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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Synthetic biology to help colonize Mars – PLoS Blogs (blog)

Posted: March 1, 2017 at 8:49 pm

Shannon Nangle finished her PhD ready to take on a new challenge and set her sights on research to help makeMars colonization possible. But she isnt pursuing research on rocket fuels or space suits. Shes using synthetic biology to improve biomanufacturing of needed resources using simple inputs like sunlight,water, and CO2.

In 2015, a collaboration between Pam Silver and Daniel Noceras lab showed that the bacteriumRalstonia eutropha could be used along with water splitting to create biomass andfusel alcohols. Then in 2016 they followed up with bionic leaf 2.0 that useda more biocompatible catalyst to beat the efficiency of natural photosynthesis. Now, the technology has to beexpanded and scaled up to take on the many potential applications of an efficient solar to bioproduct technology.

To find out about the latest work to help move the bionic leaf out of the lab and maybe one day to Mars, I met with Shannon and graduate student Marika Ziesack, both members of Pam Silvers lab, in their Harvard Medical School lab space. I saw the benchtop setup for testingRalstonia eutrophawiththe biocompatible catalysts. A power source connects to the small electrodes that sit in the compartment with the bacteria. As the electricity is applied it splits waterwhich as H2O has two hydrogens and one oxygen atom into hydrogen and oxygen. The bacterium,Ralstonia eutropha in this case, can then use that hydrogen along with carbon dioxide to produce biomass like thebio-plastic precursor polymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB).

Ralstonia eutrophacan also be engineered to overproduce certain fatty acids and enzymes that allow for more biopolymers than just PHB. Thats one of the improvements that Shannon and Marika are working on so that biopolymers with different structural properties can be produced and used as biodegradable materials here on earth or as renewable building blocks on Mars.

Other engineering improvements can be made so the bacteria can tolerate stresses like high salt concentrations that can improve conductivity of the solution. They even mentioned the possibility of a bacterium that can grow in a mixture that includes urine waste to allowmore sustainable water recycling. Bacteria grown in a lab or production facility usually need a feedstock of biomass that can end up being the big cost in the bioplastic production. With sunlight, water, and air as inputs its possible to bypass the expensive feedstocks that would be normally be used to create these bioplastics.

To truly tackle applications like space exploration, synthetic biology will need to prove itself in the field. Others have noted that synthetic biology can be crucial to a Mars mission but first it has to get off of a lab bench. Thats why the team at Harvard areworking on more portable versions of the bionic leaf to hopefully show that it could work outside of the labusing only resources readily found on Earth or on Mars: solar power, water, and carbon dioxide.

Among the many challenges of Mars colonization would be the need to use resources found on Mars instead of bringing everything from Earth. This use of resources found in space is usually referred to as in situ resource utilization, and it would be necessary for long term space missions or colonization. There is a different set of resources out in space than on Earth, but in the last few years NASA has shown that water exists on Mars with frozen deposits reaching the amount of water in Lake Superior. Then if solar power can be used to split that water then hydrogen would be produced and you would just need CO2 to produce bioplastics. Fortunately, even though Mars atmosphere is 100 times less dense than on Earth, 96% of it is made up of CO2. So if a technology like synthetic biology can reliably turnwater and CO2 into useful materials would be ideal for conditions on Mars.

Then once engineered bacteria can convert the in situ resources into something useful like bioplastics, further processing can be done to make needed tools. With bioplastics that can mean 3D printing of products that are made in a renewable fashion with biodegradable materials. So even if this technology never makes it to Mars it may finds ways to replace some of the harsh chemical processes we currently use with biological processes.

Biology has already found a way to do many chemical processes extremely efficiently without high heat or harshchemicals often used in industrial processes. As researchers learn to harness the diverse biological pathways that already exist there will be more opportunities to engineer cells that can replace chemical reactors. More sophisticated models could even lead to predictions of exactly which pathway should be used to meet your final product needs. The possibility of taking advantage of so many capabilities that biology provides is what excites so manyover synthetic biology as a technology.

But for now,the bionic leaf and other promising synthetic biology tools will haveto prove how they can scale and perform in tough conditions outside of the lab. As they do that, synthetic biology researchers like Shannon will be moving us toward the big goals likemaking Mars colonization possible.

