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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Ex-Alta 1 satellite is calling home to Alberta – The Globe and Mail

Posted: May 28, 2017 at 7:17 am

Ex-Alta 1, Albertas first orbiting satellite, is alive and well and phoning home.

The 30-centimetre-long probe, built by students at the University of Alberta, was sprung from the International Space Station at 4:55 EST on Friday morning.

Video footage showed the deployment was successful. The rectangular satellite, roughly the size of a milk carton, can be seen shooting out of a dispenser on the side of the space station and then receding into the deep blue backdrop of Earth scrolling by in the distance.

Also: Student-built satellite puts Alberta into orbit

But Ex-Alta 1s mission team had to wait until the satellite turned on its radio transmitter to be sure everything worked as planned. Confirmation came about 8:40 a.m. EST as the miniature spacecraft passed over East Asia and its radio beacon was picked up by ground stations in Japan and South Korea.

Until now, we couldnt allow ourselves to imagine very far beyond this point, said an elated Charles Nokes, the missions project manager, who joined the U of A effort to develop and launch a homegrown satellite nearly four years ago.

When we last turned it on, it did what it was supposed to do, he added. But theres always a bit of trepidation. Could something go wrong?

Now that the satellite appears to be working, the teams worst-case fears that it would fail to activate after being dormant for 10 months while waiting for launch and then deployment from the space station have finally been banished.

Mr. Nokes said that over the weekend, the team will work on establishing direct contact with Ex-Alta 1 and stabilizing its orientation as it orbits so that it can begin to gather scientific data.

The first measurement should come from a sensitive and lightweight magnetometer that was designed at the University of Alberta and will now get its debut in orbit.

Ex-Alta 1 is the only Canadian representative in a larger international project called QB50 that has helped to shepherd dozens of student satellite teams to the launch pad.

As part of the project, 28 small cubesats from 16 countries are to be released from the space station this month, with eight more scheduled to piggyback off the launch of an Indian satellite in June.

For students hoping to gain project management skills or boost their chances of breaking into the aerospace industry, the experience that comes with getting something into orbit, no matter how small, is hard to top.

Being part of @AlbertaSat with Ex-Alta 1 cubesat was invaluable to me! wrote Kirsten Cote, a graduate student in earth and space science at York University in Toronto and a former team member who was posting updates about the deployment on Twitter early Friday morning.

Its really building the next generation of highly qualified people that could enter the space market or even the high-tech market in the future, said Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, director-general of space science and technology at the Canadian Space Agency.

Dr. Piedboeuf said the agency is now consulting with interested universities as it develops a new initiative to fund 13 student cubesats, one built in each province and territory in Canada. The satellites would be launched in two batches in 2020 and 2021 and would operate for up to 12 months.

Theres a real opportunity here to attract young people into the space sector that would normally see this as something that is too difficult to reach, he said.

Cubesat building has become a popular activity among aerospace programs worldwide. It is a project that university students can realistically accomplish with a price typically in the range of $200,000 per satellite, not including launch.

But while the goal creating a cubesat is increasingly accessible, the technical challenges of spaceflight remain daunting and the potential for failure high.

Mr. Nokes said there were some hard lessons and a lot of backtracking along the way to getting Ex-Alta 1 off the ground. But he added that for students interested in launching their own cubesats, the takeaway message from his teams experience is a positive one.

Its totally doable, he said.

Follow Ivan Semeniuk on Twitter: @ivansemeniuk

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Will Humans Land On Mars In The Next 50 Years? – Forbes – Forbes

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Forbes

Will Humans Land On Mars In The Next 50 Years? - Forbes
Forbes
Will we have landed on Mars in the coming 50 years? This question was originally answered on Quora by Nicolas Nelson.

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How A Gene Editing Tool Went From Labs To A Middle-School Classroom – NPR

Posted: at 7:16 am

Will Shindel prepares for a gene-editing class using the CRISPR tool at a Brooklyn community lab called Genspace. Alan Yu/WHYY hide caption

Will Shindel prepares for a gene-editing class using the CRISPR tool at a Brooklyn community lab called Genspace.

On a Saturday afternoon, 10 students gather at Genspace, a community lab in Brooklyn, to learn how to edit genes.

