, her past.

She sent away for a just-for-fun DNA test. When the tube arrived, she spit and spit until she filled it up to the line, and then sent it off in the mail. She wanted to know what she was made of.

Plebuch, now 69, already had a rough idea of what she would find. Her parents, both deceased, were Irish-American Catholics who raised her and her six siblings with church Sundays and ethnic pride. But Plebuch, who had a long-standing interest in science and DNA, wanted to know more about her dad's side of the family. The son of Irish immigrants, Jim Collins had been raised in an orphanage from a young age, and his extended family tree was murky.

After a few weeks during which her saliva was analyzed, she got an email in the summer of 2012 with a link to her results. The report was confounding.

About half of Plebuch's DNA results presented the mixed British Isles bloodline she expected. The other half picked up an unexpected combination of European Jewish, Middle Eastern and Eastern European. Surely someone in the lab had messed up. It was the early days of direct-to-consumer DNA testing, and Ancestry.com's test was new. She wrote the company a nasty letter informing them they'd made a mistake.

But she talked to her sister, and they agreed she should test again. If the information Plebuch was seeing on her computer screen was correct, it posed a fundamental mystery about her very identity.

Popular practice

Over the past five years, as the price of DNA testing kits has dropped and their quality has improved, the phenomenon of recreational genomics has taken off. According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, nearly 8 million people worldwide, but mostly in the United States, have tested their DNA through kits, typically costing $99 or less, from such companies as 23andMe, Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA.

The most popular DNA-deciphering approach, autosomal DNA testing, looks at genetic material inherited from both parents and can be used to connect customers to others in a database who share that material. The results can let you see exactly what stuff you're made from as well as offer the opportunity to find previously unknown relatives.

But DNA testing can also yield surprises.

We see it every day, says CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist and consultant for the PBS series Finding Your Roots. She runs a 54,000-person Facebook group, DNA Detectives, that helps people unravel their genetic ancestries. You find out that a lot of things are not as they seem, and a lot of families are much more complex than you assume.

Testing others

After the initial shock of her test results, Plebuch wondered whether her mother might have had an affair. Or her grandmother, perhaps? So, she and her sister, Gerry Collins Wiggins, both ordered kits from DNA testing company 23andMe.

As they waited for their results, they wondered. If the Ancestry.com findings were right, it meant one of Plebuch's parents was at least partly Jewish. But which one?

She plunged into online genealogy forums, researching how other people had traced their DNA and educating herself about the science. She and her sister came up with a plan: They would persuade two of their first cousins to get tested their mother's nephew and their father's nephew. If one of those cousins was partly Jewish, they'd know for sure which side of the family was contributing the mysterious heritage. The men agreed. The sisters sent their kits and waited.

Then Plebuch's own 23andMe results came back. They seemed consistent with her earlier Ancestry.com test. She also discovered that her brother Bill had recently taken a 23andMe test. His results were a relief sort of.

No hanky-panky, as Plebuch puts it. They were full siblings, sharing about 50 percent of the relevant DNA, including the same mysterious Jewish ancestry.

Plebuch found a feature on 23andMe's website showing what segments along her chromosomes were associated with Ashkenazi Jews. Comparing her DNA to her brother's, she had a sudden insight. There was a key difference between the images, lurking in the sex chromosomes. Along the X chromosome were blue segments indicating where she had Jewish ancestry, which could theoretically have come from either parent because females inherit one X from each. But males inherit only one X, from their mothers, along with a Y chromosome from their fathers, and when Plebuch looked at her brother's results, darned if Bill's X chromosome wasn't lily white. Clearly, their mother had contributed no Jewish ancestry to her son.

The data from their mom's nephew revealed that he was a full first cousin, as expected sharing about 12.5 percent of his DNA with Plebuch. But the results from her dad's nephew, Pete Nolan, whose mother was Jim Collins' sister, revealed him to be a total stranger, genetically speaking. No overlap whatsoever with Plebuch or, by extension, with her father.

Plebuch and Wiggins came to the stunned conclusion that their dad was somehow not related to his own parents. John and Katie Collins were Irish Catholics, and their son was Jewish.

Surprise twist

If the mystery of their father didn't begin with his parents' life in Ireland, nor with his own time in the orphanage, Plebuch and her sister concluded it must have happened shortly after Jim was born. Unusually for the era, his mother gave birth not at home but at Fordham Hospital in the Bronx.