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Synthetic biology to help colonize Mars - PLoS Blogs (blog)

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When Humans Begin Colonizing Other Planets, Who Should Be in Charge? – Smithsonian

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What thorny ethical issues await us once we make it to Mars? A composite image of the red planet, composed by processing about 1000 Viking Orbiter red- and violet-filter images have been to provide global color coverage at a scale of 1 km/pixel.

Every summer for the past 20 years, Pascal Lee has traveled to the remote Canadian Arctic to pretend hes on Mars. This cold, dry, pockmarked and essentially lifeless environment is one of the closest to the red planet that you can find on Earthmaking it a great practice ground for driving Mars rovers.

Lee, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute in California, is the director of the NASA Haughton Mars Project, where he uses this analog Mars environment to investigate scientific questions concerning how humans might threaten life on other planets we colonize.

For example, if humans travel to Mars, would microbes transferred from our bodies thrive on Martian soilthreatening native Martian microbes and disrupting native ecosystems? Recent results from Lees research suggest the answer to that is no, at least not on the surface of Martian soil: Mars harsh climate and high UV radiation would kill off many of the microbes we may accidentally bring from Earth.

But the Haughton Mars Projectalong with other Mars analog study sites in Antarctica and the Atacama Desert in Chilealso inadvertently bring to light numerous ethical questions of how we should behave as interplanetary colonists. As humans accelerate their space travel capacity and aim tocolonize Marsin the next several decades, these questions are becoming less lofty and more immediately urgent.

Here's another scenario: If humans were to land on Mars and were somehow lethally threatened by Martians, should humans attack the Martians? In his personal opinion, Lee says the answer would be yes. If at some point it came down to either me or the microbe on Mars thats going to survive, Im probably not going to hesitate, he says.

Yet these are not simple questions to address, and are not within the realm of the Haughton Mars Project to answer. The International Council for Science, consisting of 142 countries, has organized a Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) to help answer some of these questions and a United Nations Outer Space Treaty, in place since 1967, also helps streamline some of the ethical and legal implications that this issue raises.

But the treaty is meant to protect the safety of humans and scientific evidence of life on other planets, not to protect the environments or ecosystems of those planets. Moreover, the contents of the treaty are just guidelines: They are not laws, and the legal implications of not following them remain unclear, says Catharine Conley, head officer at NASAs Planetary Protection Office.

The peer pressure approach has, up until now, worked, she says, explaining that its in space agencies best interest to work together since they often rely on each other for collaboration and advancement. But now, as more private companies like SpaceX enter the field to visit Mars, the playing field has changed.

When you have other entities included that dont have those same long term science objectives, it gets more complicated, says Conley.

Under the current treaty guidelines, federal governments are responsible for the behavior of both their space agencies and nongovernmental space entities in their country. So a company like SpaceX must be authorized to launch by a government agency before lift offbut if it accidentally or intentionally fails to comply with the treaty guidelines at some point in flight, another country could theoretically sue the U.S. government or take other legal actions, says Conley.

Despite general good intentions and hard work to keep spacecraft free of contaminants, Conley says the biggest threat humans pose to other planets is what we dont knowor what we think we know, but dont. While research from the Haughton Mars Project suggests limited microbial transfer from rovers to Mars soil, other dynamics could exist on Mars or other planets that researchers havent even thought to anticipate.

For certain types of Earth organisms, Mars is a gigantic dinner plate, says Conley. We dont know, but it could be that those organisms would grow much more rapidly than they would on Earth because they have this unaffected environment and everything is there for them to use.

So far, most of the attention to these ethical issues has focused on Mars, the most realistic subject of colonization in the near future. But other types of planets may bring up new concerns. You can invent all kinds of scenarios, but the problem is currently its all open because no one has explored these things before, says Conley, referring to the legal implications of contaminating Mars or another planet. So until you have a case, you cant decide what to do. But of course from the standpoint of planetary protection, as soon as you have a case, something has already gone wrong.

There are also dangers that fall beyond the realm of planetary protection. Take energy production: In order for humans to live on another planet, we will need to develop a way to produce electricity. A substance calledperchlorateexists in relatively high quantities on Mars (and also on Earth in bleach and other substances), making up about 1 percent of all the dust on the red planet. This highly energetic salt could potentially offer a good source of energy for humans on Mars, but not if humans accidentally introduce a microbe that eats it up before we have a chance to use it, says Conley.