There's a recent graduate with a master's in plant biology, a high school student who started a synthetic biology club, a medical student, an eighth grader, and someone who works in pharmaceutical advertising.

"This is so cool to learn about; I hadn't studied biology since like ninth grade," says Ruthie Nachmany, one of the class participants. She had studied anthropology, visual arts, and environmental studies in college, but is now a software engineer.

In the 1970s, personal computers emerged from labs and universities and became something each person could have. That made it possible for people like Nachmany to become a professional programmer despite not having studied it in school.

Some compare that democratization of personal computing in the '70s to the current changes in access to genetic engineering tools.

In 2015, the journal Science declared the gene editing tool CRISPR Cas9 the breakthrough of the year. It let scientists make changes in DNA of living cells easier and cheaper than before. Today, the CRISPR tool is no longer something that only researchers do in labs. You can take classes in gene editing at a community lab. You can buy a $150 kit to do it at home. Some middle schoolers are doing it in their science classes.

Genspace lab manager Will Shindel, who teaches the genome-editing class, says his students are usually professionals who want to learn a new career skill or curious everyday people. "They just know that it's this word that everybody's throwing around," Shindel says. "It's either going to lead to the singularity or the apocalypse."

Shindel, a biologist by training, is one of many people now dreaming about and starting synthetic biology projects using the CRISPR tool. With some friends, he is working on genetically engineering a spicy tomato. Some people are trying to make bacteria produce insulin. At Acera, an elementary and middle school in Massachusetts, 13-year-old Abby Pierce recently completed a CRISPR experiment, genetically modifying bacteria so that it could grow in an antibiotic that would have killed it otherwise.

Pierce's science teacher, Michael Hirsch, made the argument to get genetic engineering kits for his science students to experiment with in class. "It's going to take molecular bio out of the 'Oh man, cool, they do it in labs' to 'Wait, we can do this in our homes,' " Hirsch says. "We could do things like create pigments, and create flavor extracts, and all of these really nifty things safely and carefully in our kitchens."

New skill set

In fact, the University of Pennsylvania's Orkan Telhan argues, genetic engineering will become an increasingly important skill, like coding has been. Telhan is an associate professor of fine arts and emerging design practices and he worked with a biologist and an engineer on a desktop machine that allows anyone to do genetic engineering experiments, without needing a background in biology.

"Biology is the newest technology that people need to learn," Telhan says. "It's a new skill set everyone should learn because it changes the way you manufacture things, it changes the way we learn, store information, think about the world." As an example of a recent application, Telhan points to an Adidas shoe made from bioengineered fiber, inspired by spider silk.

The comparison between genetic engineering and computing is not new. Two years ago at a conference, MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito gave a talk called "Why bio is the new digital":

Genspace Lab Manager Will Shindel mixes all the chemicals before class, so the students don't have to make calculations to dilute them during the class. Alan Yu/WHYY hide caption

Genspace Lab Manager Will Shindel mixes all the chemicals before class, so the students don't have to make calculations to dilute them during the class.

"You can now take all of the gene bricks, these little parts of genetic code, categorize them as if they were pieces of code, write software using a computer, stick them in a bacteria, reboot the bacteria and the bacteria just as with computers, usually does what you think it does."

'We need to dig deeper'

Gene editing tools have already started a debate about ethics and safety. Some scientists have warned about not just intentionally harmful uses, but also potential unintended consequences or dangerous mistakes in experimentation.

The German government in March sent out a warning about one kind of CRISPR kit, saying officials found potentially harmful bacteria on two kits they tested, though it's not clear how those bacteria got there. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control responded with a statement earlier this month that the risk to people using these kits was low and asked EU member states to review their procedures around these kits.

Earlier, the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety also issued a reminder that depending on the kit, genetic-engineering laws still applied, and doing this work outside of a licensed facility with an expert supervisor could lead to a fine of up to 50,000 euros ($56,000).

In the U.S., then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in early 2016 added genome editing to a list related to "weapons of mass destruction and proliferation." But bioengineering experts say overall, the U.S. government agencies have long been monitoring the gene-editing and the DIY bio movement "very proactive in understanding" the field, as Johns Hopkins University biosecurity fellow Justin Pahara puts it.