By this time, the sisters were using techniques to help adoptees try to find relatives in a vast universe of strangers' spit. Every time a site like 23andMe informed them of what Plebuch calls a DNA cousin on their Jewish side someone whose results suggested a likely cousin relationship they would ask to see that person's genome. If the person agreed, the site would reveal any places where their chromosomes overlapped.

The idea, Plebuch explains, was to find patterns in the data. A group of people who share segments on the same chromosome probably share a common ancestor. If Plebuch could find a group of relatives who all shared the same segment, she might be able to use that along with their family trees, family surnames, and ancestors' home towns in the old country to trace a path into her father's biological family.

And yet, the crack in the case came not through Plebuch's squad of helpful DNA cousins, but through a stranger with no genetic connection.

As administrator of Pete Nolan's 23andMe account, she had permission to check the list of his DNA relatives yet rarely did so, since new relatives rarely showed up. But one day in early 2015, she decided to check it. A stranger had just had her saliva processed, and she showed up as a close relative of Nolan.

Plebuch emailed the woman and asked whether she would compare genomes with Nolan. The woman agreed, and Plebuch could see the segments where her cousin and the stranger overlapped. Plebuch thanked her, and asked whether her results were what she expected.

I was actually expecting to be much more Ashkenazi than I am, the woman wrote. Her name was Jessica Benson, a North Carolina resident who had taken the test on a whim, hoping to learn more about her Jewish ethnicity. Instead, she wrote, she had discovered that I am actually Irish, which I had not expected at all.

Plebuch felt chills. She wrote back that her father had been born at Fordham Hospital on Sept.23, 1913. Had anyone in the Benson family been born on that date? Jessica replied that her grandfather, Phillip Benson, might have been born around that date.

She started combing through her list of baby names from the 1913 New York City Birth Index. No Benson born that day in the Bronx. But then, well after midnight, she found it: a Philip Bamson, born Sept.23 one of the names she had searched among her DNA cousins. This had to be Phillip Benson, his name misrecorded on his birth certificate.

This was a mistake that could only have been uncovered with DNA technology. Someone in the hospital back in 1913 had messed up. Somehow, a Jewish child had gone home with an Irish family, and an Irish child had gone home with a Jewish family. And the child who was supposed to be Phillip Benson had instead become Jim Collins.

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DNA, persistence reveal family shocker - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

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A DNA-based sunscreen that not only stops harmful ultraviolet (UV) light, but also becomes more protective the longer you expose it to UV rays? Thats the dazzling premise behind a recent study published in the journal Science Reports.

While sunscreen isnt the only form of sun protection (theres always protective clothing and floppy hats), the reality is that most of us just skip it. A 2015 study in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that only 14.3 percent of men and 29.9 percent of women routinely use sunscreen when they are in outside for more than an hour. This wouldnt be a problem, except, Ultraviolet light is a carcinogen, Guy German a biomedical researcher at Binghamton University in New York and an author on the study, tells PopSci. We know it can give you a tan, but it can also cause cancer as well.

While dermatoepidemiologists (scientists who study diseases of the skin) suspect that sunlight causes cancer because it damages DNA in our cells, German and his colleagues were looking at DNA in an entirely different way. They wondered what would happen if they exposed DNA film, essentially a thin sheet of the stuff, to the same kind of ultraviolet light we get from walking in sunshine.

If youve ever taken glue and spread it on a surface and then let it dry to create a sheet or film, then you understand the basics of the material the researchers made: They took a liquid solution of DNA, smeared it on a piece of glass, and let it dry to create the film. The DNA, in case you were wondering, comes from salmon sperm. It was not that we chose salmon sperm, says German. Its just one of the readily available DNA sources.

German, along with the lead author on the study, Alexandria Gasperini, then exposed the film to UVA and UVB light to see how much, if any, radiation the films would allow to pass. UVA light makes up around 95-percent of the suns radiative light; it can penetrate deep into the skin, has long-been thought to be a culprit in premature aging, and is increasingly believed to play a key role in the formation of skin cancer. UVB, the radiation that makes us tan (and burn), also plays a role in skin cancer.

This was a fundamental study to see how UV light interacts with DNA films, says German, Also, you know subsequently how the UV light can actually alter DNA films.

