Category Archives: Transhuman News

IMAGINE you are trying to solve a burglary, and your sole lead is a cigarette butt. It has enough DNA on it to check against the national DNA database, but this throws up no matches. Running the DNA through machines capable of identifying physical characteristics could help - only there is not enough DNA to deduce more than two traits.

A new all-in-one chip that can identify multiple traits should help. The Identitas v1 Forensic Chip allows investigators to home in on someone's gender, eye colour and hair colour, as well as ancestry - all based on a small sample of DNA such as that from saliva on a cigarette butt.

Developed by VisiGen, a consortium of universities and law enforcement agencies, the chip is the first to provide data on all these traits simultaneously. Other devices can determine at most two at a time - usually eye and hair colour.

The new chip contains hundreds of thousands of short sequences of DNA that bind to different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - single letter variations in the genetic sequence - in the DNA sample. SNPs are indicative of physical traits, so once we know which SNPs are present in the sample, software can be used to compute likely appearance and ancestry.

The VisiGen team tested the chip on more than 3000 DNA samples collected around the world, and found that it was 99 per cent accurate at predicting gender. The chip also predicted European or East Asian ancestry with an accuracy of 97 per cent, and African ancestry in 88 per cent of cases. However, it was only 63 per cent accurate at predicting blond hair (International Journal of Legal Medicine, doi.org/j5k).

The tool is not accurate enough to secure convictions in court, but team member Aruna Bansal of New York biotech firm Identitas envisages it being useful in focusing investigations or corroborating eyewitness reports, as well as in identifying disaster victims. "It provides you with a starting point," she says. The current chip is ready to be launched and the team is now working towards a chip that can determine even more traits.

Erin Murphy, a professor of law at New York University, is concerned that this technology may encourage "police dragnets", in which anyone matching a profile created with such chips could be questioned. But VisiGen team member Manfred Kayser of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, counters that the authorities "already use all types of information for investigative purposes". With the chip, the only difference is that they will be looking at DNA-derived traits.

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DNA 'identichip' gives a detailed picture of a suspect

Halo 4: DNA 2v2: Round 1: Team SakyFAL vs. Team Girls

By: XxDNAxGAMINGxX

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Halo 4: DNA 2v2: Round 1: Team SakyFAL vs. Team Girls - Video

Thieves Down Under might get a little something extra the next time they rob a McDonald's.

In an effort to crack down on robberies at McDonald's in Sydney, the company has hired SelectaDNA, a British security firm, to install a system that sprays a "non-toxic solution with DNA Code" on would-be thieves on their way out the door of the fast-food outlets.

A handful of McDonald's locations have been hit by thieves in the past couple weeks who snatch more than just a Big Mac. Now the company hopes the newly installed systems will deter robbers from stealing from the Golden Arches.

"A spokesperson for McDonald's said the company will increase the use of ' SelectaDNA' in stores all over the country after a successful trial in their six busiest Sydney restaurants was launched in January last year," The Sydney Morning Herald reported. "The move comes as police ramp up their patrols of local McDonald's restaurants after a spate of robberies across Sydney during the Christmas and New Year period."

READ: Thieves Smash Wall, Miss. Jewelry Store, Rob KFC

The Intruder Spray solution was introduced in 2008 and "contains a UV tracer and a unique DNA code, linking them irrefutably to the crime scene," according to SelectaDNA's website. To date, SelectaDNA has installed 13 Intruder Spray security systems in McDonald's across Australia.

"Police are able to find SelectaDNA by using a UV Torch. The spray glows bright blue under UV light. By DNA Analysis, an offender can be linked to the premise," said Alice Baillie, marketing manager for SelectaDNA. "A sample the size of a pinhead is all that is required to link an offender to the site."

Once triggered by a thief, the spray will fall onto intruders as they leave a business or home. It can be synced to a panic-button or to any alarm system within a business or home. The solution is both harmless and too small to be seen but will stay on an intruder for weeks, "clinging to fibers and sitting in the creases of the skin," according to the website. Baillie says the spray can linger on clothing for up to six months regardless if it's been washed. For bags, hats and weapsons, the spray will stay on "indefinitely."

With the installation of this high-technology security system, SelectaDNA says it will cut theft and burglaries significantly.

"What makes SelectaDNA so different from other DNA is that normally it is the offender leaving their DNA at the scene," said Baillie. "But this product has the offender taking the scenes DNA with them when they leave irrefutably linking them to the premise."

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McDonald's Installing DNA Security

NEW YORK (AP) The New York City medical examiner's office confirmed Friday that it is reviewing hundreds of rape cases for possible errors in DNA analysis.

Officials said it appears so far that the testing in the vast majority of the cases was valid. But in one instance, the review uncovered evidence that resulted in an indictment last year accusing a man of raping a minor more than a decade ago in Brooklyn.

Local politicians responded to news of the mishandled sex crimes evidence, first reported in The New York Times, by saying it suggests more victims may have been denied justice. The City Council announced it would hold an oversight hearing later this month.

"We cannot allow these women to wonder if their attacker remains free or to go one more day without knowing justice was served in their case," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in a statement.

The review began after the medical examiner's office discovered errors by an unidentified laboratory technician, who was hired in 2001 and resigned in 2011, office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

During a training session before her resignation, supervisors learned that her "work wasn't up to the standards we expect," Borakove said.

The medical examiner's office determined that the technician had handled evidence in more than 800 sexual assault cases during her nine-year tenure. The review, which is more than half-way completed, so far has found that she failed to detect existing biological evidence in at least two dozen instances.

While the review recreates the possibility of new charges being brought in old cases, the offices of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said Friday that there was no indication the faulty work resulted in convictions of innocent people.

No cases "were affected by the errors of this employee," said Vance spokeswoman Erin Duggan.

Duggan said that "as a measure of transparency," prosecutors alerted defense attorneys involved in cases where the employee had contact with forensic kits.

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NY looks at 800 rape cases for possible DNA errors