Unfortunately, the guidelines put in place by the Outer Space Treaty wont necessarily prevent this type of mistake from happening. The guidelines are strict on keeping spacecraft clean when looking for life on other planets, but less stringent for spacecraft traveling to a celestial body for other reasons. This is because planetary protection guidelines exist to preserve scientific evidence of extraterrestrial lifenot the environments of other planets, saysGerhard Kminek,the planetary protection officer at the European Space Agency.

Working groups of COSPAR, including thePanel on Potentially Environmentally Detrimental Activities in Space, do explore how space activities might disrupt other planets environments. These panels report to the United Nations with their findings. But again, they only offer guidelines, not laws, says Kminek. So its up to international space agencies to recognize the importance of building best practices in spacecraft sanitation and keeping up with the sometimes onerous standards set by the Outer Space Treaty.

If you do it badly once, that might be enough to compromise any future investigation related to life, says Kminek. And thats why there is strong international consensus making sure there are no bad players around.

The standards for travel also differ from one celestial body to another. For instance, Mars atmosphere is thick enough that it will burn off certain microbes upon entryallowing spacecraft sanitation standards to remain laxer than they would be for vehicles landing somewhere with a very thin atmosphere, like Jupiters moon Europa, Kminek says.

That is, at least based on our understanding of these celestial bodies right now. During the Apollo missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s, we learned how unforeseen obstacles can cause critical problems in space travel. On the Moon, the threat lunar dust posed to astronauts was underestimated until it started getting stuck in the crevices of their face and in their zippers, jeopardizing the integrity of their spacesuits, saysMargaret Race, a colleague of Conleys at the SETI Institute.

Had they been up there a little longer, their spacesuits would not have worked, Race says.

Late astronaut and engineer Eugene Cernan, the last man to have walked on the Moon, stated the enormity of the dust problem during anApollo 17 technical debriefin 1973: I think dust is probably one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the Moon, he stated. We can overcome other physiological or physical or mechanical problems except dust.

Humans also didnt do a good job limiting the transport of material from Earth to the Moon or vice versa, says Race. The Moon is lifeless, so this had little consequence on either celestial body. But if the Moon harbored life and a transfer of species did occur, the consequences would have been far greater. If there were life on the Moon, we would have it here now, she says. We did the best we could at the time, but we didnt understand.

While space engineering has come a long way since the Apollo missions, plenty of work remains to determine the best practices in protecting life on other planets from humans, says Conley. And when we do finally land on Mars, the advancements will need to continueeven if it appears that scientists have sufficient knowledge of human threat to other planets.

My response to that is, as soon as you eat your first candy bar, do you stop brushing your teeth? says Conley. We should keep doing it. Because, in the end, what we dont know willend up being the most dangerous threat humans pose to these other worlds.

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When Humans Begin Colonizing Other Planets, Who Should Be in Charge? - Smithsonian

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Rampant Growth of Giant Animal in ‘Okja’ Trailer Isn’t Science Fiction – Inverse

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The potential and power of genetic engineering looms over the first trailer released for the upcoming Netflix film Okja. Directed by Snowpiercers Bong Joon-ho, the films star is a genetically modified animal who is friends with a young girl and is being hunted by a multinational company. This companys business is genetic modification, and its headed by an icy-blond Tilda Swinton. While Okja is being pegged as science fiction, the fictional part of this film is actually pretty slim: The science that it would take to make such a creature is already in the works.

I took nature and science, Swintons character says in the trailer, clasping her hands. And I synthesized. Shes talking about the massive animal at the heart of the story.

We dont know too much about it: Den of Geek reports that the animal was an experiment that is now growing rapidly, while the films description in Korean describes Okja as somewhere between human and animal. The new trailer only gives us a small look at the creature, whose shape appears to be a pig-hippo crossover with tender brown eyes.

That genetic modification would create a massive creature is not preposterous: Scientists have already used CRISPR technology to increase the size and mass of common animals. In 2015, biotech company AquaBounty Technologies revealed that it genetically modified Atlantic salmon by adding a growth hormone gene and a promoter of an antifreeze gene to the fish. This created much larger salmon that grow at a speed two times faster than average. Double-muscled beagles broke into the CRISPR scene in early 2016, when Chinese researchers from the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health announced they used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to delete the myostatin gene from the normally small-muscled dogs. These beagles not only look like theyre on steroids theyre stronger and can run faster than their unmodified peers.