To measure these effects, the team used a device called a spectrophotometer, which allows them to control the amount and wavelength of light that they put through the films. A receptor on the other side measured how much of the light passed made it through. The DNA film did not allow up to 90 percent of UVB light and 20-percent of UVA light to cross through. Perhaps even more amazing: The DNA film seemed to grow strongerthat is, it seemed to allow less light to pass through the longer it was exposed to UV light. German and his team, however, arent sure if the films achieve this by absorbing light or reflecting it.

We discovered two possible mechanisms, says German to explain how the DNA films appear to achieving this feat. One is called hyperchromicity, that is the increased ability of DNA films to absorb UV light, but also we found that the results that we got suggest a crosslinking density of the molecules themselves.

Under a microscope, the films crystalline structure got denser, or developed more crosslinks, as it was exposed to more light. The results suggest that, if a film has more crosslinks, its potentially going to absorb or scatter more UV light.

As an added bonus, the team also found that when they coated the film on human skin samples procured from elective surgeries, it also helped the skin retain moisture.

To be clear, what German and his team tested is not sunscreen, at least not in the traditional sense of a liquid or paste smeared onto the skin. You cant pick this up at the supermarket, at least not anytime soon. But between the ecological and health concerns of chemical sunscreens, and the lack of efficacy of mineral sunscreens, what they uncovered, might make its way into products in the future. Who wouldnt want a sunscreen that you apply once? That grows stronger the longer you frolic in the sun? It would, in a sense, act as a sacrificial layer, taking one for the team and allowing your own skin to go unscathed.

This article appeared originally on Popular Science.

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Sunscreen Made From DNA Would Last Forever | HuffPost - HuffPost

DNA research is shedding new light on the mysterious ancient Minoan civilization on the island of Crete and their counterparts on the Greek mainland, the Mycenaeans.

The civilizations were Europes first literate societies and were the cultural ancestors of later Classical Greece. The Minoan civilization existed from around 2600 to 1100 B.C. and the Mycenaeans existed from around 1700 to 1050 B.C.

The Minoans have long puzzled historians. The civilization created the first European writing system and built vast palace complexes with vibrant art, but seemed to spring up in isolation, experts said.

DNA DISCOVERY IDENTIFIES LIVING DESCENDANTS OF BIBLICAL CANAANITES

Clues as to their origins have proved hard to come by. While the ancient palace of Knossos on Crete offers some insight into their society, and the Minoans feature prominently in Greek mythology, their main script, known as Linear A, hasnt been deciphered.

Now researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Harvard Medical School have drilled down into ancient DNA to find answers.

There is this assortment of hard archaeology, linguistics, and legends that give us some idea about what was going on in Crete during the Minoan period, which has led to many theories about where the Minoans came from, Dr. Iosif Lazaridis, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and the studys lead author, told Fox News via email. But, no hard facts, because the language was unique and unknown and it's not clear who the relatives of the Minoans were outside Crete.

EXPERTS HUNT FOR BIBLICAL TABERNACLE THAT HOUSED THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

Researchers analyzed genomic data from 19 individuals, including Minoans, Mycenaeans, a Neolithic individual from ancient Greece, and Bronze Age individuals from southwestern Anatolia, which is in modern day Turkey. By comparing the information generated with previously published data from nearly 3,000 other people, both ancient and modern, the researchers were able to work out the relationships between the groups.

The results show that the Minoans were genetically very similar to the Mycenaeans. Individuals in both civilizations shared more than 75 percent of their ancestry with farming people that lived in Greece and western Turkey thousands of years earlier during the Neolithic period.

This is quite remarkable it was genetic continuity with the first farmers of Europe they settled the region about 4,000 years prior to the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, Dr. Alissa Mittnik, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, told Fox News.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH 2,700-YEAR OLD RESERVOIR IN ISRAEL

This is very surprising because the Mycenaeans were in many ways culturally different than the Minoans: their tombs and art are replete with weapons, they had horses, chariots, and were very hierarchical because they buried their chieftains with copious amounts of gold and built their Cyclopean citadels with huge limestone blocks, added Lazaridis. The later Mycenaeans are usually identified with the Achaeans of Homer's Iliad, who were the people that sacked Troy.

Lazaridis explained that the remainder of the Minoans and Mycenaeans ancestry came from Armenia, Georgia and Iran. The latter civilizations ancestry can also be traced back to Eastern Europe and Siberia, according to the researcher, who noted that modern Greeks are quite genetically similar to the Mycenaeans.

