Category Archives: DNA

Scientists have found a potential solution for one of the main difficulties in tissue engineering -- creating structures that go beyond two dimensions. "This technology may prove to be critical for the next advance in tissue engineering," said Robert Van Buskirk, professor in biological sciences at SUNY-Binghamton. The method has not yet been tested in the sometimes unpredictable human body.

Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have found a way to trigger the self-assembly of tiny water-filled gel-like cubes into larger structures, a discovery that could lead to practical applications in tissue engineering.

DNA makes glue programmable because one strand of DNA will stick tightly to a matching partner strand, but only if the two strands have chemical "letters," or nucleotides, that are complementary (A to T, C to G). Gel bricks coated with matching strands of DNA adhere specifically to each other.

The scientists developed the self-assembling system by programming DNA to act as a glue that guides the hydrogels into the larger structures. Their results are published in the Sept. 9 issue of Nature Communications.

Researchers have attempted to program hydrogels in the past, but ran into trouble trying to bind them to other biological components, prompting the team at Wyss to devise a new strategy.

Enter DNA. It is made up of four bases -- adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, or A, G, C and T. In order to form the coiled, double-helix structure of DNA, those bases have to be linked in a specific order: A with T and C with G. If one side of a strand of DNA should begin with AC, for example, then the corresponding rung would have to begin with TG.

Because snippets of DNA can be synthesized with any sequence of those letters, it is more programmable than other biomaterials, the Wyss researchers found. DNA can be, in effect, a glue. To test their theory, the researchers covered hydrogel cubes with a coat of a specific DNA base molecule.

When those small cubes were placed in a solution with larger cubes, the smaller ones attached only to cubes that were made up of their corresponding DNA base. Therefore, the scientists were able to program the hydrogels to mold into specific shapes, including a square and a T-shaped structure.

Eventually, the same method could potentially be used to create or repair more complex structures, including human tissue.

"This paper is a fundamental study of this capability, and it's not quite ready for application yet, but we think this is a very promising direction for developing applications that could assemble these gel-like bricks into functional tissues," Peng Yin, assistant professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School and senior co-author of the study, told TechNewsWorld. "My colleagues and I hope to move forward together in this direction."

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DNA 'Glue' May Someday Repair Damaged Organs

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Steve Wilkos DNA Bombshell part 6 )

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Flock-scale use of DNA testing is now within reach of Australia's sheep producers, with a new 12k SNP test available, delivering high levels of accuracy in predicting breeding values at half the cost of previous testing systems.

For the first time there will be no restriction on the number of tests any breeder can order, marking the start of a new era in sheep genetic improvement where the use of DNA testing is anticipated to play an increasingly important role.

The 12k tests have been developed by the Co-operative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) and are available from Sheep Genetics.

Sheep CRC chief executive James Rowe said the challenge in designing the test was to optimise the number and selection of gene markers to achieve the best possible accuracy while keeping costs low.

"The accuracy of predicting genomic breeding values, using the new 12k test, almost match that of the benchmark 50k test - and at less than half the cost," he said.

"At a price of just $50 a test, and based on the overwhelming demand for DNA tests during our pilot projects, we expect there will be very strong interest from producers keen to adopt this technology in order improve rates of genetic gain and the flexibility of their breeding objectives."

DNA testing allows sheep breeders to identify breeding stock which carry genes for favourable traits for production as well as for product quality, such as shearforce as a measurement of meat tenderness.

The predictions based on DNA analysis are used in conjunction with conventional measurement of performance and pedigree to produce Australian Sheep Breeding Values that can forecast which rams and ewes will breed the most productive lambs, thereby accelerating the rate of improvement in their flock.

Until now, the ovine 50k SNP chip, developed by the International Consortium for Sheep Genomics, has been used by the Sheep CRC for all genotyping research in the Information Nucleus Program and in the three genomic pilot projects conducted between 2010 and 2013.

While the price of the 50k SNP test has fallen during the past five years, it is still too expensive to form the basis of commercial genotyping in the sheep industry.

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DNA test 'accurate, affordable'

Steve Wilkos DNA Bombshell part 2 )

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Scientists interested in engineering tissue would like to find a way to get cells and other biological components to organize and assemble into an organ similar to the way they do naturally.

At the Harvards Wyss Institute, Peng Yin, an assistant professor of systems biology, and his team found a way program DNA to act a glue that encourages gel-like cubes smaller than salt grains to self-assemble into larger structures. The cubes could be programmed to form scaffolding that hosts cells, which eventually grow into organs.