Real-life animals that seem more suited for a fantasy novel arent out of the question either: In a 2016 essay in The American Journal of Bioethics, professors Hank Greely and R. Alta Charo argue that creating a dragon yes, a dragon wasnt impossible with CRISPR technology. Sure, physics would prevent it from actually spitting out fire, but a very large reptile that looks at least somewhat like the European or Asian dragon (perhaps with flappable if not flyable wings) could be someones target of opportunity, they write.

And if Okja is indeed somewhere between human and animal and this is a literal explanation, rather than an anthropomorphic sentiment the science is almost there as well. At the end of January, scientists declared they had created pig-human chimeras. These embryos were less than 0.001 percent human and were created with the hope that they could one day allow us to grow human organs inside animals not actual pig-humans. Still, its proof that what seemed like science fiction only decade prior can actually become a reality. Okja the film may seem like science fiction when its released this June, but it could very well be pegged as a documentary in the years to come.

Photos via Giphy/YouTube

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Rampant Growth of Giant Animal in 'Okja' Trailer Isn't Science Fiction - Inverse

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Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan weighs in on future of genetic engineering – Daily News & Analysis

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Venkatraman Venki' Ramakrishnan, the Indian born structural biologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 with two other scientists, cautioned against the risks associated with recent developments in biotechnology. Ramakrishnan spoke about the issue at the annual meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Many of the genetic cells could be treated by removing cells from the body and modifying it, he said while addressing one of the major ethical concerns related to genetic engineering. Treating a well-known genetic disease is something that many people would agree with. It gets trickier when someone says, I consider being a brown guy in today's atmosphere a problem and don't want my children to go through that'.

Currently the President of the Royal Society of London, he said, I grew up in India where lot of people still don't have access to enough food, and cancer survival rates remain one of the lowest in the world. But in UK and US people have far greater access to healthcare. He added, When we decide what to do with the technology that we have, we need to consider not only what we can do, but also what we should do. He also said that the benefits of new technology should not be limited to a few rich countries.

Genetic engineering remains a debated topic among the scientists as well as the general people. We now have a much wider range of tools at our disposal. They are making genetic manipulation faster, easier and simpler, Ramakrishnan said referring to the easier production of insulin, vaccines and the availability of genetically modified crops that give a better yield.

The Nobel laureate was of the opinion that scientists need to address the concerns that the people have and that there must be public debate along with robust science.

If you were to say wipe out mosquitoes, many people won't complain. This may not necessarily be the right thing to do, he explained. There is a natural worry if you would be able to reverse it if there was some kind of problem, he said. Referring to the food shortage in many of the developing countries including India, he pointed out that technology like genetic engineering of crops could help us increase the yield.

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FDA, EPA approve 3 types of genetically engineered potatoes – CBS News

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BOISE, Idaho -- Three types of potatoes genetically engineered to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine are safe for the environment and safe to eat, federal officials have announced.

The approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last week gives Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Company permission to plant the potatoes this spring and sell them in the fall.

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The company said the potatoes contain only potato genes, and that the resistance to late blight, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine, comes from an Argentine variety of potato that naturally produced a defense.

The three varieties are the Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet and Atlantic. Theyve previously been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

All three varieties have the same taste and texture and nutritional qualities as conventional potatoes, said Simplot spokesman Doug Cole.

Late blight thrives in the type of wetter conditions that led to the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Potatoes were a main staple, but entire crops rotted in the field. Historical records say about a million people died of starvation and disease, and the number of Irish who emigrated might have reached several million.

Potatoes in modern times are considered the fourth food staple crop in the world behind corn, rice and wheat. Late blight continues to be a major problem for potato growers, especially in wetter regions. Fungicides have been used for decades to prevent the blight.

Simplot says the genetically engineered potatoes reduce the use of fungicide by half.

The company said the potatoes will also have reduced bruising and black spots, enhanced storage capacity, and a reduced amount of a chemical created when potatoes are cooked at high temperatures thats a potential carcinogen.

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Conventional potatoes can turn a dark color when cooked after they were kept cold for too long, a problem Simplot said the three new varieties reduce. The company also said the enhanced cold storage will likely have significant ramifications for the potato chip industry by reducing trucking costs.

