Category Archives: DNA

More than three years after a 67-year-old man went missing when he was released from the Montgomery County Jail, DNA testing confirmed that his skeletal remains were found in a thick wooded area across the street from the jail.

Layron Carey was booked into the jail on May 9, 2009, and released 13 days later. He was serving time for making a false report to a police officer. A few days passed, and family members reported that he had not been seen or heard from since that day.

His remains were discovered Aug. 8, 2012, behind a bail bond company's office at 101 Criminal Justice Drive, just a few hundred yards from the jail.

It's unclear how his body was overlooked by searchers, considering how close he was to where he was last seen.

Investigators believe Carey died of natural causes while attempting to take a shortcut through the wooded area. His last known address was an apartment in the 1900 block of Willowbend, less than two miles from the Montgomery County Jail.

Sgt. Dorcy Riddle with the Conroe Police Department said when a relative reported Carey missing, investigators began interviewing people in town about his whereabouts. Some made vague, unconfirmed reports that they had seen him since he was released.

At the same time, other reports indicated that he had gone to stay with a relative in Beaumont.

Riddle said there was never an active search with helicopters and dogs because there was no firm indication that Carey was "suspiciously missing."

Looking back, Riddle said, the reports from those who had claimed to have spotted him were unreliable.

"We didn't have leads as to where he was," she said. "Nobody we talked to positively saw him after he was released from jail."

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DNA testing confirms missing man's remains found near jail

Dongran Han

Scientists have coaxed DNA into self-assembled shapes such as spheres and corkscrews.

By Tia GhoseLiveScience

Scientists have bent DNA into bizarre, basket-woven shapes, from spheres to corkscrews.

The new DNA origami, described Thursdayin the journal Science, is one of the first steps in designing tiny nano-robots that could carry medicines or repair cells in the body.

"These are just the basic elements for device construction," study co-author Dongran Han, a chemistry doctoral candidate at Arizona State University, told LiveScience. "For future applications, we need a much bigger toolbox."

Mini-machinesIn the past, scientists have used DNA to write out words, made spaceships from tiny DNA bricks and even stored all of Shakespeare's sonnetsin the genetic code. Many of these methods are essentially proofs-of-concept to demonstrate that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) can be used to make microscopic machines for the body.

The new technique relies on DNA's unique ability to self-assemble. The molecule is usually bound into a double helix made of two strands with complementary base pairs, or letters representing nucleotides: A's bind to T's, and G's bind to C's. By manipulating the DNA sequence, the team can create single strands of DNA that will bind to each other in specific ways, forming unique shapes.

DNA's base pairs "recognize each other automatically," Han said. "If you design the things right, they will grow into the right things."

From single strands of DNA, Han and his colleagues created a wireframe structure that could then fold into several other shapes, such as corkscrews, spheres and scissors.

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DNA origami: The shape of things to come

Scientists have bent DNA into bizarre, basket-woven shapes, from spheres to corkscrews.

The new DNA origami, described today (March 21) in the journal Science, is one of the first steps in designing tiny nano-robots that could carry medicines or repair cells in the body.

"These are just the basic elements for device construction," study co-author Dongran Han, a chemistry doctoral candidate at Arizona State University, told LiveScience. "For future applications, we need a much bigger toolbox."

Mini-machines

In the past, scientists have used DNA to write out words, made spaceships from tiny DNA bricks and even stored all of Shakespeare's sonnets in the genetic code. Many of these methods are essentially proofs-of-concept to demonstrate that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) can be used to make microscopic machines for the body.

The new technique relies on DNA's unique ability to self-assemble. The molecule is usually bound into a double helix made of two strands with complementary base pairs, or letters representing nucleotides: A's bind to T's, and G's bind to C's. By manipulating the DNA sequence, the team can create single strands of DNA that will bind to each other in specific ways, forming unique shapes.

DNA's base pairs "recognize each other automatically," Han said. "If you design the things right, they will grow into the right things."

From single strands of DNA, Han and his colleagues created a wireframe structure that could then fold into several other shapes, such as corkscrews, spheres and scissors.

The DNA-folding methods could one day help engineers create self-assembling robots that work inside the body, tiny chemical factories or molecular electronics.

But before that can become a reality, researchers need to develop standard ways of building any shape they can conceive of, Han said.

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Genetic Origami: DNA Bent Into Strange Shapes

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs HTC Droid DNA
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The indictment returned by a grand jury came one day after the 20-year statute of limitations expired.

According to Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba, the state lab notified detectives in December that DNA in the rape kit from a 1993 case matched that of 60-year-old Charles Steele, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

His DNA profile was included in a statewide database because he is serving time on another rape case out of Cincinnati.

To read more about the DNA backlog, click here.

Tomba says police delays and an elusive victim living in Florida meant the case didn't result in an indictment until March 6, 20 years and one day after the attack.

