Category Archives: Transhuman News

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) Nearly a year after Jesse Matthew was convicted for the murder of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, her parents came to the Capitol asking lawmakers to take a closer look at expanding the states DNA database. They say it could have saved their daughters life.

He wouldnt have been hiding in plain sight, living in Charlottesville, working for the university medical system, coaching football at a local school, Sue Graham said during her visit to the Capitol in January.

Albemarle County Sheriff Chip Harding, who brought the Grahams to Richmond, has been fighting to expand the states DNA database for years. This week, the states crime commission decided they will study the issue taking expansion one step closer to becoming a reality.

DNA has just transformed the way we do law enforcement, Harding said. Its not only helped us locate the guilty, its helped free the innocent. If they reach the same conclusions Ido, I think we have a lot better chance of moving this initiative forward in Virginia.

Efforts to expand the DNA database have stalled in years past. Some lawmakers and groups like the ACLU have cited concerns over personal privacy, saying there has to be a balance between protecting the public and civil liberties.

That data bank in Virginia has not been abused for over a quarter of a century, Harding said.

Harding, who has worked in law enforcement for nearly 40 years, says hes encountered too many victims he says could have been saved by expanded DNA testing.

If we can take DNA upon conviction on a number of misdemeanors, I dont have to be meeting these victims, Harding said.

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State will study whether to expand DNA database - WRIC

A saliva collection kit from 23andMe. The company won FDA approval in April 2017 to offer genetic tests to evaluate the risk of developing Alzheimers, Parkinsons and other diseases.

23andMe

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first home genetic tests for 10 health risks, including Parkinsons disease and late-onset Alzheimers.

The approval -- granted to the California-based company 23andMe Inc. -- could help test users make lifestyle choices or spark important discussions with health care providers, the FDA said.

Consumers can now have direct access to certain genetic risk information, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said Thursday in an agency news release.

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Two years ago, the company 23andMe was poised to revolutionize personal genetic medicine. With a $99 saliva kit, it offered to analyze your DNA, ...

But, it is important that people understand that genetic risk is just one piece of the bigger puzzle. It does not mean they will or wont ultimately develop a disease, he added.

Along with genetics, many things can contribute to disease and illness, including lifestyle and environmental factors, the FDA said.

The newly approved tests work by isolating DNA from a saliva sample. The DNA is then tested for more than 500,000 genetic variants. The presence or absence of these variants is linked with higher risk for any one of 10 diseases and conditions.

Besides Parkinsons or late-onset Alzheimers disease, they include: celiac disease; alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, which increases risk of lung and liver disease; a movement disorder called early onset primary dystonia; factor XI deficiency (hemophilia C), a blood clotting disorder; and Gaucher disease type 1, which causes liver and spleen enlargement and growth retardation.

The other three are glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (or G6PD), a red blood cell condition; an iron overload disorder called hereditary hemochromatosis; and hereditary thrombophilia, a blood clot disorder.

Hoping to streamline approvals, the FDA plans to exempt additional 23andMe genetic health risk tests from its pre-market review. It said it may also exempt such tests from other companies that meet preliminary expectations.

By establishing special controls and a pre-market review exemption, the FDA can provide a streamlined, flexible approach for tests using similar technologies to enter the market while the agency continues to help ensure that they provide accurate and reproducible results, Shuren said.

The FDA said it does not plan exemptions for genetic health risk tests that function as diagnostic tests, which might be used for major treatment decisions. An example would be a genetic test for a BRCA mutation that may lead to removal of a womans breasts or ovaries in order to prevent cancer, the agency said.

Risks associated with the 23andMe genetic tests include false-positive findings -- meaning they wrongly indicate a key genetic variant in the test taker. Similarly, false-negative findings can occur where the results incorrectly indicate lack of a critical genetic variant.

Users of these tests should consult a health care professional with questions or concerns about results, the FDA said.

2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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FDA approves home test for Alzheimer's genetic risk - CBS News

WBAA

Bill OK'ing DNA Collection From All Felony Arrestees Passes House WBAA Legislation allowing police to collect DNA samples from anyone they arrest for a felony took a step closer to becoming law. Backers of the legislation say DNA collection will help identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Under the bill, if a ... and more »

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Bill OK'ing DNA Collection From All Felony Arrestees Passes House - WBAA

"Residente" explores different regional sounds from Tuvan throat singing to music of the Dagomba tribe. Ruben Salgado Escudero / Rub?n Salgado Escudero

What inspired you to create a film and music based on your DNA results?

