Category Archives: DNA

On July 9, 1845, two months after departing from Greenhithe, England, Warrant Officer John Gregory wrote a letter to his wife from Greenland in which he described seeing whales and icebergs for the first time.

Gregory, who had never been to sea before, was aboard the H.M.S. Erebus, one of two ships to sail in Sir John Franklins 1845 expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage, a sea route through the Canadian Arctic that would serve as a trade route to Asia.

Disaster struck. The Erebus and the H.M.S. Terror became stuck in ice in Victoria Strait, off King William Island in what is now the Canadian territory of Nunavut. In April 1848, the survivors Franklin and nearly two dozen others had already died set out on foot for a trading post on the Canadian mainland.

All 129 explorers ultimately perished, succumbing to brutal blizzard conditions and subzero temperatures. The doomed expedition endured in the public imagination inspiring fiction by Mark Twain and Jules Verne, and, more recently, the 2018 AMC series The Terror driven in part by rumors that the crew resorted to cannibalism. The wreckage lay quiet until 2014, when a remotely controlled underwater vehicle picked up the silhouette of the Erebus near King William Island. Two years later, a tip from a local Inuit hunter led to the discovery of the Terror in the ice-cold water of Terror Bay.

John Gregorys descendants would not learn about his fate until more than 175 years after he sent the letter home from Greenland. Some sailors had been identified after being found in marked graves. But recently, Gregorys DNA and a sample from a descendant born in 1982 were matched, making him the first explorer from the trip whose remains have been positively identified through DNA and genealogical analyses a process similar to that used in recent years to identify murder suspects and victims in cold cases.

Last week, Jonathan Gregory, 38, who lives in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, got an email from researchers in Canada confirming that the cheek swab he had sent to them confirmed that he was a direct descendant of John Gregory.

He had heard about his familys connection to the expedition, but until the DNA match, it was really theory. (Though he goes by Joe, the similarity between their names all makes sense, Mr. Gregory said.)

A relative living in British Columbia, whom Mr. Gregory had never met, sent him a Facebook message in 2019 after she had seen a request from researchers asking descendants of sailors from the expedition to send in DNA samples.

I took the plunge, Mr. Gregory said in a phone interview on Wednesday. For us, this is history.

Douglas Stenton, a professor at the University of Waterloo and a researcher on the project, said the team, which included researchers from Lakehead University and Trent University, started in 2008, focusing on documenting sites and recovering new information about the expedition. But in 2013, they became interested in the human remains, seeking to identify some of these men who had effectively become anonymous in death.

Its really a story of human endeavor in one of the worlds most challenging environments, Dr. Stenton said, resulting in a catastrophic loss of life, for reasons that we still dont understand.

The circumstances that led to the demise of the crews are still unclear. Researchers have continued to piece together clues about the expeditions failure as artifacts have been found throughout the years.

Gregorys remains were excavated in 2013 on King William Island, about 50 miles south of the site where the ships had been deserted. He most likely died within a month after leaving the ships, Dr. Stenton said a journey that wasnt necessarily an enjoyable trip in any sense of the word. Gregory was between 43 and 47 years old when he died.

Dr. Stenton said it was a relief to finally put a name to one of the sailors and a face, as researchers were able to create a facial reconstruction of what Gregory may have looked like because details about the expedition have remained elusive for, you know, 175 years.

For the past eight years, Dr. Stenton said, researchers on the team were very hopeful that they would be able to match a sample from a living descendant to a sailor from the pool of DNA they had collected from remains. The first 16 samples they received failed to produce a match, making the Gregory pairing very gratifying, he said.

Although the identification has not changed the narrative of the expedition, Dr. Stenton said that the more individuals we can identify, there might be some useful information that could come up that might help us better understand what happened to the explorers.

He said he was grateful for the families who had sent in DNA, whether they were matched or not, adding that he was pleased to be able to provide Gregorys family with details about the sailors final years. He informed them that Gregory was not alone when he died, as the remains of two other sailors were found at the same site.