"There is a lot of effort going into understanding the scope of DIY biology, who can do it, what can be done, what are some of the concerns, how do we mitigate risk," says Pahara, who is also a co-founder of bioengineering-kit company Amino Labs. He says DIY bio, or biohacking, poses little security concern for now, being at a very early stage.

"I would suggest that just all of these discussions, including looking into the past at computing and other technologies, [have] really helped us understand that we need to dig deeper," he says.

More variables

As much as the gene-engineering revolution is being compared to the PC revolution before it, bacteria are not as predictable as computers, says Kristala Prather, associate professor of chemical engineering at MIT. Her team studies how to engineer bacteria so they produce chemicals that can be used for fuel, medications and other things.

"I have a first-year graduate student ... who was lamenting the fact that even though she has cloned genes many times before, it's taking her a little while to get things to work well at my lab," Prather says. "And my response to her is that the same is true for about 80 percent of students who come into my group."

Prather explains that engineering bacteria isn't quite like coding because many more variables are at play.

"One of the common mistakes that people make it to assume all water is just water. The water that comes out of the tap in Cambridge is different than the water that comes out of the tap in New York," she says. "So there are very small things like that that can turn out to make a significant difference."

But Prather who remembers writing programs on a Commodore 64 computer as a 13-year-old is nonetheless excited about the prospect of more people learning about genetic engineering through kits and classes: She says even if all this access does right now is get more people excited about becoming scientists, it's still really valuable.

Alan Yu reports for WHYY's health and science show, The Pulse. This story originally appeared on an episode of its podcast called Do It Yourself.

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Genetic Mutation Studies Help Validate New Strategy for Reducing … – Lab Manager Magazine

Posted: at 7:16 am

PHILADELPHIAA new strategyan injectable antibodyfor lowering blood lipids and thereby potentially preventing coronary artery disease and other conditions caused by the build-up of fats, cholesterol, and other substances on the artery walls, is supported by findings from two new studies from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The new approach targets a protein called ANGPTL3, a regulator of enzymes that clear triglycerides and other fat molecules from the blood. Research in recent years has hinted that inherited mutations in the ANGPTL3 gene that disable its function can decrease triglyceride, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol levels.

As reported in a paper published May 24 online in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Penn Medicine, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and a group of international collaborators studied ANGPTL3 in both humans and mice. They found that blocking ANGPTL3 activity with an investigative injectable antibody, known as evinacumab, reduced triglycerides by up to 76 percent and lowered LDL cholesterol 23 percent in human study participants, and largely reversed signs of atherosclerosis in a mouse models.

Researchers also included a human genetics study of approximately 188,000 people, which found that carriers of mutations that disable ANGPTL3 had nearly 40 percent fewer incidents of coronary artery disease as compared to those with fully functioning ANGPTL3.

In the clinic, I treat many patients with very high triglycerides, but our current medications arent lowering triglycerides enough in many cases. Im delighted at the prospect of a new treatment thats a lot more potent, all the more because it lowers LDL at the same time, said study co-author Richard L. Dunbar, MD, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine and member of Penns Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics. Its very reassuring to see that people with this genetic defect actually seem to be protected from heart disease. I think that really bodes well for a therapeutic thats targeting the ANGPTL3 pathway.

In a separate study, published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) researchers from Penn Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Washington University in St. Louis, and nine other institutions, who also studied humans and mice, reported on a similar set of findings. Among these was the discovery from another large population sample that carriers of ANGPTL3-inactivating mutations had a 34 percent lower rate of coronary artery disease compared to non-carriers.

We used different lines of evidence to show that ANGPTL3 deficiency is associated with a reduced risk of coronary artery disease, said study co-author Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Penn. But ultimately we were able to identify that fact that carriers of this genetic mutation did in fact experience a benefitwith little other health risk.

The trial of research on ANGPTL3 as a potential target for atherosclerosis prevention began over a decade ago when scientists reported on two cases of familial hypolipidemia, a rare inherited condition involving abnormally low blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. Most cases of familial hypolipidemia are linked to other gene mutations that cause liver and digestive problems, but in members of this American family with the condition, Musunuru found mutations in the gene for ANGPTL3, and no associated health problems.

In the NEJM study from Dunbar and colleagues, the antibody had similar effects in an initial clinical trial in 83 people, lowering the blood levels of triglycerides measured after fasting by about 75 percent at the highest dose, and lowering LDL cholesterol by about 30 percent.

