Category Archives: Transhuman News

A record for publication, he said in an interview.

With the new research, he and other scientists have begun to wonder if it may be possible one day to do something even stranger: to program bacteria to snuggle up to cells in the human body and to record what they are doing, in essence making a movie of each cells life.

When something goes wrong, when a person gets ill, doctors might extract the bacteria and play back the record. It would be, said Dr. Church, analogous to the black boxes carried by airplanes whose data is used in the event of a crash.

At the moment, all that is the other side of science fiction, said Ewan Birney, director of the European Bioinformatics Institute and a member of the group that put Shakespeares sonnets in DNA. Storing information in DNA is this side of science fiction.

Dr. Church and Seth Shipman, a geneticist, and their colleagues began by assigning each pixel in the black-and-white film a DNA code based on its shade of gray. The vast chains of DNA in each cell are made of just four molecules adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine arranged in enormously varied configurations.

The geneticists ended up with a sequence of DNA molecules that represented the entirety of the film. Then they used a powerful new gene editing technique, Crispr, to slip this sequence into the genome of a common gut bacteria, E. coli.

Despite the modification, the bacteria thrived and multiplied. The film stored in the genome was preserved intact with each new generation of progeny, the team found.

Andrew Odlyzko, a mathematics professor and expert on digital technology at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the new research, called it fascinating.

Imagine, he said, the impossibility of controlling secrets, when those secrets are encoded in the genomes of the bacteria in our guts or on our skins.

The renowned physicist Richard Feynman proposed half a century ago that DNA could be used for storage in this way. That was long before the molecular biology revolution, and decades before anyone could sequence DNA much less edit it.

Biology is not simply writing information; it is doing something about it, Dr. Feynman said in a 1959 lecture.

Consider the possibility that we too can make a thing very small which does what we want!

Dr. Feynmans idea was a seminal piece it gave us a direction, said Leonard Adleman, a mathematician at the University of Southern California and co-inventor of one of the most used public cryptography systems, RSA (the A is for Adleman).

In 1994, Dr. Adleman reported that he had stored data in DNA and used it as a computer to solve a math problem. He determined that DNA can store a million million times more data than a compact disc in the same space.

And data storage is a growing problem. Not only are significant amounts being generated, but the technology used to store it keeps becoming obsolete, like floppy disks.

DNA is never going out of fashion. Organisms have been storing information in DNA for billions of years, and it is still readable, Dr. Adleman said. He noted that modern bacteria can read genes recovered from insects trapped in amber for millions of years.

For Dr. Shipman and Dr. Church, the immediate challenge is the brain. It contains 86 billion neurons, and theres no easy way to know what theyre doing.

Right now, we can measure one neuron at a time with electrodes, but 86 billion electrodes would not fit in your brain, Dr. Church said. But gene-edited bacteria would fit very nicely.

The idea is to have bacteria engineered as recording devices drift up to the brain in the blood and take notes for a while. Scientists would then extract the bacteria and examine their DNA to see what they had observed in the brain neurons.

Dr. Church and his colleagues have already shown in past research that bacteria can record DNA in cells, if the DNA is properly tagged.

Peoples intuition is tremendously poor about just how small DNA molecules are and how much information can be packed into them, Dr. Birney said.

And while these are futuristic ideas, biotechnologies have been arriving much faster than anyone predicted, Dr. Church said.

He gave as an example the sequencing of the human genome. The first effort took years and cost $3 billion. The wildest optimists predicted that maybe in six decades each sequencing would cost $1,000.

It turned out it was six years, rather than six decades, Dr. Church said.

A version of this article appears in print on July 13, 2017, on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: A Living Hard Drive That Can Copy Itself.

Read the rest here:
Who Needs Hard Drives? Scientists Store Film Clip in DNA - New York Times

98% of your DNA is the same as everyone's DNA, 2% is different. (KOKH)

What can you learn from DNA?

