Category Archives: DNA

DNA forensics can help lost Nigerian girls

Chibok school girls who escaped from the Boko Haram Islamists gather to receive informations from officials. Photo: AFP Scientists in the United States believe they can help identify Nigerias missing schoolgirls by using DNA technologyFrom AFP

Forensic DNA technology could help identify and reunite with their families the more than 200 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped by Islamist militants, scientists said on Tuesday.

Software already exists to match missing people with their relatives, and it has been used worldwide to identify and return more than 740 children who were trafficked, some across international borders.

Most of all, forensic scientists in the United States and Spain say they are ready to help, free of charge. All they need to get started are DNA samples from family members of the lost schoolgirls.

We would do this absolutely for nothing, said Arthur Eisenberg, chairman of the department of molecular and medical genetics at the University of North Texas (UNT).

This is clearly a humanitarian effort, said Eisenberg who heads the UNT Centre for Human Identification, the lab that works with an international programme called DNA-Prokids, which aims to reunite families and deter human trafficking.

First, the girls family members - mother, father or another close relative - could provide a DNA sample by swabbing the inside of their mouths with a cotton tip or giving a blood sample.

Then, Eisenberg said, he and colleagues establish DNA profiles of the families using a software system called M-FISys (pronounced emphasis).

The software was developed in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks to help forensic scientists in New York City meet the enormous challenge of matching nearly 20,000 pieces of human remains to the more than 2,700 people who died in the Twin Towers.

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DNA forensics can help lost Nigerian girls

A scientific breakthrough has expanded the way genetic information can be stored.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- All of life as we know it on Earth -- pigs, pandas, fish, bacteria and everything else -- has genetic information encoded in the same way, with the same biological alphabet.

Now, for the first time, scientists have shown it is possible to alter that alphabet and still have a living organism that passes on the genetic information. They reported their findings in the journal Nature.

"This is the first experimental demonstration that life can exist with information that's not coded the way nature does (it)," said Floyd Romesberg, associate professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

Medicine can greatly benefit from this discovery, Romesberg said. There's potential for better antibiotics and treatments for a slew of diseases for which drug development has been challenging, including cancers.

The findings also suggest that DNA as we know it on Earth may not be the only solution to coding for life, Romesberg said. There may be other organisms elsewhere in space that use genetic letters we have never seen -- or that don't use DNA at all.

"Is this alien life? No," he said. "Does it suggest that there could be other ways of storing information? Yes."

How they did it

For their genetic experiments, Romesberg and colleagues used molecules, called X and Y, that are completely different from the four building blocks of DNA.

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'Alien' DNA used to create life

Precautions When Doing A DNA Home Test

By: Investigations

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Precautions When Doing A DNA Home Test - Video

History Of DNA Testing

By: Investigations

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History Of DNA Testing - Video

The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA | Tomorrow Today - Interview
We talk with Dr. Thomas von Rintelen, an expert on evolution and biodiversity. He is currenntly working at the Natural History Museum - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity...

By: DW (English)

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The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA | Tomorrow Today - Interview - Video

Bill Davenhall: Your #39;place history #39; is the new DNA sequencing - Full WIRED Health talk
Wellness is a physical state in more ways than one -- Bill Davenhall, a geomedicine expert at ESRI, specialises in applying geographic information systems to health issues, in an attempt to...

By: Wired UK

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Bill Davenhall: Your 'place history' is the new DNA sequencing - Full WIRED Health talk - Video

bigg k vs thesaurus / ill will vs dna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyq9OjJnWjk - CROOKED I INTERVIEW ON ANGRYFANSRADIO!!!!! SUBSCRIBE!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyq9OjJnWjk - BIGG K VS THEASURUS!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K9fIfVAE0o...

By: ANGRYFAN007

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bigg k vs thesaurus / ill will vs dna - Video

DNA links man to aggravated child sex assault case
David Anthony Maynez, 21, has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child after DNA results managed to link him to an incident more than nine months after it happened, according to police.

By: kxan

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DNA links man to aggravated child sex assault case - Video

Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA
More info at link: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/05/07/scientists-create-1st-living-organism-from-artificial-dna?src=usn_tw.

By: DAHBOO77

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Scientists Create 1st Living Organism From Artificial DNA - Video

Scientists Succeeded In Creating An Alien Life Form With Artificial DNA - Breaking News May 2014
Scientists Have Now Created An Alien Life Form With Artificial DNA Breaking News Scientists create alien life form with artificial genetic code For the first time scientist create artificial...

By: Charles Walton

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Scientists Succeeded In Creating An Alien Life Form With Artificial DNA - Breaking News May 2014 - Video