Statins and other drugs are already widely used to lower LDL cholesterol, but there are fewer options for lowering triglycerides. For treating high triglyceride levels theres really nothing out there thats quite this potent, so thats where I expect this new approach to have its greatest therapeutic benefit, Dunbar said.

Hypertriglyceridemia, a condition in which fasting triglyceride levels are greater than 150 mg/dL, is estimated to affect at least tens of millions of American adults. It is associated with coronary artery disease and other forms of atherosclerosis, and can lead to potentially fatal inflammation of the pancreas.

In principle, the strategy of targeting ANGPTL3 could have an even broader use in treating atherosclerosis in the general population. The researchers found that in a mouse model of atherosclerosis, treatment with evinacumab reduced the area of atherosclerotic lesions by 39 percent.

The population study findings, including those from the JACC study, suggest that even the partial inactivation of ANGPTL3carriers typically have one mutant copy of the gene and one working copymay be powerfully protective against coronary artery disease, which has long been one of the leading causes of death in developed countries. In the JACC study, for example, carriers of inactivating ANGPTL3 mutations had only a 17 percent reduction in triglycerides on average. But that modest reduction was associated with a 34 percent reduction in coronary artery disease risk. Moreover, Musunuru and his colleagues found that the people in their sample with the lowest blood levels of ANGPTL3 had a 35 percent lower rate of heart attacks compared to those with the highest ANGPTL3 levels.

Dunbar noted that the population study findings probably have lain to rest a lingering concern about targeting ANGPTL3, namely its effect in lowering not just LDL and triglycerides but also the so-called good cholesterol, known as HDL cholesterol. If lowering HDL were a major concern, then I dont think we would have seen the evidence of overall benefit that we did in this study, he said.

The two studies together suggest that single copies of inactivating ANGPTL3 mutations are found in roughly one of every 250 people of European descent, whereas people with mutations in both copies of the geneas in the family studied by Musunuru and colleaguesare much rarer.

According to Dunbar, the next logical step would be to take evinacumab into larger clinical trials to study its safety, effectiveness, and optimal dosing. The effect of even a single dose lasts for several months, and its plausible that with multiple doses we would see an even deeper and more sustained effect, he said.

Additional Penn authors on the NEJM study include Scott Damrauer, MD, Aeron Small, and Daniel J. Rader MD, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology study include Xiao Wang, PhD, Daniel J. Rader, MD, and Danish Saleheen, MBBS, PhD.

Funding sources for the studies detailed in this press release included grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (R01HL131961), (K08HL114642), (R01HL118744), (R01HL127564), and (R21HL120781) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Editors Note: Dunbar has received grant support from and consulted for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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Idaho university gets grant to test DNA in convictions – Washington … – Washington Times

Posted: at 7:15 am

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Convicts who believe they were wrongfully convicted of murder or forcible rape may benefit from a $630,000 federal grant to test DNA.

But none of the money can be used in Idaho cases.

Why? Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden will not sign a federally required form certifying that the states DNA testing and collection practices comply with federal requirements. He told Boise State University that those requirements and Idaho law do not mesh, and that he has no jurisdiction over Idaho law enforcement agencies.

The grant was originally intended for the nonprofit Idaho Innocence Project, which sought it. The project, which focuses on Idaho convictions, is led by criminal justice and biology professor Greg Hampikian.

Since Wasden will not sign the letter, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to award the grant to Hampikian and Boise State, not to the project. That allows grant money to be used in other states.

Hampikian said he plans to use the grant to work on cases with similar innocence projects in Montana, Georgia, Illinois and other states whose officials agree to sign the form.

NO STATE LAW, NO JURISDICTION

The Idaho Innocence Project was one of just seven organizations in 2016 to receive federal grants under the Justice for All Act enacted in 2004. The grant program, the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, is named for the first death-row inmate in the U.S. exonerated by DNA evidence.

For the money to be used for DNA testing in any state, the states chief legal officer must sign a one-page form certifying that the state provides post-conviction DNA testing in murder and forcible rape cases and that it preserves biological evidence in those cases.

Wasden said limitations in Idaho law prevent it from meeting the requirements. For example, Idaho law requires preservation of DNA evidence only in sexual assault cases.