The effort to review untested rape kits was mounted by Attorney General Mike DeWine. Since he launched the initiative in December 2011, the state crime lab has received more than 2,300 previously untested rape kits, nearly half from Cleveland.

The Plain Dealer said its analysis in February showed roughly a third of the kits sent to the lab could match a profile in state and national DNA databases, if trends from early testing held up.

According to Tomba, detectives submitted the rape kit for the Steele case to the state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation on July 20, 2011, and waited 17 months for the results. He said detectives learned that the victim used several different last names and appeared to be living in Florida.

Letters sent to her addresses generated no response, Tomba said. On Dec. 31, they presented the case to an assistant city prosecutor, who declared that there was not enough evidence to seek charges.

Two days later, a woman who identified herself as the victim left the detectives a voicemail message. But when detectives tried to call her back, the number was not in service, Tomba said.

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DNA rape test results are day late

WORCESTER A DNA profile matching Aaron A. Gibeault's was found on a pair of blue jeans recovered by police from the home of Jose E. Colon, Mr. Gibeault's accused killer, a Worcester Superior Court jury was told today.

Marisa Roe, who formerly worked as a DNA chemist at the state police crime laboratory, testified that forensic testing she performed in 2006 showed that a genetic profile derived from a yellow stain on a pair of blue jeans investigators seized from an apartment at 15 Oxford Ave. in Dudley, where Mr. Colon was living, matched Mr. Gibeault's DNA profile.

Ms. Roe said the chances of such a match occurring at random were one in 20.9 quadrillion in the Caucasian population.

Mr. Colon, 29, is on trial on a murder charge in the slaying of the 18-year-old Mr. Gibeault, whose battered body was discovered near railroad tracks off Oxford Avenue in Dudley on July 23, 2005. Mr. Gibeault died from blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds.

Kristin Wilson of Webster testified earlier in the trial that she was with Mr. Colon, Mr. Gibeault and others in the area where Mr. Gibeault's body was found either late on the night of July 22, 2005, or early the next morning. She said she saw Mr. Colon throw a rock at Mr. Gibeault that struck him in the face.

Mr. Gibeault, who was intoxicated, fell to the ground after being struck and Mr. Colon continued to throw rocks at him, according to Ms. Wilson, who said she left the area a short time later.

Ms. Wilson said she saw Mr. Colon several hours later with reddish stains on his shirt and jeans. She testified that Mr. Colon washed his clothing at a self-service laundry and that the stains turned yellow.

State Police Sgt. Michael Sampson testified Friday that he recovered a pair of jeans with a yellow stain on the lower right leg portion during a July 25, 2005, search of an apartment at 15 Oxford Ave. in Dudley where Mr. Colon was staying. Sgt. Sampson said he found the jeans under a couch in the living room of the one-bedroom apartment.

Under cross-examination by Mr. Colon's lawyer, Calvin C. Carr, Sgt. Sampson agreed that there were other civilians present in the apartment at the time of the search and that he was not certain to whom the seized jeans belonged.

Dr. Richard J. Evans, a pathologist called to the stand by Assistant District Attorney Daniel J. Bennett this afternoon, testified that Mr. Gibeault died as a result of blunt head trauma and stab wounds.

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DNA ties jeans to suspect in Dudley murder

WORCESTER A DNA profile matching Aaron A. Gibeaults was found on a pair of blue jeans recovered by police from the home of Jose E. Colon, Mr. Gibeaults accused killer, a Worcester Superior Court jury was told Monday.

Marisa Roe, who formerly worked as a DNA chemist at the state police crime laboratory, testified that forensic testing she performed in 2006 showed that a genetic profile derived from a yellow stain on a pair of blue jeans investigators seized from an apartment at 15 Oxford Ave. in Dudley, where Mr. Colon was living, matched Mr. Gibeaults DNA profile.

Ms. Roe said the chances of such a match occurring at random were one in 20.9 quadrillion in the Caucasian population.

Mr. Colon, 29, is on trial on a murder charge in the slaying of the 18-year-old Mr. Gibeault, whose battered body was discovered near railroad tracks off Oxford Avenue in Dudley on July 23, 2005. Mr. Gibeault died from blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds.

Kristin Wilson of Webster testified earlier in the trial that she was with Mr. Colon, Mr. Gibeault and others in the area where Mr. Gibeaults body was found either late on the night of July 22, 2005, or early the next morning. She said she saw Mr. Colon throw a rock at Mr. Gibeault that struck him in the face.

Mr. Gibeault, who was intoxicated, fell to the ground after being struck and Mr. Colon continued to throw rocks at him, according to Ms. Wilson, who said she left the area a short time later.

Ms. Wilson said she saw Mr. Colon several hours later with reddish stains on his shirt and jeans. She testified that Mr. Colon washed his clothing at a self-service laundry and that the stains turned yellow.