Theres an eerie feeling about it all, Mr. Gregory said, but at the end of the day, I suppose its closure.

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His Ship Vanished in the Arctic 176 Years Ago. DNA Has Offered a Clue. - The New York Times

CancerNetwork sat down with Hans P.A. Van Dongen, PhD, Shobhan Gaddameedhi, PhD, and Jason McDermott, PhD, to discuss their research into how circadian disruptions may lead to changes in cancer-related genes.

A recent study published in the Journal of Pineal Research revealed new evidence showing why night shift workers are at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. The study involved a controlled laboratory experiment that simulated night or day shift schedules in healthy volunteers. Findings suggested that night shift work disrupts natural rhythms in the activity of certain cancer-related genes, making night workers more vulnerable to DNA damage.

CancerNetwork sat down with key investigators on the study to discuss known risks associated with circadian disruption, methods of their research, effects of night shift work on DNA repair pathways, and the importance of these data.

This segment comes from the CancerNetwork portion of the MJH Life Sciences Medical World News.

Reference

Koritala BSC, Porter KI, Arshad OA, et al. Night shift schedule causes circadian dysregulation of DNA repair genes and elevated DNA damage in humans. J Pineal Res. 2021;70(3):e12726. doi: 10.1111/jpi.12726

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Medical World News Behind the Science: Night Shift Work and the Resulting Effects on DNA Damage in the Development of Cancer - Cancer Network

While much of the world is still getting on board with next-generation sequencing technology, many biotech developers are already in hot pursuit of the next next-generation tools.

One such developer is TwinStrand Biosciences. The Seattle-based startup recently took in a $50 million haul to expand the reach of its own sequencing technology, which the company says is 10,000 times more accurate than typical NGS processes.

The series B round was backed by new and existing investors including Soleus Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Madrona Venture Group, Ridgeback Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments. Section 32 led the round, and Michael Pellini, a partner at the venture fund and former CEO of the genomic testerFoundation Medicine, will join TwinStrands board of directors.

RELATED: Illumina pledges $60M in genomic sequencing expertise to help launch global outbreak-tracking network

The new financing will be used to increase adoption of TwinStrands Duplex Sequencing technology across a variety of use cases. Duplex Sequencing, which is compatible with Illuminas standard NGS sequencers, essentially boosts the existing technology by separately sequencing both strands of a selected DNA molecule then comparing the results to eliminate any inaccuracies.

Because Duplex Sequencing identifies rare and ultra-low-frequency DNA mutations with high accuracy, it can be used to spot cancer both before symptoms arise and after treatment is complete and to measure the effects of new cellular immunotherapies.

TwinStrands software can also detect the presence of carcinogens in the genome before cancer develops, highlighting potential applications for CRISPR and other gene editing and therapy technologies.

This financing is a rewarding milestone in our growth as a company and a true testament to our teams perseverance in a challenging year. In addition to the commercial launch of our first products, and the buildout of our clinical lab, 2020 marked an important milestone in the validation of our expanding intellectual portfolio as we closed a major deal in liquid biopsy to kick off our out-licensing program, said Jesse Salk, TwinStrands CEO, co-founder and chief scientific officerand, incidentally, the grandson of polio vaccine creator Jonas Salk.

RELATED: Foundation Medicine's cancer-profiling blood test approved by FDA

The latest funding round is more than triple the size of the series A that TwinStrand closed last year. That January 2020 round totaled $16 million, which the company said would be directed toward its efforts to commercialize the Duplex Sequencing software and forge new pharmaceutical partnerships.

They followed through: The following month, TwinStrand announced the commercial launch of its Duplex Sequencing kits. The technology is currently available to research teams who are trying to spot microscopic traces of residual disease in acute myeloid leukemia patients and those developing carcinogen-detecting genetic toxicology assays.

And in November, the startup partnered with Foundation Medicine to apply TwinStrands sequencing technology to the Roche subsidiarys liquid biopsy tests for genomic profiling of cancer molecules.