There is no similar Idaho statute that applies to testing and preservation of biological cases in the cases of murder, Wasden wrote in an Oct. 13, 2016, letter to Boise State explaining why he would not sign the form.

Furthermore, the form Wasden is asked to sign states, I am aware that a false statement in this certification may be the subject of criminal prosecution. But Wasden said he lacks jurisdiction over any police agencies in Idaho, including the Idaho State Police, and over the state crime lab. He said he cannot certify that all jurisdictions in Idaho take reasonable measures to collect and preserve biological evidence in murder and forcible rape cases.

Some states do have post-conviction DNA collection and preservation laws, and their attorneys general have jurisdiction over state crime labs. For example, in Montana, the attorney general heads the Department of Justice, which includes the state patrol and state crime lab.

Also, Montana has a post-conviction DNA preservation statute, said Toby Cook, an attorney with Montana Innocence Project.

Montana has already sent two DNA cases to Hampikian, one involving sex abuse and one involving the slaying of a bartender.

There was no physical evidence connecting our clients to any of the crimes in either case, Cook said. Instead, their convictions were based on shaky eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence.

40 IN THE U.S. EXONERATED

Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 in the rape and killing of a 9-year-old girl in Maryland.

In 1992, Bloodworth learned about new DNA testing. Prosecutors agreed to DNA testing of the victims clothing and other evidence. The DNA did not match Bloodsworths. He was exonerated and released from prison in 1993. After his release, he became an advocate for DNA testing and for abolishing the death penalty.

Idaho filmmaker Gregory Bayne released a documentary in 2015 about the case, Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man.

Forty men and women have been exonerated since the Bloodsworth program started in 2004.

IDAHO PROJECT STILL OPEN

The Idaho Innocence Project is funded by grants and donations. Even though the new grant cannot be used on Idaho cases, Hampikians team will keep working on them.

We are still open for business, Hampikian said. We are not turning away cases.

The project typically handles about a half-dozen Idaho cases at a time.

An earlier grant that can be used on Idaho cases runs out in September. Hampikian thinks additional help may be on the way.

The university is considering earmarking some discretionary funds for support of the Idaho Innocence Project for the next two years, he said.

___

Information from: Idaho Statesman, http://www.idahostatesman.com

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Microsoft plans on storing its data on DNA in the next 3 years … – ScienceAlert

Posted: at 7:15 am

If we used DNA like we use magnetic tape to store data today, it's theoretically possible to store all of the information humans have ever recorded in a space roughlythe size of a double garage.

Sharing their goals with MIT Technology Reviewthis week, Microsoft Research computer architects say they want to start storing their data on strands of DNA within the next few years, and expect to have an operational storage system using DNA within a data centre by the end of the decade.

As antiquated as it seems, one of the best ways to store a lot of information in a small space right now is good, old-fashioned magnetic tape- not only is it cheap, it's rugged enough to hold information for up to 30 years, and can hold as much as a terabyte of data per roll.

But when we consider more data has been generated in just the past two years than in all of human history, it seems even magnetic tape might not cut it in the next few decades.

A biological material such as DNA might appear to be an odd choice for backing up large amounts of digital information, yet its ability to pack enormous amounts of data in a tiny space has been clear for more than 70 years.

Back in the 1940s, physicist Erwin "cat in a box" Schrdinger proposed a hereditary "code-script" could be packed into a non-repeating structure he described as an aperiodic crystal.

His suggestion famously inspired James Watson and Francis Crick to determine DNA's helical structure based on the research of Rosalind Franklin, sparking a revolution in understanding the mechanics of life.

While strings of nucleic acid have been used to cram information into living cells for billions of years, its role in IT data storage was demonstrated for the first time just five years ago, when a Harvard University geneticist encoded his book including jpg data for illustrations in just under 55,000 thousand strands of DNA.

Since then, the technology has progressed to the point where scientists have been able to record a whopping 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) of information on a single gram of DNA.

It might be compact, but recording data in the form of a nucleic acid sequence isn't fast. Or cheap.

Last year, Microsoft demonstrated its DNA data storage technology by encoding roughly 200 megabytes of data in the form of 100 literary classics in DNA's four bases in a single process.