There is no evidence that genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, are unsafe to eat, but for some people, altering the genetic code of foods presents an ethical issue. McDonalds continues to decline to use Simplots genetically engineered potatoes for its French fries.

Simplot often notes the potatoes contain only potato genes, and not DNA from an unrelated organism. Organisms that contain DNA from an unrelated organism are defined as transgenic.

The Washington state-based Non-GMO Project that opposes GMOs and verifies non-GMO food and products said Simplots new potatoes dont qualify as non-GMO.

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By some estimates, 80 percent of all processed foods - cereals, baby formula, canned soups and more - contain at least one genetically-modified o...

There is a growing attempt on the part of biotechnology companies to distance themselves from the consumer rejection of GMOs by claiming that new types of genetic engineering ... are not actually genetic engineering, the group said in a statement.

The most recent federal approvals apply to Simplots second generation of Innate potatoes. The first generation that went through the federal approval process didnt include protection from late blight or enhanced cold storage.

The first generation of Innate potatoes has been sold in stores under the White Russet label. Cole said the company hasnt decided how it will market the second generation.

The company is currently at work on a third generation that Cole said will have protections against additional strains of late blight, all coming from genes within the potato species.

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DNA Tests Find Subway Chicken Only 50 Percent Meat, Canadian News Program Reports – NPR

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Tests on Subway chicken sandwiches in Canada have concluded that Subway chicken was only half meat with the other half soy. Mike Mozart/Flickr hide caption

Tests on Subway chicken sandwiches in Canada have concluded that Subway chicken was only half meat with the other half soy.

A Canadian investigative consumer program ordered DNA analysis of several fast-food chicken sandwiches and concluded that Subway chicken was only half meat with the other half soy.

The sandwich chain strongly rebuts the allegations, with a spokesman calling them "absolutely false" and calling for a retraction.

The tests were conducted by a DNA researcher at Trent University's Wildlife Forensic DNA Laboratory, for a CBC Marketplace episode dedicated to testing fast-food chicken dishes, and have not been independently confirmed.

On the episode, which aired Friday, the show found that dishes from McDonald's, Wendy's, A&W and Tim Horton's restaurants in Canada came in at 80 percent and 90 percent chicken DNA. (The meat was tested without any sauce or condiment, but seasoning and marinating would keep any chicken down from a pure 100 percent result, the CBC notes.)

But Subway's dishes were an outlier. "The oven roasted chicken scored 53.6 per cent chicken DNA, and the chicken strips were found to have just 42.8 per cent chicken DNA," the CBC reports. "The majority of the remaining DNA? Soy."

Last week, Subway told the CBC that Subway Canada "cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted." Chicken strips and roasted chicken at Subway contain "contain 1% or less of soy protein ... to help stabilize the texture and moisture," the company told the CBC, and it promised to "look into this" with Subway's supplier.

On Wednesday, a Subway spokesperson more emphatically rejected the CBC's claims.

"The accusations made by CBC Marketplace about the content of our chicken are absolutely false and misleading. Our chicken is 100% white meat with seasonings, marinated and delivered to our stores as a finished, cooked product," the spokesman said in a statement sent to NPR. "We have advised them of our strong objections. We do not know how they produced such unreliable and factually incorrect data, but we are insisting on a full retraction."

The CBC Marketplace report raised a larger issue, beyond the question of Subway's chicken makeup.

In general, according to the report, the fast-food chicken tested had "about a quarter less protein" than home-cooked chicken, and sodium levels "seven to 10 times what they would be in a piece of unadulterated chicken."

"People think they're doing themselves a favour and making themselves a healthy choice" by picking chicken, a nutritionist told the CBC.

"But from a sodium perspective you might as well eat a big portion of poutine" that is, the Canadian dish with french fries, gravy and cheese curds.

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DNA Tests Find Subway Chicken Only 50 Percent Meat, Canadian News Program Reports - NPR

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DNA leads to Anchorage cabbie’s conviction in 2014 sexual assault – Alaska Dispatch News

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Alaska Dispatch News

DNA leads to Anchorage cabbie's conviction in 2014 sexual assault
Alaska Dispatch News
Assistant District Attorney Gustaf Olson, who prosecuted the case, said Wednesday the victim, who immediately reported the attack, was assessed by a sexual assault specialist. DNA samples taken during the investigation were submitted to the state ...