Applications for discovering and analyzing the building blocks of life are growing faster than ever and providing new options for everyone from doctors to criminal investigators.

Inside a DNA profile is the recipe for making a person. When it comes to this recipe 98% of it is the same for every human.

Two percent of your DNA is different and that difference, that's the part of the DNA we look at to see what makes you unique and what makes me unique, explained Dr. Patrick Gaffney, the head of the Genomics and Data Sciences Division for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

The differences found inside the two percent of a persons DNA can be compared to the hundreds of thousands of DNA samples that have already been analyzed. Scientists can compare the individual sequences in a DNA profile to those that have similar structures to find features.

We can look at sequences from 500,000 people with blonde hair and blue eyes and say these people seem to have this pattern, Dr. Gaffney told FOX 25, So we can take that information and apply it to another person and say this person is likely to have blonde hair and blue eyes based on their match of our population patterns.

Some companies are taking it further, by analyzing the DNA differences to determine facial features and creating portraits from nothing more than a DNA profile.

What are the applications of this new technology?

Suspects could be pictured when there are no eye witnesses. Law enforcement could give faces for the public to identify when there are only remains found.

Perhaps the most notable case where this technology could be applied would be providing a face to the yet unknown 169th person who died in the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995.

The unknown DNA profile sample sat hidden for more than 20 years until revealed by a Washington Times/Fox 25 Investigation. The person is either another victim or another accomplice to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.

While the technology was not available in the 1990's, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner held onto the profile that did not match any of the known victims and kept a sample from the unidentified leg left from the bomb site.

At the very least, an analysis now of the DNA profile could tell us traits such as ethnicity, hair color, or eye color.

Even then the composite information that comes from these variants work, like reconstructing facial features...it's an inexact science at this time, Dr. Gaffney said.

Forensic examiners also warn that a composite sketch from DNA also doesn't take into account cosmetic changes which would keep people from identifying a person.

Still Gaffney says as more work is done with DNA, scientists are able to make more accurate predictions based on population studies. This kind of analysis could also lead to precision medicines and treatments in addition to aiding in forensics.

You're going to start seeing improvements in the accuracy of these technologies, Gaffney said.

Read the rest here:
DNA breakthroughs could provide faces to faceless - KOKH FOX25

(KOKH)

It was DNA that helped seal the fate of Daniel Holtzclaw. From jury members who have spoken about the case publicly to members of the public who followed the trial, the DNA evidence presented in court was damning to the defense.

Prosecutors presented a case that was largely circumstantial evidence, but a police crime lab analyst provided the testimony that told how DNA from one of the victims was found on the inside of the zipper on Holtzclaws uniform pants.

After the conviction, a biologist from Iowa read about the case online. It was not hard to find headlines of the former cop sentenced to 263 years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting a number of women while on patrol.

However, what drew Erica Fuchs to the case was the mention of DNA. Fuchs deals with DNA and has been a lab researcher and was surprised when she could not find out more about this crucial piece of evidence.

She contacted the Holtzclaw family to see if she could review a copy of the laboratory reports.

Right away I could see that both samples had a Y chromosome in them, Fuchs told FOX 25, So this told me that there was DNA from at least one male in both of the samples.

The police analyst told the jury that Holtzclaw's DNA was not found, which prosecutors said helped prove sexual assault. However Fuchs says even that conclusion was not scientifically sound because the DNA samples found were so small. Besides, it wasnt just the male DNA that wasnt identified. There were other profiles that contributed to the sample, but the jury was only told about one.

Those two samples during the analyst's testimony she said had no evidence of male DNA in them, but actually both of those samples did, Fuchs said.

The presence of male DNA could mean a number of things. It could mean that there as a male victim sexually assaulted, but never identified.