According to MIT Review, this process would have cost around US$800,000 using materials on the open market, meaning it would need to be thousands of times cheaper to make it a competitive option.

It was also incredibly slow, with data stored at a rate of about 400 bytes per second. Microsoft says it needs to get to around 100 megabytes per second to be feasible.

It's not clear what efficiencies Microsoft may have found to lower the costs of the process and speed it up, but new technologies have been seeing the cost of gene sequencing drop in recent years, so its end of the decade target may be realistic.

Even then, it's likely it would only be used in select circumstances for customers willing to pay for a specialised storage solution like critical archives of medical or legal data rather than as a replacement for current large-scale storage methods.

But while we're speculating, a somewhat more sci-fi use for DNA-based data storage could one day involve living computers.

While Microsoft's DNA storage solution will be based on chips, there's every possibility that future versions of storage could involve enzymes or bacteria engineered to carry out computations.

Even outside of cells, DNA potentially offers novel ways to compute data, opening ways to rapidly crunch numbers for certain problems much as quantum computers do for other areas of mathematics.

For now, it's looking as if DNA has a solid role to play in solving a very real problem that will only get worse.

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DNA Could Power the Hard Drives of the Future – Geek

Posted: at 7:15 am

So we all know DNA stores the code that makes us well possible, right? Those Gs, Ts, Cs and As might not seem like much, but theyre effectively the same as computer code. Plus, unlike computers, DNA works at the molecular scale meaning that you can pack a metric crapload of information into a really, really tiny space. With the rise of HD, constant streaming, and mega media consumption, storing staggering amounts of data in molecular form might just be a necessity.

Scientists have already been working on DNA-based computer storage for a few years now. Harvard geneticist George Church has been the technologys standard bearer since 2011, and its already made some big leaps. So far weve managed to translate hundreds of megabytes holding everything from a computer virus to an Amazon Gift Card into DNA. But thats small-time. In the next few years, Microsoft believes it can bring a DNA-based storage solution online in a commercial data center by 2020.

Thats a little ambitious, but its not without reason. On top of being tiny, DNA is easy for us to read and as long as life is around, well probably keep some technology that can read and interpret DNA on hand. Plus, while the molecule isnt super stable in the long-term (anything past 10,000 years gets rough really quick, unlike some other media which can last for up to a few million years), you can use the same enzymes that we need to reproduce and make literally millions of copies in a few hours. Sure, each will have some mistakes in the code, but with error correction and other techniques, you could have an easily reproducible archive that would be almost impossible to destroy conventionally.

Thats amazing for everyone from researchers and archivists to universities. Plus, these sorts of applications all but eliminate DNAs biggest problem when it comes to storing data its not easily searchable. Once the enzymes get going, you can do a lot quickly, but if were storing massive amounts of data in these strands, finding specific bits of code might be tough. When used as archival solution, however, theres little concern.

The next big hurdle will be sequencing. Reading the DNA is expensive even today and still costs well into the hundreds. For most applications, thats far too much for daily use. Still, Microsoft clearly thinks the idea is worth the investment. Itll be cool to see how this pans out. Maybe, one day, well all have personal archives with all the data weve ever used or needed, carried around on a small disk inside which sits self-replicating DNA. Maybe thats really what the Matrix is not some dumbass battery, but using humans as computer data dumping sacs. Itd make a helluva lot more sense, at least.

In all seriousness, the amount of data our society is producing has increased and is continuing to increase exponentially. We wont have long at all before this becomes a critical problem, and DNA is one very convenient, albeit slow and expensive, solution.

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44 ‘hits’ found in DNA testing of old, backlogged Virginia rape … – The Daily Progress

Posted: at 7:15 am

DNA testing in 431 cases of collected but previously untested biological evidence recovered in Virginia rape cases has resulted in 44 DNA database hits.

Hits are when a DNA profile matches a known profile held in the states DNA databaseprimarily the profiles of convicted felonsor matches the DNA profile of an unknown person recovered from another crime.

Officials did not identify the 44 cases Wednesday in a presentation to the Virginia Forensic Science Board. The results are being turned over to law enforcement for possible investigation, said Brad Jenkins, biology manager for the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. It is not known if any crimes have been solved as a result, he said.