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TwinStrand Biosciences raises $50M to increase adoption of DNA sequencing tech for cancer detection - FierceBiotech

Benchmark Genetics is one of the main suppliers of salmon ova for land-based production facilities both RAS and flow-through around the world. This has given them a unique insight into how the sector is developing, as members of their team explain to The Fish Site.

Benchmark Genetics

Land-based salmon production is now really happening and for many producers access to disease-free eggs is one of their first priorities. Weve been in contact with the new companies from a very early stage and want to be a partner in this growing segment, explains Geir Olav Melingen, the divisions commercial director.

Benchmarks faith in the sector, and their hope to remain a key player in it, is reflected by expansions to their team as well as recent investments in their hatchery in Iceland, which is currently being kitted out with 10,000 additional incubators in a new facility in order to cater for projected increases in demand for eggs.

There are land-based salmon production facilities with a combined capacity of more than 2 million tonnes in the pipeline. About 90 percent of these are in RAS.

There are land-based salmon production facilities with a combined capacity of more than 2 million tonnes in the pipeline. About 90 percent of these are in RAS. Even if only a fifth of these projects are realised, it will still be a massive number of eggs needed. And we are trying to be proactive about increasing our capacity, reflects Melingen.

Although Benchmark has several breeding centres, including the recently opened site in Salten, their Iceland facility is the primary source of ova for land-based salmon production due to the unique levels of biosecurity, Icelandic eggs are permitted to be widely exported. Given the range of geographies where new salmon farms are planned, this gives Benchmark a unique advantage, and the company currently exports to over 20 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Their upgraded Iceland facility will be capable of producing 200 million eggs a year and Melingen notes that theres scope to increase this to 350 million eggs a year with minor investment.

Of the current 200 million, around 20 million are being sold to land-based salmon producers, but this proportion is likely to rise in line with the projected increase in the land-based sector. Delivery of these eggs is much more regular than in the conventional salmon sector and one of the key demands of land-based producers is the regularity with which they require ova which Benchmark is well placed to cater for, given that they can provide eggs from Iceland in any of the 52 weeks of the year.

The Health and Welfare of Atlantic Salmon course

It is vital that fish farm operatives who are responsible for farmed fish are trained in their health andwelfare. This will help to ensure that fish are free from disease and suffering whilst at the same timepromote good productivity and comply with legislation.

Unlike in conventional net-pen farming, which operate on a single year class policy and are stocked with either S1 or S0 smolts, they want deliveries every 4, 6 or 8 weeks, explains Harry Tziouvas, who recently joined Benchmark as RAS sales manager. Regular inputs allow them to provide a continuous supply, as most will supply local markets with fresh Atlantic salmon.

Benchmark Genetics

Benchmark was the first provider of eggs to Atlantic Sapphires Florida facility and remains the main supplier there, but the company is keen to highlight the wide range of projects that they are providing eggs for.

These include Pure Salmon, which has ambitions to produce 260,000 tonnes a year from a series of RAS facilities, each with 10-20,000 tonne capacity, in markets including Japan, China, the Middle East, the US and Europe.

AquaCon, which aims to produce at least 48,000 tonnes a year in Maryland, is another that they wish to highlight.They have plans to work closely with local universities and local communities, and they have a strong focus on sustainability and animal welfare. They have designed an exciting project in close collaboration with University of Maryland, where I spent some of my time during my PhD, says Melingen.

Benchmark has also developed a close working relationship with Salmon Evolution, which aims to produce 36,000 tonnes of salmon in a unique hybrid flow-through facility in Norway. Personnel from both companies will be spending time in each others facilities, collaborating to ensure the optimal quality of the land-based salmon, in a bid to help reduce issues with off-flavours once Salmon Evolution starts production in earnest.

Danish Salmon, one of the original salmon RAS, is another partner, with whom Benchmark has undertaken much of their RAS-related genetics work, and is a customer that enjoys collaborating with key suppliers.

