Category Archives: Transhuman News

Judge releases capital murder suspects

Tanya Eiserer, WFAA 3:48 PM. CDT July 05, 2017

A Dallas County district judge has ordered the release of two capital murder suspects after prosecutors failed for more than a year to send the DNA of one of the defendants to the lab to be tested.

On Monday the judge ordered that Leonte Stone, 24, and Konkun Tarpeh, 25, be released on electronic monitoring and house arrest.

The only thing keeping the two men in jail currently are holds from other counties. Tarpeh is being held on a Tarrant County violation on a protective order charge from Tarrant County. Stone is being held from Hunt County for evading arrest and child endangerment charges.

By state law, prosecutors have 90 days to announce that they're ready for trial from the day that a person is arrested. That's to keep indigent defendants from just being held in jail in perpetuity. In this case, prosecutors had failed to send Stones DNA to the lab to be tested against evidence collected in the case.

District Judge Brandon Birmingham ordered their release on a personal recognizance bond.

The DNA testing also cant be done quickly because of a recent issue with countys new DNA testing kits, which proved to be defective. The county crime lab suspended DNA testing in cases set for trial. The lab plans to restart testing in September with new testing kits.

Stone and Tarpeh are accused of killing Taydren Young and Dmydric Williams at an apartment complex on Forest Lane last March. Police said Young and Williams had gone there to buy marijuana.

Stone has been in jail since April. Tarpeh was picked up again in December. Their bail in the capital murder case had been set at $1 million each.

I am highly, highly upset, says Shokee Clay, Youngs mother. I'm very upset about the whole situation that there's even talk of anybody being released. There aren't words to explain how I feel about that.

Clay is angry that prosecutors did not tell her there was an issue with the case. She says the prosecutor on the case had assured her that she would keep her informed.

My son may not matter to them, but he matters to me, and I'm going to fight to the end for my son and I'm not going to let this ride, she says. I'm going to be up there tomorrow because I need some answers... because I need to know why I wasn't notified and how did they let DNA slip through.

She worries that if Stone and Tarpeh are released, they will just cut their ankle monitors and disappear.

The DAs office says that they will continue to vigorously pursue prosecution in the case. They said they could not comment further due to the ongoing nature of the case.

Shokee still cries every day over the loss of her son.

A video of Young freestyle dancing brought a smile to his mom's face. She misses his goofy, fun-loving personality.

I just wish I could reach in here and grab him out, but I know I can't, she says. Every day that go on, you know that he really, really not coming back.

Shokee and her husband had moved their boys out of Dallas to keep them safe.

Her middle son -- who is one year younger than Young -- is in college. Their other son is finishing high school.

Young's future had also looked bright.

He had graduated with honors from John Horn High School in Mesquite. He had a scholarship to Texas Southern University. He attended for two semesters before dropping out.

Young gravitated to a rougher crowd once back in Dallas.

On the day he died, Clay said she called her son. He asked her to pick him up in North Dallas. She told him she would pick him up after work. An hour later, Young was killed. He left behind an infant son.

I did everything I could, she said. Its not about how you raise your boys. It's about the company they keep.

As painful as it was, Shokee was there when they cremated Young.

This is all I have left of him, she says pointing to the wooden box containing his ashes. I walk by it every day and this is what I have and no mother should have to have one of these.

2017 WFAA-TV

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DNA not sent for testing; judge orders release of two capital murder suspects - WFAA

A few years ago, Harvard professor and bio-engineering rockstar George Church was a guest on The Colbert Report. As many of the talk show's guests did, he presented host Stephen Colbert with a copy of his book, which he'd co-authored with Ed Regis. Well, sort of. He actually handed Colbert 20 million copies of his book -- and they all fit in his front pocket.

How was that possible? Church had programmed 20 million copies of his book into DNA, which is known, rightly so, as the "information molecule" in biology. The incredible density of information that can be stored in DNA, and the potential to use it much like a traditional hard drive, has not been lost on technology companies scrambling to keep up with society's exponentially growing need for data storage.

Perhaps due to its having let the future pass it by on one too many occasions, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is going all-in on the idea. It plans to deploy a proto-commercial, DNA-powered storage device about the size of a commercial Xerox copier by the end of the decade in one of its data centers. Even though it would cost billions using today's DNA synthesis technologies and only serve a niche application, the technology developed in the next three years will go a long way to ushering in digital-bio hybrid computing machines. It could be big for investors, too -- if it works.

Image source: Getty Images.

Microsoft and the rest of the information technology industry has spent billions of dollars on data centers to date in an endless battle to scale with the needs of consumers and growing demand for cloud computing. The most expensive part of a data center is power consumption, since it takes a lot of power to keep arrays of servers cool. That has become especially painful as traditional storage media have begun hitting their limits, which means tech companies won't be able to wring any further cost reductions out of scaling storage capacity with today's technology.

That's what makes DNA so intriguing, on paper at least. Volume for volume, it can store 10 million times more information than the magnetic tape drives commonly used today, which would drastically reduce power consumption per TB or square foot of space in a data center. One copy of your genome, held in just one of your body's cells, holds approximately 1.5 GB of information. And since your body contains trillions of cells, all of the DNA in all of your body's cells stores trillions of GB of information -- more than all of the digital data storage capacity in the entire world (although it's getting close).

There is one massive obstacle to commercializing this technology, however: cost. Consider that state-of-the-art technology today can produce synthetic DNA for genetic engineering applications at costs of about $0.05 per base pair, and experts I've spoken to attest it could be two orders of magnitude lower for DNA data storage applications. (The end use affects the cost of DNA because each application has different requirements for accuracy, length, and yield.)

Image source: Getty Images.

Either way, even with the best technology today, it would take several months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to synthesize an equivalent amount of DNA held in a single cell of E. coli -- something the bacterium does for free in about 20 minutes.