Jenkins said Wednesday that the testing has led to roughly 100 profile matches so far, which then resulted in the 44 hits. The majority of those have been to in-state offenders, he said. Officials said nine were for out-of-state offenders. We have not had any case-to-case hits, he said.

The testing is being done under grants sought by DFS and Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring, who said last year that the effort would build a stronger DNA database, possibly link crimes together, put away dangerous offenders and help victims.

After the meeting Wednesday, Jenkins said he did not believe all the hits have necessarily reached police. Some are still in the report-writing phase so law enforcement may not know about all of them yet, he said.

Jenkins and Linda Jackson, the departments director, briefed the board Wednesday on developments in the continuing project.In 2015 a statewide inventory of law enforcement agencies by the DFS found that for crimes occurring from 1985 to June 30, 2014, there were nearly 3,000 untested PERKsphysical evidence recovery kitsin their possession that might hold biological evidence that could reveal a suspects DNA profile.

A $1.4 million grant is funding the testing of those kitscollected prior to July 1, 2014from which the 44 hits resulted.

An additional roughly 1,200 untested kits from July 1, 2014 until June 30, 2016when state law required all kits to be submitted for testingwill be tested under another grant, officials said. After June 30, 2016, there should be no further untested kits in light of a recent state law requiring law enforcement to submit the kits to DFS for testing with limited exceptions.

The most common reason cited by law enforcement agencies for not performing DNA testing on evidence was that it was not relevant to the investigation or needed for prosecutionfor example where consent was the suspects defense.

Another often-cited reason was that the victim decided not to assist in the investigation or pursue prosecution.

Jackson said the testing started with the backlogged rape kits from the Fairfax County and Virginia Beach police, the jurisdictions with the most kits to be tested.

Frank Green writes for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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Scientists overcome pig genome flaw – Phys.org – Phys.Org

Posted: at 7:15 am

May 24, 2017 by Sandy Fleming Credit: University of Kent

Through her work, Dr Rebecca O'Connor in the School of Biosciences, found previously undiscovered, fundamental flaws in the pig genome, the results of which have contributed to improved mapping of the pig genome.

In pigs which provide 43 percent of the meat consumed worldwide a chromosome defect can affect fertility.

With each pig producing as many as 14 piglets per litter, a faulty chromosome can reduce this by as much as half, with massive economic costs to the producer.

Dr O'Connor's research, carried out in the Griffin Laboratory, has led to the development of chromosome screening devices for both pigs and cattle and a chromosome screening service to multiple agricultural food providers.

Now with 13 clients in eight different countries, the team are screening hundreds of samples a year, as well as adapting the method to screen for chromosome abnormalities in other species.

The research findings were presented to agricultural industry leaders at the Pig Breeders Round Table Conference, one of the foremost international conferences on livestock genetics, held at the University of Kent in May 2017.

Explore further: From Mediterranean coasts to Tatra Mountains and beyond: Plant chromosome number variation

More information: R. E. O'Connor et al. Isolation of subtelomeric sequences of porcine chromosomes for translocation screening reveals errors in the pig genome assembly, Animal Genetics (2017). DOI: 10.1111/age.12548

Chromosome number is the most basic feature concerning the genome of a species, and it is known for about one third of higher plant species. In particular, for plants of Italy, Slovakia, and Poland, online chromosome number ...

In many animal species, the chromosomes differ between the sexes. The male has a Y chromosome. In some animals, however, for example birds, it is the other way round. In birds, the females have their own sex chromosome, the ...

In a study to be presented on Feb. 5 in an oral plenary session at 8 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in San Diego, researchers will report that cell free DNA analysis ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from The Australian National University have discovered that the male-specific Y-chromosome is shrinking and its happening at different rates across species.

Hokkaido University researchers have revealed that key sex-determining genes continue to operate in a mammalian species that lacks the Y chromosome, taking us a step further toward understanding sex differentiation.

In the beef industry, if a cow does not get pregnant after breeding, she becomes an economic liability in the herd. Lack of calf production can significantly reduce annual revenue for producers.

There are significant gaps in our knowledge on the evolution of sex, according to a research review on sex chromosomes from Lund University in Sweden. Even after more than a century of study, researchers do not know enough ...

(Phys.org)Eusocial insects are predominantly dependent on chemosensory communication to coordinate social organization and define group membership. As the social complexity of a species increases, individual members require ...