Land-based systems currently require a comparatively high number of eggs per kilo of salmon produced, in part due to the tendency to harvest smaller fish, reflecting that fine-tuning of these new systems is required on the technical side, especially in RAS. However, the Benchmark team sees this as changing over time, due to the biosecurity of these more contained systems.

Its currently close to 2 kg of salmon produced per egg bought. Today, 2.7-3 kg harvested fish per egg is more what you expect from conventional salmon farming. However, in the long term it is likely that land-based farmers will be able to produce 3 kg of salmon for every egg they buy, Melingen explains.

My understanding is that they order more eggs to act as a buffer should any incidents occur, until they have reached a steady state in other words reaching carrying capacity in their facilities, says Andrew Preston, who was recently hired as the companys global RAS technical manager and has been in the RAS sector for four years. But its my experience that overall health management is much simpler in land-based systems where strict biosecurity practices can diminish the threat of viruses, bacteria and parasites entering the facilities.

The team at Benchmark predicts that land-based salmon production will reach around 350,000 tonnes globally by the end of the decade, with 90 percent of this figure being accounted for by RAS.

This may, however, change over time.

While there are fewer issues with diseases in land-based farms than in the sea, there are likely to be other health challenges that emerge as land-based farming scales up these could include issues with hormones or bacterial diseases, Melingen predicts.

Currently, however, the biosecurity afforded in RAS means that producers are typically looking for salmon with different traits compared to net pen producers.

Marine sites producers are typically looking for fish with a degree of resistance to challenges such as IPN, ISA, AGD, PD, CMS and sea lice, in different combinations. Without so many disease challenges, producers in land-based systems are mainly looking for traits such as growth, maturation [ie fish that dont mature too early, as this results in downgrades] and fillet quality, says Tziouvas.

Maturation is one of the key issues, agrees Melingen, particularly in those farms which only use freshwater and those with warmer water conditions. This is why Benchmarks range includes all-female, and all-female triploid options, and the team point to a number of studies to support their claims for reducing maturation levels through the use of these lines.

From working closely with our customers, we have collected a lot of experience that we share to help them make an optimal choice, based on their set-up, explains Melingen.

However, Melingen adds that while some adaptation is possible, using clever breeding programmes, it is essential above all for farmers to provide the optimum conditions for their fish.

Its much easier to adapt your technology to suit the biology of the salmon than the other way round, he notes.

Technology used in land-based systems, including RAS, has been evolving as the sector has been growing.

The scale is one of the biggest developments, says Preston. Initially companies were looking to produce hundreds of tonnes, now 4,000 tonnes are about the minimum, due to the economies of scale required. These improve up to about 20,000 tonnes, after which they level out.

As for the equipment providers and designers of the facilities?

There are a range of designers out there and each has a different technique for treating the water. Im quite certain that there will be adaptations to all of these systems and that fine-tuning will occur, so all companies have an equal chance to succeed, Melingen argues.

The team at Benchmark predicts that land-based salmon production will reach around 350,000 tonnes globally by the end of the decade, with 90 percent of this figure being accounted for by RAS.

Growth might be slower than expected in 2021-2023, but after that it will be steeper and I wouldnt be surprised if it reached 500,000 tonnes by 2033, reflects Melingen.

But they believe that once operators have become accustomed to their systems then things should speed up.

New systems take a period to break in, to reach a steady state its typically be anywhere from 18 months to five years, says Preston.

Benchmark Genetics

However, they are also aware that the sector still has many challenges to overcome.

What happens to Atlantic Sapphire is very important and will define the willingness of investors. The sector needs a good success story, notes Birgitte Sorheim, marketing director.

Finding and training talented personnel is also essential.

Its important to have experienced people within the RAS sector to ensure its growth. So many companies are getting funding but theres not so much experience out there, which could potentially lead to a major bottleneck, reflects Tziouvas.

And the team at Benchmark aims to help address this.

We dont just supply eggs, but we also provide support for our customers, says Tziouvas. If they dont succeed, then we dont succeed. This is something that we live by.

As for advice to land-based operators?