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DNA leads to Anchorage cabbie's conviction in 2014 sexual assault - Alaska Dispatch News

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Scientists Build New Computer Made of DNA – Popular Mechanics

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Scientists at the University of Manchester have developed a new type of self-replicating computer that uses DNA to make calculations, a breakthrough that could make computing far more efficient.

Computing with DNA was first proposed in 1994 as a way to solve problems faster than with normal computers. DNA has a number of advantages over silicon that makes it ideal for problem solving, namely that it's extremely small and highly stable.

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But the biggest advantage of DNA is that it can copy itself. In computing terms, this means that a DNA computer can run an arbitrary number of calculations at the same time, which is very important for solving complex problems. While a typical computer might have to do a billion calculations one after another, a DNA computer can just make a billion copies of itself and do all the calculations at once.

In fact, that's just what the University of Manchester researchers did with their DNA computer. Theirs is the first physical demonstration of this concept, and they hope that a DNA computer could be used to solve complex problems faster than current computers, or even the quantum computers of the future.

Source: University of Manchester

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Supreme Court denies DNA testing in 1982 Ozaukee murder case – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Jeffrey Denny(Photo: Wisconsin Department of Correcti)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Appeals decision that would have allowed DNA testing of evidence from a 1982 Ozaukee County homicide case, and set aside its own prior precedent in the process.

The decision concluded that Jeffrey Denny, who is represented by the Innocence Project, did not meet the statutory threshold for testing old evidence with new science, even at his own expense, and in the process overruled a unanimous 2005 decision interpreting the statute on post-conviction DNA testing.

The ruling Tuesday was 4-3 to deny the testing, but 5-2 to overrule the court's prior case, Wisconsin v. Moran. In all, the court put out 88 pages of the majority, concurring and dissenting opinions.

In a strong dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley concluded, "Making several missteps along the way, the majority limits the contours of this search (for truth)," and legislates from the bench.

Denny and his brother Kent were convicted of killing Christopher Mohr in Grafton. Another man reported to police that he had shown up at Mohr's house and found him dead, and assumed it was suicide. But an autopsy showed Mohr had been beaten with a bong and stabbed repeatedly. Several people later testified that Kent and Jeffrey Denny admitted to killing Mohr, and about hiding blood-stained clothes from the crime.

Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley(Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison. Kent Denny died in 2012.

After other appeals failed, JeffreyDenny in 2014 sought to have numerous items from the crime scene tested for DNA that he suggested might match other people alreadyin the state or federaldatabase, or exclude him, and tend to prove he was innocent.

In 2015, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph Voiland denied the request and in 2016, the Court of Appeals reversed Voiland and ordered the forensic DNA testing.

But the high court majority rejected Denny's contention that he may not have been prosecuted or convicted if the DNA testing had been available. The court overruledits own precedent that would have held that Denny would be entitled to the testing if he paid for it himself.

Otherwise, the court now says, it would allow "post-convictionfishing expeditions in attempts to cast doubt uponand upset" convictions.

And in Denny's case, the majority found, there was too much evidence to overcome, even ifDNA testing revealed none of his was on the evidenceand even if other known offenders' DNA was found on the evidence.

"The ideathat the DNA results Denny seeks would tip the scales and causepolice or a jury to reject the substantial evidence againstDennyis simply conjecture,"Justice Annette Ziegler wrote for the majority.

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack wrote separately, concurring that the 2005 case, Moran, should be overruled, but dissenting to say she would allow Denny to test the evidence.

Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler.(Photo: Associated Press)

In her dissent, Bradley condemned the majority for legislating from thebench. "Throwing caution (as well as any semblance of judicial restraint) to the wind, the majority steps in to perform the Legislature's job," she wrote.

She noted that even though the 2005 Moran decision clearly invited the Legislature to address issues raised then, it did not, and the law on post-conviction DNA testing has been perfectly functional since then.

"Only the makeup of this court has changed," she wrote.

Thequestion is not whether there is strong evidenceof guilt. Rather, the question is whether the Legislature haswritten a statute that gives Denny the opportunity to testevidence that has the potential toexonerate him."

Justice Shirley Abrahamson joined Bradley's dissent, and wrote a separate dissent regarding the appellate procedures that landed the case before the court.

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DNA yields new clues in Marcotte murder case – The Landmark

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Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early speaks to the public at a press conference.