The good news is the cost has fallen quickly -- it was $1 per base pair not long ago. The not-so-good news is Microsoft estimates costs would need to fall by a factor of 10,000 before DNA data storage could really take off.

The company will likely be powerless to drive down the cost of DNA synthesis without outside help from biotech companies (supply) and fellow tech peers (demand). That's why Microsoft has partnered with the University of Washington and DNA synthesis leader Twist Bioscience, which has received investments from Illumina and Applied Materials, among others.

Earlier this year the trio made significant progress developing the basic technology required for DNA data storage, such as error-free read and write capabilities. The early-stage work also shows which areas need drastic improvement:

The biggest cost reductions will come from synthesizing DNA as close to free as possible (nature does this pretty efficiently), although improvements in technologies allowing us to more fully tap into the awesome storage density of DNA will greatly improve the cost-benefit ratio as well.

Put it all together and today's DNA synthesis and DNA data storage technologies would enable digital data storage devices at a cost of between $2 billion and $4 billion per TB. That's awfully expensive, but tremendous cost reductions -- more than 99.9% -- are possible with the proper effort and investments.

It may seem ridiculous, but investors should know there is precedent for dropping costs of biotechnologies over 99.9%. The amazing success of the Human Genome Project, which was initiated to spur innovation in DNA sequencing ("reading genes"), serves as a great example of what's possible. The cost of sequencing a human genome fell from $3 billion at the start of the project to just $1,000 today. Illumina thinks it can reduce that to $100 in the near future.

The recently announced Genome Write Project, which aims to spur innovation in DNA synthesis and construction ("writing genes"), is the logical follow-up to the Human Genome Project. Catalyzing a similar cost reduction to its scientific predecessor would drop DNA data storage costs from $2 billion to $4 billion per TB today to market-ready prices in the next 15 to 20 years, perhaps much sooner for data-center applications when power consumption and footprint costs are factored in.

However, the Genome Write Project's main problem is a lack of funding: Other than a $250,000 grant from Autodesk, there isn't much funding to speak of, despite interest in DNA data storage for data centers from across the industry. If Microsoft is serious about delivering DNA data storage technology to the market, it may want to consider funding the public research project in addition to its in-house R&D. Otherwise, it may be difficult to drum up support from tech peers -- who represent future synthetic DNA demand.

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See the article here:
Microsoft's DNA-Powered Server Cost $2 Billion -- but Prices Could Drop Over 99.9% - Madison.com

We recently had Dr. Craig Venter speak at our Splash Health 2017 event. Dr. Venter is the first person to sequence a human genome, simply put: the instructions and information about human development, physiology, and evolution. In his interview, he points out that 15 years ago, sequencing a human genome would have cost $100 million and take over nine months.

Oh how far weve come. Today, there are a number of companies helping us to analyze our genes, or basically our DNA, which make up genes, to understand our physiology. Advances in sequencing the human genome have been the foundation for this knowledge, and is ultimately paving the path toward personalized medicine - therapies that are personalized to a persons genetic code, and its cousin regenerative medicine - therapies that replace or enable damaged cells, organs to regenerate.

One company, Orig3n, is doing both. Boston-based Orig3n started out in 2014 collecting blood samples to conduct regenerative medicine studies, but later added in the ability to conduct DNA testing to learn more about a persons intelligence, or predisposition to learning languages, to knowing what vitamins theyre deficient in.

Its an interesting an unique funnel the company has created for itself on its way to solve big problems with regenerative medicine, which seems more in its infancy than DNA testing.

To that end, Orig3ns DNA testing business has taken off.

In order to be tested, you take a cotton swab and swab the inside of your cheek to collect DNA samples from the cells inside your mouth. Alternatively, one could spit in a tube, which is how 23andMe collects samples of DNA.

From there, Orig3n breaks down the cells to open up the DNA, which is inside the nucleus of the cell. The DNA is then purified and put into a genetic test panel. Your DNA is then analyzed against other DNA that have been collected and studied.

The analysis of the DNA is pretty standard. What differentiates its products, according to Robin Smith, Founder and CEO, is how the analysis is packaged and how quickly the results are turned around. The whole genome sequencing world has been around for 15 years and is fairly commoditized, said Smith. The same thing is happening with DNA detection. The biggest differentiator for Orig3n is that it delivers the data in ways that are understandable, said Smith.

For instance, on Orig3n, tests focus on an analysis of your skin to perfect your skincare routine, or about your strength and intelligence. Tests range from $20 to $100.

On Everlywell, you can take a DNA test to measure your sensitivity to foods. Or for around $239, it appears you can test to see if you have HIV, Herpes Type 2 and other sexual diseases.

On 23andMe, you can pay $199 to learn what proportion of your genes come from 31 populations worldwide, or what your genetic weight predisposes you to weigh vs an average and what are some healthy habits of people with your genetic makeup [though personally these habits seem to be good for anyone regardless of genetic makeup].

But for Orig3n, the DNA tests are just a good business while also a funnel to the bigger problem theyre trying to solve, and for which they recently raised $20 million for: Regenerative medicine.

Before offering the DNA tests, Orig3n was taking and continues to take blood samples, reprogramming cells to go back to a state three days prior. And from there, they can grow certain tissues. The purpose of Orig3n is to create cell therapies for various diseases and disorders.

In the next fives year, there will be real live therapies to repairing the degeneration of your eyes or performing some cardiac repair, Smith predicted. It feels like 1993 when I used a phone line to dial into the Internet, then seven years later we had the boom. We think regenerative medicine - getting your body to induce itself to rejuvenate parts that are broken - is where the Internet was in 1993.

Original post:
DNA testing - on the road to regenerative medicine - VatorNews