From a systems perspective its important to ensure that all redundancies are in place, to ensure fish welfare, and to maintain an optimal environment. Its also important to have a robust production plan and stick to that, says Preston.

Establish a close relationship with key suppliers and be willing to collaborate with other producers. Be 100 percent transparent and learn from each other. Weve seen how this has worked well for conventional, net pen salmon farmers and we think that the land-based sector should be doing the same, adds Melingen.

There are plenty of challenges that need to be overcome in the land-based salmon sector, but Benchmarks recent investments suggest that they believe that the challenges are by no means insurmountable. It will be interesting to see how genetics teamed with experience will be able to influence the long-term success.

Rob Fletcher has been writing about aquaculture since 2007, as editor of Fish Farmer, Fish Farming Expert and The Fish Site. He has an MA in history from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in sustainable aquaculture from the University of St Andrews. He currently lives and works in Scotland.

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Land-based salmon are in their DNA - The Fish Site

DNA tests have become all the rage for Americans curious about their heritage and roots. But what about Fido? Now you can test the DNA of your dog with theOrivet Dog DNA Test Kit, a tool that gives you a ton of incredible information about your pet, and which is currently available for 12 percent off its list price.

The kit is easy to use. Simply activate it online, collect your dogs DNA with some included swabs, and send the samples to a lab with a prepaid envelope. Then sit back and wait for the results to come in.

What you will get in return is a breed-percentage report for your dog. This report will break down by the numbers how much of any particular breed your dog is. You can answer simple questions, like, Is he or she a purebred? This test will give you the answer and help you figure out, if not a purebred, what exactly is in your dogs history.

That part is certainly interesting. But the DNA test does so much more for the health of your animal. The test includes a LifePlan to help you and your vet develop a management plan for your pets life. Youll get a personalized wellness approach based on their breed, age, weight, gender, geographical location and lifestyle.

The LifePlan also includes a schedule you can share with your vet to implement a customized well plan for your dog.

On top of all of these marvelous,helpful tools for dog owners, the LifePlan also gives you insights into your canines personality and behavior, and it offers nutritional suggestions for them. It also gives you routine health care advise, and helps keep you on track with your dogs needed vaccinations.

Users have praised the DNA kit for its ease of use and as a helpful aid to figure out a dogs breed scientifically instead of relying on the word of a breeder. One customer named Jeffrey Brewster even said, Ive always thought my dog was part beagle because thats what the adoption agency told me, but it ends up hes not! Thanks to this product I now know my dogs actual makeup! How cool is that?

Normally priced at $109, thisdog KNA kitcan be yours for a limited time for just $94.99, a savings of 14 percent.

Prices subject to change

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Use this discounted DNA kit to test your dog, find out its breed - Popular Science

Applied DNA Sciences (APDN) is expected to deliver a year-over-year increase in earnings on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended March 2021. This widely-known consensus outlook gives a good sense of the company's earnings picture, but how the actual results compare to these estimates is a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price.

The earnings report might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower.

While management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call will mostly determine the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations, it's worth having a handicapping insight into the odds of a positive EPS surprise.

Zacks Consensus Estimate

This DNA-based security technology company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.19 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +76%.

Revenues are expected to be $2.6 million, up 372.7% from the year-ago quarter.

Estimate Revisions Trend

The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 480% lower over the last 30 days to the current level. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period.

Investors should keep in mind that an aggregate change may not always reflect the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts.

Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Earnings Whisper

Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core.

The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.

Story continues

Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP readings only.

A positive Earnings ESP is a strong predictor of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). Our research shows that stocks with this combination produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and a solid Zacks Rank actually increases the predictive power of Earnings ESP.

Please note that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss. Our research shows that it is difficult to predict an earnings beat with any degree of confidence for stocks with negative Earnings ESP readings and/or Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell).

How Have the Numbers Shaped Up for Applied DNA Sciences?

For Applied DNA Sciences, the Most Accurate Estimate is lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, suggesting that analysts have recently become bearish on the company's earnings prospects. This has resulted in an Earnings ESP of -42.11%.