DNA Robots Inject Deadly Punch To Bad Cells

The self-assembly works because of the way DNA sticks together. DNA is made of four molecules, called bases. They are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, or A, G, C and T. To come together into the familiar ladder-like, double-helix structure of DNA, the molecules have to link in a specific order. The rungs of the ladder have to be either A linked to T or G linked to C. So, if a string of bases on one side of the double helix ladder is AGCT, the rung on the other has to be TCGA. Other combinations will not bind to it. This binding property makes DNA perfect as a biological glue.

Knowing this, the Wyss team coated cubes of hydrogel, a water-based gel compatible with the human body, with specific pairs of DNA base molecules and arranged them so that the half-rungs of the ladder stuck out. Next, they put the cubes in a liquid solution containing other molecules. The cubes only attached to partners cubes that were coated with complementary DNA. With this technique, the scientists were able to build crosses and squares. And according to the researchers, theres no reason they couldnt make more complicated shapes. The idea is that one day, DNA-coated hydrogels could be injected into patients that have organ damage. The hydogels would self-assemble into the appropriate shape and attract cells to grow on them, forming repair tissue.

The experiments appeared in the Sept. 9 issue of the journal Nature Communications.

via Wyss Institute

Credit: Peng Yin, Wyss Institute

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Programmable DNA 'Glue' Self-Assembles Cells

Raleigh, N.C. A DNA analyst for the North Carolina State Crime Lab testified Tuesday that Laura Ackerson's DNA was found on a blue latex glove found in the trash from the Raleigh apartment complex of her ex-boyfriend, who is on trial for her July 2011 death.

Full video: Grant Hayes murder trial

Grant Hayes, 34, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if he's found guilty of first-degree murder in the case.

Prosecutors contend Hayes, embroiled in a bitter child custody dispute with Ackerson, killed her, dismembered her body and dumped her remains in a creek in Richmond, Texas.

He and his wife, Amanda Perry Hayes, 41, were both arrested 12 days after the crime.

Defense attorneys, however, say it was Amanda Hayes who killed Ackerson during an argument and that their client helped get rid of the body because he didn't think anyone would believe the death was unplanned.

Detectives combed through the trash from the couple's apartment complex in the early days of their investigation and recovered numerous items, including disposable respirators, towels, bathroom floor mats, clothing and the couple's vacuum cleaner.

But Sharon Hinton, a forensic DNA analyst with the State Crime Lab, said she was only able to conclusively identify Ackerson's DNA on the blue latex gloves. A second set of DNA was also on the gloves, but Hinton said testing to see if it matched either Grant or Amanda Hayes was inconclusive.

Testing was also inconclusive on other items, some of which all had blood on them, Hinton said, likely because of there wasn't enough DNA to test or the quality of the DNA wasn't good enough.

The tests of several hair samples for DNA were also inconclusive, but Crime Lab hair analyst Jennifer Remy said hairs from a bath tub drain from the Hayeses' apartment seemed unusual and that they were possibly eroded.

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Ackerson's DNA found on latex gloves from Hayes' trash

Published: 9/10/2013 - Updated: 5 hours ago

BY BLADE STAFF

Toledo Police said that DNA tests confirmed that human remains found in an East Toledo home last week were of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth.

Police searched 704 Federal St. Thursday and recovered a box that police said contained immature human skeletal remains they believed were of the toddler, who was last seen alive about three months ago. A DNA sample was sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation last week, with work done over the weekend to confirm the identity.

RELATED: Storify page tracking the ElainaSteinfurth case.

Elaina was 18-months-old when she was last seen at the Federal Street home owned by the family of her mother's estranged boyfriend. The girl's mother, Angela Steinfurth, stayed overnight in the home the night of June 1 with her two daughters and then-boyfriend Steven King II, 23. The girls' father, Terry Steinfurth II, 25, went to the home at about 2 p.m. on June 2 to pick up the girls, but was only given their 4-year-old daughter, Kylee.

Mrs. Steinfurth, 25, who is estranged from but still legally married to Mr. Steinfurth, said she didn't know where the toddler was, police have reported.

Mrs. Steinfurth and Mr. King remain in the Lucas County jail, charged with obstructing justice for allegedly lying to police during the ongoing investigation. Prosecutors said they would consider additional charges if the remains were identified as Elaina's.

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DNA confirms body is missing toddler