However Fuchs says due to the miniscule amount of DNA found in total, the unknown samples adds to the argument made by the defense that the DNA was there due to innocent transfer. DNA, Fuchs said, can be transferred from person to person or from person to object to another person. Defense attorneys during Holtzclaws trial argued that since he had searched the victims belongings he could have picked up a skin cell and then touched his pants.

There is also another possibility.

The sex crimes detectives were handling items in ways that could have led to DNA transferring to the fly of the pants, Fuchs said. She noted in particular an interrogation video showed a detective opening the evidence bag in which Holtzclaws uniform was placed, with his bare hands.

Fuchs is also concerned about the lack of testing performed by the Oklahoma City Police crime lab. While tests for bodily fluids and even vaginal fluids are available, they were not performed in a case that alleged sexual assault. Despite that fact prosecutors told jurors that the victims DNA found on Holtzclaws pants came from vaginal walls. Fuchs says it is scientifically impossible to identify where the DNA originated.

During the secret court hearings that have become the latest controversy to surround this high-profile case, FOX 25 has learned DNA was part of the discussion.

The court ordered the hearings sealed. Attorneys representing Holtzclaw on his appeal were not even allowed to attend. However, one person FOX 25 has confirmed was in attendance was the supervisor of the police DNA lab. He was there for both days of the hearing that only involved prosecutors and a judge.

While no one is talking on the record about what happened during that hearing, the appeals court ordered it just days after receiving a request from several DNA experts, including Fuchs, to provide the court with information about scientific flaws presented at trial.

Go here to see the original:
Male DNA identified but not disclosed during ex-cop's controversial trial - KOKH FOX25

Your DNA can determine things like whether mosquitoes like to bite you, if you have migraines, and if your more likely to own a dog!

WBIR 1:43 PM. EDT July 13, 2017

Syringe and petri dish with letters DNA (Photo: Creatas Images)

Millions of Americans are fascinated with their heritage---- digging into their family treeto find out about their ancestors. The newest trend in finding out where we came from is genetics, a scientific process being brought to the masses by websites like Ancestry.com and 23andme.com.

DNA genetic testing can show what part of the world your ancestors came from, identify possible health issues that run in your family, and even help you find long-lost relatives.

Genetics also determine things like your eye color, if your hair is curly or straight, orwhether you have a widow's peak or dimples.

WBIR's Robin Wilhoitwill delve more deeply into DNA testing on 10News at 6 on Monday and Tuesday, as she follows an adopted East Tennessee woman's quest to learn more about her biological family.

Until then, here are a few fun facts about what DNA can reveal about you, courtesy of 23andMe.com.

GENETICS DETERMINE YOUR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MOSQUITOS

There are 15 genetic variants associated with your attractiveness to mosquitos, the size of welts, and the intensity of the itch.

MORNING PEOPLE TEND TO WEIGH LESS

Genetic researchers found that people who identify as morning people were less likely to be obese as well as less likely to be underweight.

YOUR DNA PLAYS A ROLE YOUR MIGRAINES.

44 genetic variants are associated with migraines, pointing to vascular dysfunction as one of the bioligial underpinnings for the disease.

MOTION SICKNESS IS VERY HERITABLE

Genetics accounts for a large reason why some of us, one in every three people, are more prone to motion sickness than others

LOVE THE TASTE OF CILANTRO?

To some people, cilantro tastes soapy, and genetics are to blame. Scientists discovered a genetic variant near the gene OR6A2 associated with thinking cilantro tasted like soap.

AUDIBLE EATING BAD MANNERS OR GENETICS?

About 25 percent of women and 19 percent of menp.

reported being "filled with rage" by the sound of others eating, a genetic trait called misophonia.

BATTLE OF THE SIBLINGS

Genetics have revealed that first-born children start to read earlier, take more advanced math classes, an tend to be more outspoken.

Second-born children are more altruistic, less tense, and tend to own a dog.

2017 WBIR.COM

Continued here:
Mosquitos love you? Hate cilantro? Own a dog? Your DNA may tell you why - WBIR-TV