On the other hand, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of #4.

So, this combination makes it difficult to conclusively predict that Applied DNA Sciences will beat the consensus EPS estimate.

Does Earnings Surprise History Hold Any Clue?

Analysts often consider to what extent a company has been able to match consensus estimates in the past while calculating their estimates for its future earnings. So, it's worth taking a look at the surprise history for gauging its influence on the upcoming number.

For the last reported quarter, it was expected that Applied DNA Sciences would post a loss of $0.55 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.62, delivering a surprise of -12.73%.

The company has not been able to beat consensus EPS estimates in any of the last four quarters.

Bottom Line

An earnings beat or miss may not be the sole basis for a stock moving higher or lower. Many stocks end up losing ground despite an earnings beat due to other factors that disappoint investors. Similarly, unforeseen catalysts help a number of stocks gain despite an earnings miss.

That said, betting on stocks that are expected to beat earnings expectations does increase the odds of success. This is why it's worth checking a company's Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank ahead of its quarterly release. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.

Applied DNA Sciences doesn't appear a compelling earnings-beat candidate. However, investors should pay attention to other factors too for betting on this stock or staying away from it ahead of its earnings release.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

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Will Applied DNA Sciences (APDN) Report Negative Q2 Earnings? What You Should Know - Yahoo Finance

HOUSTON (CW39) Deputies credit a DNA match, with identifying a suspect, wanted in the burglary of a home. Back in December of 2019, deputies with Harris County Precinct 4, responded to a burglary at a home, in the 14100 block of Cypress in North Houston. While on scene, deputies collected a DNA sample from the burglarized residence. The evidence was sent to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science for testing.

In May 2021, Constable Investigators received a DNA match that linked suspect- Michael Washington to the burglary. Right now, he is no where to be found. Thats why the Constables office is calling on residents help find Mr. Washington.

Michael Washington is currently wanted by law enforcement for Burglary of a Habitation as well as an unrelated Aggravated Robbery with a Deadly Weapon case. He received No Bond out of the 177th District Court. If you have any information regarding his whereabouts, you are urged to contact our dispatch or your local law enforcement.

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WANTED PHOTO: DNA leads to the identity of a suspect on the run, in a burglary of a home - CW39

Four years after the execution of an inmate convicted of murdering his Jacksonville neighbor in 1993, new DNA evidence has emerged revealing genetic material and fingerprints from an unknown male, according to a report released Friday from the Innocence Project and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ledell Lee maintained his innocence until he was executed on April 20, 2017, for the murder of Debra Reese. Lee was convicted in 1995.

DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene, including the murder weapon and a bloody shirt, revealed the profile of an unknown male. New fingerprints found on crime scene evidence could also not be identified, according to the Innocence Project and the ACLU.

The DNA and fingerprint profiles have been entered into a national database but so far no matches have been identified.

While the results obtained 29 years after the evidence was collected proved to be incomplete and partial, it is notable that there are now new DNA profiles that were not available during the trial and post-conviction proceedings in Mr. Lees case, Nina Morrison, Innocence Project senior litigation counsel, said in a statement.

We are hopeful that one or more of these forensic law enforcement databases will generate additional information in the future, Morrison said.

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New DNA information emerges in Ledell Lee case, 4 years after execution - Arkansas Online

Salk scientists reveal new insights into neurodegenerative disorders and potential for genetic therapies.

Neurons lack the ability to replicate their DNA, so theyre constantly working to repair damage to their genome. Now, a new study by Salk scientists finds that these repairs are not random, but instead focus on protecting certain genetic hot spots that appear to play a critical role in neural identity and function.

The findings, published in the April 2, 2021, issue of Science, give novel insights into the genetic structures involved in aging and neurodegeneration, and could point to the development of potential new therapies for diseases such Alzheimers, Parkinsons and other age-related dementia disorders.