"The DNA test is amazing and I thought, well, OK, I'll go to these different countries and [see] what's gonna happen. The thing is that I picked the most surprising places I thought I [would] never have blood[lines]. An album completely based on my DNA [would] take five years or so, because there's a lot of countries."

The Siberian highlands marked a profound beginning for you.

"I'm thinking, 'Why am I doing this?' I started to [become] nostalgic and melancholic because, well, when you're in the forest surrounded by wolves, you start to do that. It would be very easy to [record] in one studio, without missing my son and my wife. It was hard for everyone, but I [realized] wanted to do what I felt I needed to do."

You had written your Spanish-French single Desencuentro before the journey. It was a bit prophetic that it came to you after your first DNA test and inspired you to retake the test and create this project.

"The cool thing about Desencuentro [which means 'failure to meet up'] is that you can apply it to different situations. Like the person of your life that you're not gonna meet, never, even though you should be together, and sometimes you cross paths, but never meet. [I applied it to] the idea of DNA and how people take different paths. In Kenya, 2,000 people decided to go to Australia and another group decided [on] China. That's a desencuentro, too."

Walk me through the experience of writing while absorbing the sounds and cultures you encountered.

"Writing for me was amazing. I was feeling super excited. I write out of the studio most of the time, outside or in a bar that I like in NY. So, imagine you're surrounded by mountains in Siberia, writing. That's a dream for any writer, and then being with the Dagomba tribes. I had my notebook, writing ideas Amazing!

"The difficult thing was the language barrier and how I was going to explain to these different cultures what I wanted to do with the music. In terms of rhythms, some of them, their culture is very inside them and they don't want to get out of that. So, you have to be, not only careful [but] aware, and try to understand them and go slow. You can't go there and say 'You know this is my music and can you play over it?" No. You have to take your time."

Your recording of La Sombra with famed Tuareg guitarist Bombino (a.k.a. Omar Moctar) is very powerful. I really loved it.

"I recorded with Bombino in Burkina Faso for two weekends. He's from Niger [but] it was a little bit crazy to be there because Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda were attacking villages nearby.

After I went to Burkina Faso, they attacked the hotel next to my hotel, so it was kind of dangerous. I was a little worried but wanted to go anyways, to Niger. My DP (Director of Photography) and field producer told me, 'Don't go because you're an artist and if they know you're here, it's gonna be bad for us, too.' The thing is, sometimes they like to take hostages. So, [only] they went to film some shots.

"The song, about shadows and light, is one of my favorites. I was looking at shadow as the truth and light as a lie. Because always the shadow has a bad connotation. But in this case, it's a good connotationThe light shows you the things that you wanna see. But they don't show you the truth. Shadow gives form to objects; tells you the truth. So, I use shadow to represent Africa. So, it's kind of philosophical but it's also very accessible the way I'm saying it."

Your journey through the Caucasus-Georgia, Armenia, South Ossetia, was emotionally wrenching. I cried the whole time. And when that mother talked about her own kids dying in the children's massacre, my heart literally hurt.

"It touched me very deep, very hard. The energy that you feel there-it's incredible. You can feel that kids died. It's a weird energy but it's real. When she was talking about her sons and how they died, it was very sad. I was feeling sad the whole week, thinking, 'Why am I doing this? I always carry a lot of things-troubles of the world'-so at that time I was thinking, 'Should I carry this, too, because I'm feeling so bad?' All the stories there, they changed me."

The song that came out of that visit, Guerra, is an intense, hauntingly beautiful song that starts with war widows praying through choral harmonies.

"Yeah, they were from Chechnya. And then you have the drums from Ossetia, and the banduri (string instruments) from Georgia. And the Chechens, they were accused of bombing that school in Beslan, North Ossetia. So, I put them together.

"At that time [of the filming] I had already written Guerra (War), like two verses, from a first person point of view-not a sad song; it's la guerra like you can't beat me, I'm guerra.

But after I visited those places, the song changed. And I did a different ending that destroys war that is very experimental and very hard core, too-very Hendrix-with Omar Rodriguez Lopez playing the guitar with an orchestra and a band. I think it's a very powerful song.

This [project] is very relevant. We all come from the same place. Even though we are different, we are equally different."

The album was just released March 31st. Coincidentally, Residente learned something interesting about his genealogy: Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda turned out to be a third cousin.

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Residente Creates an Edgy, Musical Manifesto That Started With a DNA Test - NBCNews.com

A lady. A lovely, sensual, responsive Italian lady.