PRINCETON Its been nearly seven months since Vanessa Marcotte left her mothers Princeton home for an afternoon jog and never returned. More than half a year since her body was found in the woods off Brooks Station Road, her murder remains unsolved.

Investigators are still searching for her killer, but in the months that have passed that search has gotten narrower, and last week, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early announced that that hunt has gotten a step closer. They do not know the name of the man who killed Vanessa, but they do know another key to his identity: they have his DNA.

In a press conference outside of the Princeton Town Hall Annex, a tiny parking lot usually filled with municipal employee cars, Early stood before reporters and television news cameras last Thursday to announce a new development in the case that the mans DNA, combined with with information from more than 1,300 tips that have poured in since August, have led to some key clues as to who Vanessas murderer is.

Early said that they have narrowed their search and are looking for a Hispanic or Latino male with light to medium complexion, of average height and with an athletic build. At the time of the murder, he had a shaved head or very short hair. He is approximately 30 years old and would have sustained scratches around the face, neck, arms, hands and upper body on Aug. 7 and dates forward of that, Early said.

Sifting through more than 1,000 tips and a very precise science yielded the new description of the person of interest in the case the first major development thats been announced since police said they were looking for a dark SUV in connection with the murder last November. Along with testing at Massachusetts State Police labs, the DNAwas sent for more detailed testing at Parabon NanoLabs, a small Virginia-based company whose DNA engineers are performing groundbreaking work.

Staffed by a team of scientists and technologists, Parabon is leveraging the enormous power of DNA with recent advances in DNA sequencing, processing and manufacturing technologies. They offer a forensic DNA analysis service that predicts the physical appearance and ancestry of an unknown person from DNA, used by law enforcement across the country for generating investigative leads, narrowing suspect lists, and identifying unknown remains.

DNA carries the genetic instruction set for an individuals physical characteristics, producing the wide range of appearances among people, according to their description of DNA phenotyping. By determining how genetic information translates into physical appearance, it is possible to reverse-engineer DNA into a physical profile. Snapshot reads tens of thousands of genetic variants (genotypes) from a DNA sample and uses this information to predict what an unknown person looks like.

Were very confident in our description that weve given you today that this is our person of interest, Early said at last weeks press conference. Since it is an active investigation, Early said he was limited in the questions he could take, but emphasized the coming up with the physical description is a very significant development in the case.

Indeed, similar clues have been a turning point in other unsolved cases. Just last week, police investigating a 20-year-old cold-case rape and killing in Costa Mesa, California, used DNA phenotyping to pinpoint the identity of a suspect.

Early would not say if Marcotte was specifically targeted, nor exactly where the DNA was collected. He said police officials have been able to rule out a connection to the murder of a female jogger in Queens around the same time.

We are asking the publics help in locating this particular person of interest, Early said, but cautioned that the man should

not be confronted. Im here today to urge the public to please, if you think you have something, give a call on the tipline.

Vanessa Marcottes naked and partially burned body was found in the woods not far from her home on Brooks Station Road. She worked for Google and lived in New York City, but was home that weekend visiting her family. Marcotte, 27, went out for a jog several hours before she was due to catch a bus to New York. When she did not return, a search was undertaken. Early thanked police chief Michele Powers, MSP detective lieutenant Dennis Hunt, Colonel Richard McKeon and Secretary of Public Safety Dan Bennett for their efforts, assistance and resources in this investigation.

State police detectives, Mass. State Police and Princeton Police are continuing to follow every tip and every lead they get in this case, Early said.

After the news conference, Vanessa Marcottes uncle, Steve Therrien, released the following statement: The family of Vanessa Marcotte wishes to thank the District Attorney, his staff, the detectives of the Mass State Police assigned to the case, and the Princeton Police Department for their relentless efforts and the tremendous support that they have shown us throughout this ordeal.

The family thinks that this development of a profile of a person of interest will be very helpful in getting the public to rethink and re-examine the events of Aug. 7, 2016 and help identify an individual who might have been on Brooks Station Rd on that day and subsequently had scratches and cuts that were clearly visible on his person. No tip is too small to call in.

Vanessa went for a walk on the lovely afternoon of Aug. 7, 2016. She did nothing wrong. She deserves justice.

Anyone knowing a man fitting the description is asked to call the MSP tipline at 508-453-7589. The tipline is anonymous.

Continued here:
DNA yields new clues in Marcotte murder case - The Landmark

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