In this image of a neuron nucleus, bright spots show areas of focused genetic repair. Credit: Salk Institute/Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center

This research shows for the first time that there are sections of genome that neurons prioritize when it comes to repair, says Professor and Salk President Rusty Gage, the papers co-corresponding author. Were excited about the potential of these findings to change the way we view many age-related diseases of the nervous system and potentially explore DNA repair as a therapeutic approach.

Unlike other cells, neurons generally dont replace themselves over time, making them among the longest-living cells in the human body. Their longevity makes it even more important that they repair lesions in their DNA as they age, in order to maintain their function over the decades of a human life span. As they get older, neurons ability to make these genetic repairs declines, which could explain why people develop age-related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

To investigate how neurons maintain genome health, the study authors developed a new technique they term Repair-seq. The team produced neurons from stem cells and fed them synthetic nucleosidesmolecules that serve as building blocks for DNA. These artificial nucleosides could be found via DNA sequencing and imaged, showing where the neurons used them to make repairs to DNA that was damaged by normal cellular processes. While the scientists expected to see some prioritization, they were surprised by just how focused the neurons were on protecting certain sections of the genome.

What we saw was incredibly sharp, well-defined regions of repair; very focused areas that were substantially higher than background levels, says co-first and co-corresponding author Dylan Reid, a former Salk postdoctoral scholar and now a fellow at Vertex Pharmaceutics. The proteins that sit on these hot spots are implicated in neurodegenerative disease, and the sites are also linked to aging.

The authors found approximately 65,000 hot spots that covered around 2 percent of the neuronal genome. They then used proteomics approaches to detect what proteins were found at these hot spots, implicating many splicing-related proteins. (These are involved in the eventual production of other proteins.) Many of these sites appeared to be quite stable when the cells were treated with DNA-damaging agents, and the most stable DNA repair hot spots were found to be strongly associated with sites where chemical tags attach (methylation) that are best at predicting neuronal age.

From left: Rusty Gage and Dylan Reid. Credit: Salk Institute, Dylan Reid

Previous research has focused on identifying the sections of DNA that suffer genetic damage, but this is the first time researchers have looked for where the genome is being heavily repaired.

We flipped the paradigm from looking for damage to looking for repair, and thats why we were able to find these hot spots, Reid says. This is really new biology that might eventually change how we understand neurons in the nervous system, and the more we understand that, the more we can look to develop therapies addressing age-related diseases.

Gage, who holds the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease, adds, Understanding which areas within the genome are vulnerable to damage is a very exciting topic for our lab. We think Repair-seq will be a powerful tool for research, and we continue to explore additional new methods to study genome integrity, particularly in relation to aging and disease.

Reference: Incorporation of a nucleoside analog maps genome repair sites in postmitotic human neurons by Dylan A. Reid, Patrick J. Reed, Johannes C. M. Schlachetzki, Ioana I. Nitulescu, Grace Chou, Enoch C. Tsui, Jeffrey R. Jones, Sahaana Chandran, Ake T. Lu, Claire A. McClain, Jean H. Ooi, Tzu-Wen Wang, Addison J. Lana, Sara B. Linker, Anthony S. Ricciardulli, Shong Lau, Simon T. Schafer, Steve Horvath, Jesse R. Dixon, Nasun Hah, Christopher K. Glass and Fred H. Gage, 2 April 2021, Science.DOI: 10.1126/science.abb9032

Other authors on the study are Patrick Reed, Ioana Nitulescu, Enoch Tsui, Jeffrey Jones, Claire McClain, Simon Schafer, Grace Chou, Tzu-Wen Wang, Nasun Hah, Sahaana Chandran and Jesse Dixon of Salk; Johannes Schlachetzki, Addison Lana, and Christopher Glass of the University of California, San Diego; Ake Lu and Steve Horvath of the University of California, Los Angeles.

The research was supported by the American Heart Association, the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, the JPB Foundation, the Dolby Foundation, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the National Institutes of Health.

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Hot Spots of Aging and Disease Revealed by How Brain Cells Repair Their DNA - SciTechDaily

If our criminal justice system is to pull from the brink of insanity, it should be designed not just to punish, but to rehabilitate without foreclosing that opportunity.