Thats how Car and Driver magazine described the Fiat 124 after its debut in the 1960s.

Wow. Hows that for opening thrills?

The sentiments no doubt a bit sexist by todays standards, but heck, it was the 60s. And there was a point to the seductive words: Not all sports cars have to be hard-edged. This one had all the mechanicals and quickness and a sporty suspension but also a more refined interior and quieter ride.

After a nearly 40-year absence (the classic endured till 1978, then buzzed around until 85 as the Fiat 2000), the Fiat 124 Spider has returned in the form of a 2017 model. But this time the Italian lady has a factory live-in friend, the Mazda Miata.

Mazda, you see, manufactures the 124 alongside the Miata at its Hiroshima, Japan, plant and provides many of its underpinnings. But the 124 retains the shape and body creases of its legendary Pininfarina design, and its engine is actually prebuilt and shipped from a Fiat plant in Italy. So its Fiat DNA is alive and well.

It also is 5 inches longer, has more upscale materials inside and boasts a noticeably quieter ride than the Miata. Acoustic glass and headliner help keep noise to a conversation-friendly level.

In contrast to Mazdas naturally aspirated 2.0-liter engine, the Spider gets a turbocharged 1.4-liter engine that puts out 160 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque (4 more horses ride along with the Abarth version).

Shifting the standard manual transmission in this little bug-eyed roadster is a blast, thanks to its tight six-speed shift box. A six-speed automatic is optional on all trims and, while it ticks smoothly, it can be a little sluggish to respond.

On the road, the rear-wheel-drive 124 is quick and nimble. Corners are taken confidently thanks to precision steering and Fiats own suspension components. Bumps and dips are gobbled up around town, too. The highway ride is comfortable for a roadster, and an EPA-estimated 36 mpg makes it even more tempting to take out on a road trip (25 mpg around town).

Flipping down the soft top, which has a glass rear window, is easy-breezy. It takes less than a minute and can be done without leaving the drivers seat. Just unlatch at the top and toss it behind you.

Put the top up and taller folks will find the Spiders cabin a little cramped. Roadsters typically are like airplane cockpits for those over 6 feet tall: They must carefully squeeze in each of the body parts. Same deal here, with limited headroom, legroom and elbow room.

Likewise, weekend jaunts will require thoughtful packing with a mere 4.9 cubic feet of trunk space available.

But the interior has a nice look and feel, with soft-touch materials surrounding the instrument panel and leather-wrapped steering wheel. There are piano-black accents throughout. A 7-inch touchscreen (optional on the base model) is bright and clear, and its menu is easy to navigate. A nine-speaker Bose sound system is available.

Three trim levels are offered. It starts with the base Classica, which gets 16-inch alloys, push-button start and a tiny 3-inch touchscreen. The Lusso adds 17-wheel wheels, fog lights, leather seats and a tech package with rearview camera and bigger touchscreen.

For the racing-inspired, theres the top-line Abarth: quad exhaust tips, limited-slip rear differential, adjustable driving modes and Brembo high-performance brakes, plus some sporty interior accents like simulated suede seats. Fiat even includes racing-school instruction in Arizona to every Abarth buyer willing to make the trip.

After all, this Italian lady may be lovely and sensual but she has a racy side, too.

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Fiat DNA thrives in Japanese-built 124 Spider - Virginian-Pilot

Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish are famous for engaging in complex behavior, from unlocking an aquarium tank and escaping to instantaneous skin camouflage to hide from predators. A new study suggests their evolutionary path to neural sophistication includes a novel mechanism: Prolific RNA editing at the expense of evolution in their genomic DNA.

The research builds on the scientists' prior discovery that squid display an extraordinarily high rate of editing in coding regions of their RNA -- particularly in nervous system cells -- which has the effect of diversifying the proteins that the cells can produce. (More than 60 percent of RNA transcripts in the squid brain are recoded by editing, while in humans or fruit flies, only a fraction of 1 percent of their RNAs have a recoding event.)

In the present study, the scientists found similarly high levels of RNA editing in three other "smart" cephalopod species (two octopus and one cuttlefish) and identified tens of thousands of evolutionarily conserved RNA recoding sites in this class of cephalopods, called coleoid. Editing is especially enriched in the coleoid nervous system, they found, affecting proteins that are the key players in neural excitability and neuronal morphology.