Scientists using a high-resolution global climate model and historical observations of species distributions on the Northeast U.S. Shelf have found that commercially important species will continue to shift their distribution ...

If you open Google and start typing "Chinese cave gecko", the text will auto-populate to "Chinese cave gecko for sale" just US$150, with delivery. This extremely rare species is just one of an increasingly large number ...

Plant scientists at the University of Cambridge have found a plant protein indispensable for communication early in the formation of symbiosis - the mutually beneficial relationship between plants and fungi. Symbiosis significantly ...

Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin first proposed a little-known prediction from his theory of sexual selection, researchers have found that male moths with larger antennae are better at detecting female signals.

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Monique Keiran: Beaver’s genome mapped for our 150th – Times Colonist

Posted: at 7:15 am

To biologists, the beaver is known as Castor canadensis. Its scientific name flaunts unabashed ties to Canada. Its common English name, however, is the North American beaver.

The animal attracted shiploads of Europeans to North America, where they reshaped the landscape in much the same way beavers reshape wetland environments. However, Canada specifically acknowledged the role the large, smelly, flat-tailed rodent played (albeit reluctantly) in shaping European headgear and this countrys development. In 1937, the country made the beaver the go-to imprint on the nickel.

Another milestone in Canadas claim to the beaver occurred this year, when Canadian researchers published the animals genome sequence.

The leader of the research team, University of Toronto molecular genetics professor Stephen Scherer, says he chose the beaver genome because of Canadas 150th anniversary and to mark our territory.

After starting his work, Scherer learned researchers in Oregon were working on the North American Beaver Genome Project. He challenged his Canadian team to be first.

Six months later, they completed the sequence.

Making the victory even more Canadian, the team sequenced the genome using a new, made-in-Canada approach.

Ward is the 10-year-old beaver from the Toronto Zoo that donated tissue samples to the project. The new method allowed the scientists to assemble Wards genome from the ground up without relying on a reference genome.

Researchers first constructed a rough draft of Wards genome with long fragments of his DNA, then fleshed it out with shorter fragments. They then assembled the sum of messenger RNA found in Wards blood and tissue samples to serve as a scaffold for the genome.

Messenger RNA molecules carry precise recipes for beaver proteins from Wards DNA to his cellular protein-building machinery. Finally, the scientists compared their results with related mammal genomes and corrected the sequence manually.

According to the results, the genome of Castor canadensis or the North America beaver comprises 2.7 billion base pairs, which reside in the 40 pairs of chromosomes within the nucleus of each of Wards cells. Thats slightly less than the approximately three billion base pairs found in the human genome. Each chromosome contains hundreds to thousands of genes, which carry the detailed instructions for making beavers beavers or humans humans and offers insights into how the animal evolved in North Americas environments through time.

This is only the latest incident of Canadians scent-marking the beaver as a significant part of our historic, cultural and now scientific territory, but Canada has been part of the genome-sequencing movement since 1998, when it announced the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy, formed Genome Canada, and joined the Human Genome Project. British Columbia is home to one of Genome Canadas technology centres, and Canadian researchers are exploring how genomics can be used to fight disease, maintain health and safeguard forests, crops, and other species from invasive pests and climate change.

For example, scientists from B.C., France, Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere recently finished sequencing the sunflower genome one of the most challenging genomes published to date, says UBC professor Loren Rieseberg, a senior researcher.

As the only major crop domesticated in North America, the sunflower provides much fodder for research. It serves as a model for how new species arise and for understanding solar tracking and plant growth.

Not only have we sequenced the sunflowers genome, but we have also built physical and genetic maps of its structure, which increases the genomes value for research and breeding.

This lays the foundation for work to use the sunflowers stress resistance and ability to grow in different climates and conditions, including drought, to adapt other crops to climate change.

These are two recent genomic advances Canadians helped make happen. Perhaps, at some point in the future, genomics research will become as much a part of the Canadian identity as Castor canadensis is.

keiran_monique@rocketmail.com

Link:
Monique Keiran: Beaver's genome mapped for our 150th - Times Colonist

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Category Archives: Transhuman News

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Monique Keiran: Beaver’s genome mapped for our 150th – Times Colonist

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