Category Archives: Transhuman News

24 September 2013 Last updated at 12:35 ET

An ex-prisoner has lost a legal challenge at the High Court against a request by police for him to provide DNA samples.

The man, known as R, had argued that the request infringed his human rights.

Under Operation Nutmeg, which runs in England and Wales, DNA has been gathered from people jailed for serious crimes before routine collection.

The Home Office said the judgement was a common-sense one that supported the work of the government and police.

Police could have been ordered to destroy thousands of samples if the legal challenge had been successful.

Since 1994, individuals convicted of serious crimes have had DNA swabs routinely taken to add to the national database.

The aim of Operation Nutmeg is to see if there are any matches to unsolved crimes among those who offended before that date.

By July of this year, 6,204 samples had been taken under the scheme with 111 being matched to crime scenes.

R - who was jailed for manslaughter in the 1980s but after his release was in trouble for a lesser, non-violent offence - argued that he had turned his life around since 2000.

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Court rejects DNA sample challenge

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The 54 year-old man had claimed his right to private and family life was infringed by new laws which allow police to take swabs from serious criminals whose convictions pre-date 1994, when collection of DNA material became routine.

The ex-prisoner, who can only be identified by the initial R, was jailed for three years for manslaughter in 1984 and later served another prison term for kidnapping.

Lord Justice Pitchford and Mr Justice Hickinbottom, sitting in Birmingham, dismissed R's application for judicial review and said the polices request for his genetic sample was lawful and proportionate.

The judges ruled that the police forces initial letter to R in March last year was unlawful because officers had not correctly followed procedures.

But a later demand for his DNA, in April last year, was legal and officers were fully justified in concluding that the public interest in the detection of crime outweighed the limited interference with the claimants private life, said the judges.

The police force at the centre of the case, which cannot be named for legal reasons, wanted the DNA as part of a Operation Nutmeg, a programme across England and Wales to collect genetic material from 11,000 people jailed for serious crimes before 1994.

Samples taken as part of Operation Nutmeg are compared with the National DNA Database to see if they can be linked with any unsolved crimes.

R is now considering whether to appeal against the ruling.

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Killer's DNA challenge rejected by judges

A convicted killer lost his appeal Tuesday against a police demand for him to provide DNA samples as part of a sweep to solve unsolved historic crimes.

Lawyers for the man -- who was convicted of manslaughter in 1984 but was later released and has not committed a serious crime since 1999 -- argued at the High Court that the request infringed his human rights.

But Lord Justice Pitchford ruled the request made in April was "lawful and proportionate".

The police could have been ordered to destroy thousands of DNA samples if the challenge had been successful.

Stephen Cragg QC, who led the challenge by the man identified only as R for legal reasons, said: "The claimant in this case accepts he committed a serious crime but not since 1999.

"Now he has been asked to provide a sample he says his human rights have been breached as he has a right to a private life."

Cragg questioned whether statistics backed up the police case. He said: "If you take DNA from everybody you will solve more crimes.

"But will this improve the detection rate? It remains a very low rate. Often DNA evidence will throw up red herrings."

The test case was triggered by a police operation in which DNA samples have been collected from prisoners whose crimes pre-date routine collection, which started in 1994.

The police force at the centre of the case, which also must not be be named for legal reasons, wanted R's sample as part of the push across England and Wales to collect genetic material from people jailed for serious crimes before 1994.

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Court rejects ex-prisoner's DNA sample challenge

Sep. 24, 2013 Chemists from Nijmegen have developed a catalyst that binds to DNA, slides over it and splits the molecule in particular places. The researchers were able to do this by synthetically modifying a natural catalyst. This finding is a first in the field of chemistry and will help in the selective modification of polymers such as DNA. The results were published online in Nature Chemistry on 22 September.

Roeland Nolte, Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry at Radboud University Nijmegen, is the leader of the research project. As he explains, 'Natural enzymes exist that are able to replicate -- that is make a copy of -- DNA. These enzymes consist of a ring to which another enzyme, the replicating catalyst, is clamped. We modified the natural ring and introduced porphyrines, with the result that the system is able to split DNA. We have therefore constructed our own, modifiable, biohybrid catalyst, inspired by nature.'

DNA signposting

The tiny molecular machine is actually not a ring, but a c-shape with a narrow opening. This means that it can easily bind to and slide over DNA. While it is sliding, the machine only splits at a specific sequence: the letters AAA in the DNA -- a repetitive sequence of three adenine molecules. Adenine is one of the four DNA building blocks. 'We can also influence the direction of the catalyst, by sliding it from the left or the right over the DNA', says Nolte. 'We do this by molecularly blocking one side of the DNA so that the catalyst can only move in the other direction.'

Visible splitting positions

The chemists have developed a new technique that shows exactly where the molecular machine has performed the splitting action. The splitting produces a functional group in the DNA that, following treatment with the streptavidin protein, can be visualised using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). AFM can be used to investigate the surface of a molecule in detail because the microscope scans the surface using a needle. Using this technique, the researchers were able to detect the splitting locations in the DNA and thereby determine whether or not the machine was indeed moving in the intended direction.

Molecular computer

Molecular machines like this catalyst are very useful in organic chemistry as they make it possible to split DNA in a controlled manner. Nolte explains, 'Our ultimate goal is a fully synthetic catalyst. We would be able to use this in various solvents, whereas the catalyst we currently use only works in a water solution. The synthetic catalyst I have in mind would be a kind of molecular computer that uses the information input to perform precise tasks. We could then use this to modify polymer chains as we please, for example to strengthen them or to store information in them.'

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Chemists slide a splitting catalyst over DNA for first time