The death penalty kills innocent people.

This is what reads upon the hoodie and T-shirt from the Forgive Everyone Collective, an abolitionist screen printing collective from Grand Rapids, Michigan. On it, the names of 173 individuals who were sentenced to death and later exonerated are featured on the item, and Ledell Lee might have been another to addbut he was executed for murder in a flurry of lethal injections despite lawyers calls for DNA testing.

No one should be executed when there is a possibility that that person is innocent, attorney Nina Morrison said in April 2017, just after Leeconvicted in the 1990sbecame the first person put to death in Arkansas in more than a decade. This week, four years later, attorneys shared word that genetic material from the murder weapon in Lees case pointed to someone else. On the handle of the bloody club apparently used to bludgeon Debra Reese to death, new testing found DNA from an unknown man, in an effort led by The Innocence Project, the American Civil Liberties Union and Lees family to exonerate him even after his execution.

25 states, including, Kansas, Indiana, Virginia and Texas still have the death penalty, according to a 2020 study. Four others, Colorado, Pennsylvania, California, and Oregon have suspended the law until deemed worthy again. And even despite what may be looked at like diminished usage, the flaws and failures of capital punishment are more apparent than ever before. In a study released in October 2015, 156 individuals have been exonerated from death row, which means for every 10 people who have been sentenced to death, only one person has been set free. As Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson tells it, even if the new evidence were to have been submitted before Ledell Lees execution date, he wouldve ignored the chance of examining the discovery and called for his death. They [the Supreme Court] affirmed the convictions and its my duty to carry out the law, Hutchinson said, reacting during Wednesdays news briefing. The evidence obviously thats been uncovered is inconclusive and the fact is that the jury found him guilty based upon the information that they had.

Guilty.

It is uniquely interesting how that word can subscribe a man to death in a Christian country that professes to expound values found in the Ten Commandments. While many outside a certain demographic know this to be untrue, you would think that those Boastful Bible Thumpers would realize the hypocrisy in their behavior. In the King James version of the Holy Scriptures, the argument is made that thou shalt not kill should be interpreted as thou shalt not murder, which when placed against how many innocent lives the American death penalty has taken, that this act of justice would be deemed an affront against God.

According to the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP, there are 2,620 people on death row in the US as of Jan. 1, 2020.

This includes Mumia Abu Jamal, a political activist and journalist who was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer, but whos sentence was overturned by a Federal court in 2011.

And since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated by the US Supreme Court, states with the legal authority to do so have executed 1,516 people (as of July 2020).

How does ending ones lifeespecially an innocent or potentially innocent onemake one accountable for their actions? The Forgive Everyone Collective defines accountability as understanding ones harm, choosing transformation, and committing to systemic change. Ledell Lees family, equipped with evidence that counters the claim, even after his execution, points out just how important it is to abolish the death penalty. According to The Innocence Project, eighteen people have been proven innocent and exonerated by DNA testing in the United States after serving time on death row. Think about how those people served a combine 229 years in prisonincluding 202 years on death rowfor crimes they didnt commit, and then think of them being denied because new evidence is inconclusive or the jury found them guilty based upon the information that they had.

And then open your eyes and see Ledell Lee.

While his innocence or guilt can no longer be argued, what can is that the death penalty has again come under spotlight for all the wrong reasons. It is state-sanctioned revenge that does not achieve accountability, healing or transformationand it definitely does not improve public or personal safety.

Were all more than the worst thing weve ever done, because were all capable of change and growth. The death penalty affects and traumatizes everyone it touches. If our criminal justice system is to pull from the brink of insanity, it should be designed not just to punish, but to rehabilitate and offer transformation, redemption and gracewithout foreclosing that opportunity.

Joane Amay is the Beauty and Style Director at Ebony magazine. A hoarder of shoes, baubles and sparkly things, she dreams one day of owning her own private island.

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DNA and the Death Penalty: Why Ledell Lees Case Should Increase Calls for Abolishment - EBONY