In contrast, RNA editing in the more primitive cephalopod Nautilus and in the mollusk Aplysia occurs at orders of magnitude lower levels than in the coleoids, they found. "This shows that high levels of RNA editing is not generally a molluscan thing; it's an invention of the coleoid cephalopods," Rosenthal says. In mammals, very few RNA editing sites are conserved; they are not thought to be under natural selection. "There is something fundamentally different going on in these cephalopods where many of the editing events are highly conserved and show clear signs of selection," Rosenthal says.

The scientists also discovered a striking trade-off between high levels of RNA recoding and genomic evolution in these cephalopods. The most common form of RNA editing is carried out by ADAR enzymes, which require large structures (dsRNA) flanking the editing sites. These structures, which can span hundreds of nucleotides, are conserved in the coleoid genome along with the editing sites themselves. The genetic mutation rate in these flanking regions is severely depressed, the team reported.

"The conclusion here is that in order to maintain this flexibility to edit RNA, the coleoids have had to give up the ability to evolve in the surrounding regions - a lot," Rosenthal says. "Mutation is usually thought of as the currency of natural selection, and these animals are suppressing that to maintain recoding flexibility at the RNA level."

Rosenthal and colleagues at the MBL are currently developing genetically tractable cephalopod model systems to explore the mechanisms and functional consequences of their prolific RNA editing. "When do they turn it on, and under what environmental influences? It could be something as simple as temperature changes or as complicated as experience, a form of memory," he says.

The Daily Galaxy via Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory

Image credit: With thanks to Alamy Photos

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"RNA Trumps DNA" --In the Evolution of Earth's Smartest "Alien" Species - The Daily Galaxy (blog)

Antonio Smith, 35, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and sexual assault. View Full Caption

DNAinfo; Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE DNA evidence has linked a South Side man to three violent rapes, including a case where the victim later died of injuries sustained in the attack.

Antonio Smith, 35, appeared in bond court Friday on charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon.

"You are an extreme danger to the community," Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. said in court. "Bond will be denied."

The first attack happened Feb. 8, 2002, as a 33-year-old woman walked in the 4600 block of South Prairie Avenue, Assistant State's Attorney Mary Anna Planey said.

Smith is accused of approaching the woman and having a brief conversation before punching her multiple times in a nearby vacant lot. Smith then raped the woman, knocked her unconscious with a brick and stole her coat, keys and money, prosecutors said.

A rape kit was collected at Provident Hospital.

On Jan. 11, 2007, police found a 46-year-old woman unconscious and naked from the waist down near a carport in the 4200 block of South Prairie Avenue, Planey said.

The victim had been raped and beaten so badly that she had loose teeth, multiple lacerations to her head and bruises on her face, prosecutors said. She remained unconscious for two months and later died of her injuries on Oct. 27, 2008.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, the victim died of anoxic encephalopathy, a condition in which brain tissue is so deprived of oxygen that a victim suffers a "global loss of brain function." The case was ruled a homicide; the cause of death was blunt-force trauma.

A rape kit was also collected in this case.

On Aug. 14, 2010, Smith approached a 35-year-old woman walking near 80th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, and asked if she wanted to get a drink, prosecutors said. The woman agreed and got into Smith's car.

Smith then pulled into a parking lot, where he proceeded to repeatedly punch the victim before raping her, Planey said. The woman was found unconscious and partially naked about 5:30 a.m. in the 1000 block of East 80th Street. Her underwear had been pulled down to her thighs, prosecutors said.

A rape kit was collected at Jackson Park Hospital, where the victim was treated for multiple contusions, lacerations and soft-tissue damage, Planey said.

Roughly two years later, on May 22, 2012, Smith was convicted of retail theft and sentenced to 12 months probation, according to prosecutors. Following that felony conviction, Smith's DNA was collected and entered into a national database.

DNA collected from the 2002, 2007 and 2010 rapes soon proved to be a match to Smith, prosecutors said.

It is unclear why prosecutors then waited five years to file charges.

Smith, of the 7000 block of South Indiana Avenue, has two living children, ages 14 and 15, and works odd jobs to make money, his public defender said Friday.

Smith is the father of Antonio Smith Jr., who was 9 years old when he was gunned down in 2014. The boy was in a South Side yard when four men seeking to shoot rival gang members opened fire, prosecutors previously said.

RELATED: Men Who Killed Antonio Smith, 9, Were Hunting Rival Gang Members

Four men were charged with first-degree murder in 2014. Their cases are still pending before Judge Evelyn B. Clay. The men will next appear in court separately on April 18, April 20, April 25 and May 2.

Excerpt from:
DNA Links South Side Man to 3 Cold-Case Rapes, 1 Murder - DNAinfo