We may be removing some of the mystique surrounding these people by showing that they weren't that different from the people that came before or after them, Lazaridis told Fox News. The Minoans and Mycenaeans didn't have any special ancestry: they were made of the same basic stuff as other people from Europe and the Middle East. So we can't answer the question of why these civilizations flourished thousands of years ago, but we can at least cast some light on who they were and where they came from.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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The gun found in Anthony Lamar Smiths car after then-St. Louis city police officer Jason Stockley shot and killed him had no trace of Smiths DNA on it, DNA experts testified during the Stockleys murder trial this week.

Stockleys DNA, however, was present on the firearm, which prosecutors said supported their argument that Stockley planted the gun in Smiths car after killing him.

Stockley, a white man, is accused of first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of Smith, a black St. Louis resident.

Stockleys attorneys repeatedly said that it didnt necessarily mean it wasnt Smiths gun. It is possible that the DNA found on that Taurus revolver was only deposited there in the moment when Stockley unloaded the gun after seizing it from the car, the defense said.

The Taurus revolver was presented in court as evidence along with the clothes Smith wore that day, Stockleys department-issued gun and his personal AK-47.

On December 20, 2011, Stockley and his partner, Officer Brian Bianchi, pursued Smith in a high-speed chase after he pulled out of a Churchs Chicken parking lot, hitting the police car in the process. Stockley fired seven shots into the fleeing vehicle, prosecutors said, using a personal weapon, an assault rifle, which violated department policy.

During the pursuit, Stockley is heard on an internal police car video saying, Going to kill this [expletive], dont you know it.

As Smiths car was slowing to a stop, Stockley is also heard telling Bianchi to hit him right now, at which point Bianchi slammed the police SUV into Smiths car.

The airbags deployed. Both cars stopped. Then, within the next few minutes, Stockley got out of his car, walked to the Buick and shot Smith five times. Smith had not left the drivers seat of his car.

Witness Elijah Simpson, a police officer who arrived on the scene almost at the same time as the shooting, testified that shortly afterwards, he went to the drivers side door and lifted up the airbag. He did not see a gun in the car then, though Stockleys defense noted that perhaps the gun was hidden between the seats. He noticed that neither the car nor the victim had been searched, though based on my experience, suspects should be removed from the vehicle and placed in handcuffs, Simpson said.

He called it strange that Stockley left Smiths vehicle, came back, and then searched the vehicle for the gun.

Next, the medical examiner who examined Smiths body testified. He found five gunshot entry wounds, all on the left side of the body, along with one exit wound. One wound on Smiths arm suggests that he had been raising his arm to shield himself when shot.

The jacket Smith had been wearing was also analyzed as part of efforts to reconstruct the scene. An FBI expert who tested the bullet holes on the jacket concluded, using the modified griess test (for nitrite residue) and sodium rhodizonate test (for lead), that a hole in the left shoulder area of the jacket was from a bullet shot from under six inches away. Though it wasnt what ultimately killed Smith, it was what the prosecution referred to as the kill shot deliberate and close-range. A shot from such close range would have been muffled by the car, which could explain why some policemen at the scene didnt hear Stockleys fifth shot.

At the end of the third day, several DNA experts testified as witnesses for the state.

DNA just tells you there is DNA present, said St. Louis Police Department DNA expert Karen Pryor.

The only DNA found on the gun in Smiths car had a profile similar to Stockleys, but, as the prosecution said, that does not conclusively prove that Smith did not touch the gun. Regardless, what the DNA appeared to say was this: The probability of the DNA on the Taurus gun in Smiths car being unrelated to Officer Stockley was 1/200 billion in the caucasian population, and even lower in the African-American population, with no indication of an additional individual, touching the gun, according to Pryor.

Stockley waived his right to a jury trial. St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson carries full responsibility for his fate. During the second and third days in the courtroom for the Stockley murder trial, the composition of the audience solidified. On the right was the family of the man who Stockley killed, Anthony Lamar Smith, along with their friends, lawyers, and supporters, as well as some staff members from the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys office. On the left was Stockleys family, and his supporters, including several members of the Police Officers Association who arrived each day.

The right side of the courtroom was almost all black. The left side was almost all white.

After a long week of witnesses for the prosecution, witnesses for the defense are expected to begin testifying next Tuesday, when the trial resumes.

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DNA experts, cops testify in Stockley murder trial - St. Louis American