State Police Sgt. Michael Sampson testified Friday that he recovered a pair of jeans with a yellow stain on the lower right leg portion during a July 25, 2005, search of an apartment at 15 Oxford Ave. in Dudley where Mr. Colon was staying. Sgt. Sampson said he found the jeans under a couch in the living room of the one-bedroom apartment.

Under cross-examination by Mr. Colons lawyer, Calvin C. Carr, Sgt. Sampson agreed that there were others present in the apartment at the time of the search and that he was not certain to whom the seized jeans belonged.

Dr. Richard J. Evans, a pathologist called to the stand by Assistant District Attorney Daniel J. Bennett Monday afternoon, testified that Mr. Gibeault died as a result of blunt head trauma and stab wounds.

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DNA matched victim's profile

U. of I. chemists professor Scott Silverman, right, and graduate student Jagadeeswaran Chandrasekar synthesized a DNA catalyst that can perform a difficult reaction usually catalyzed by the protein enzyme phosphatase. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

(Phys.org) Illinois chemists have used DNA to do a protein's job, creating opportunities for DNA to find work in more areas of biology, chemistry and medicine than ever before.

Led by Scott Silverman, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the researchers published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ideally, researchers would like to be able to design and build new catalysts from scratch that can do exactly what they want. Many enzymes make small modifications to the building blocks of proteins, amino acids, which can create large changes in a finished protein. However, designing or even modifying protein enzymes is a very difficult task, thanks to their complexity and size.

"Protein enzymes are the workhorses of biology," Silverman said. "They do most of the catalytic activity. Our idea is to use another kind of catalyst, artificial DNA sequences, to modify the side chains on proteins, which therefore affects their biological function."

One of the most important and difficult reactions in nature is the addition or removal of a phosphate group. In the realm of proteins, the amino acids serine and tyrosine can have phosphate added to or removed from them, which can alter the protein's function or turn enzyme activity on or off. Without help from catalysts, such reactions take a very long time to occur on the order of thousands to millions of years. So nature uses enzymes called kinases or phosphatases to catalyze these reactions.

Silverman's group identified artificial DNA catalysts that can do phosphatase's job of removing phosphate from serine and tyrosine. Demonstrating that DNA can catalyze such difficult reactions is an important step forward in designing and using DNA catalysts.

"At this point, this is basic science. We're trying to figure out, what kind of reactions can DNA catalyze? And how do we find DNA catalysts that can catalyze these reactions?" Silverman said.

To find the DNA catalysts that can perform a phosphatase reaction, the researchers used a process called in vitro selection. This method searches through vast numbers of DNA sequences to identify the few that could perform a specific activity. The researchers then synthesize those DNA strands and use them for various applications.

"We believe that DNA catalysts can be a very useful tool in the future to study these kinds of protein modifications," said graduate student and co-author Jagadeeswaran Chandrasekar. "To have DNA that you can synthesize on a machine and do catalytic activity on large molecules like proteins is very exciting. We can make fresh new DNA sequences, without requiring a natural starting point, and perform important reactions."

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DNA catalysts do the work of protein enzymes

HTC One 1080p Video Test (DNA-vs-One Comparison)
Read our full comparison with all photos here: UltraPixel vs Megapixel: HTC One HTC Droid DNA Camera Shoot-Out http://pocketnow.com/2013/03/13/htc-one-came...

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Joelle Farrell, Inquirer Trenton Bureau Posted: Sunday, March 17, 2013, 3:01 AM

Two men spent more than a decade behind bars before DNA evidence exonerated them. After their release, one married, held a steady job, and earned a pension. The other is on welfare and lives with his mother.

What separates their situations? Mainly, a river.

While individual traits and circumstances surely played a role in the former inmates' differing destinies, prison reform advocates say it was crucial that one received a hand up from the state upon release and the other did not.

Since 1997, New Jersey has compensated the wrongfully convicted with at least $20,000 for each year of incarceration. Lawmakers are considering raising the minimum to $50,000 per year and adding benefits, such as reintegration services, that are available to paroled inmates but not exonerated ones.

Pennsylvania has no similar law.

After serving 18 years for the murder of a McDonald's night manager in Duquesne, Pa., Drew Whitley of nearby Braddock left prison in 2006 with less than $100 earned working in the prison laundry, said Bill Mousher, an investigative reporter and director of the Innocence Institute of Point Park University, which worked on Whitley's case.

"Drew Whitley got absolutely screwed; he's got nothing," Mousher, an assistant professor at the Pittsburgh school, said last week. "I saw him last fall. He was not looking good. He's basically destitute."

David Shephard, the first New Jersey inmate to have his conviction overturned by DNA evidence, in 1995 received $250,000 from the state after serving more than a decade in prison for rape.

The money helped him repay his family for lawyer fees, court costs, and other hardships caused by his incarceration. It gave him a cushion to restart his life at age 33. He began working in maintenance for the City of Newark, later landing a job in family services with Essex County.

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Freed by DNA , 1 thrives, 1 struggles