Category Archives: Transhuman News

NEW ORLEANS

Damon Thibodeaux received the ovation you'd expect of a man who's just been exonerated of a crime he didn't commit.

WGNO News Reporter Darian Trotter asked, "How do you feel now? Free, Thibodeaux replied."

Damon Thibodeaux has been on death row in Louisiana since October, 1997.

He was convicted of the murder and rape of his 14-year old step-cousin, Crystal Champagne.

It was a crime for which he had been coerced into falsely confessing.

But DNA and other evidence have proven his innocence.

It took seven years and hundreds of thousands of dollars of DNA testing for the Innocence Project and Jefferson Parish prosecutors to exonerate Thibodeaux.

"When you think you have an innocent man and people on both sides can get together and really share evidence and conduct an investigation into the search for the truth that's what's important. So we are tremendously indebted to Paul Connick and his team for the cooperation and the integrity with which they went about this process," Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said.

Thibodeaux makes the 300th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence in the U.S. And the 18th who served time on death row.

Link:
DNA Clears Death Row Inmate

VANCOUVER - RCMP scientists will continue to resubmit DNA to Interpol after announcing this week the process confirmed a dead U.S. convict killed at least one of the 18 victims on B.C.'s so-called Highway of Tears, an investigator said Thursday.

Staff Sgt. Wayne Clary said samples of genetic material submitted to the international law enforcement agency have to meet standards, which could mean having to isolate the suspects DNA from other contaminants, including blood from the victim.

That was the case in victim Colleen MacMillens murder: her blood was mixed with that of her presumed killer, Bobby Jack Fowler. (Fowlers guilt is not proven in a court of law because of his passing in 2006 in an Oregon prison.)

A previous attempt five years ago to separate Fowlers blood was unsuccessful, but new technology made it possible this year. That meant the isolated Fowler DNA was now acceptable for comparison with international police records.

Were very cognizant of advances in DNA and we would resubmit when we can, Clary told QMI Agency. In particular, when there are older cases that have already gone through (our system) once.

The investigator said police have also traced four additional British Columbian male suspects -- two living and two dead -- related to the missing and murdered women.

One of the suspects continues to be sought in connection to Maureen Mosies death. The 33-year-old was last seen alive in Salmon Arm on May 8, 1981. The next day, her remains were located 100 kilometres west, near Kamloops.

Mounties still seek witnesses who saw a two-door compact car with an Alberta plate driven by a man with a dark beard.

We think whoever drove that car killed Maureen Mosie.

Though no names were released, Clary said the two dead suspects linked to two separate killings perished before the Highway of Tears task force launched in 2005.

Continued here:
DNA remains focus in Highway of Tears cases

27 September 2012 Last updated at 13:20 ET

Police forces in England and Wales have begun a large-scale operation to collect DNA samples from about 12,000 serious offenders who are not on the national DNA database.

Operation Nutmeg will see officers collect swabs from sex offenders and murderers living in the community.

Criminals are often not on the database if they were convicted before 1994, when sample-taking became routine.

The scheme has been launched after a successful pilot exercise in Hampshire.

Police hope the collection of thousands of new samples could help to solve so-called cold-cases, where a new sample is linked to a past crime.

Speaking at a briefing on Thursday, Amanda Cooper, director of information, science and technology at Thames Valley Police, said officers would approach individuals between now and next summer to collect the samples.

Police forces have been given lists of offenders living in their areas and will work though them to collect the samples.

The lists have been drawn up based on information from the Police National Computer, which was first used in the 1970s.

Alex Marshall, the chief constable of Hampshire police, said 167 samples were taken from a list of 471 convicted criminals during the pilot operation.

Continued here:
New drive to take criminals' DNA

In the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that male DNA is commonly found in the brains of women a finding that could hold important implications for diseases like Alzheimers disease and cancer.

Male DNA is likely transferred to female brains during pregnancy, according to researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. During this time, mothers and fetuses exchange and harbor genetic material and cells in a phenomenon called microchimerism.

This means, if a mother is pregnant with a boy, she will end up with male DNA in her system potentially for the rest of her life. If the fetus is female, the mother will end up with genetic material from her daughter, though it is difficult for researchers to distinguish between two sets of female DNA in microchimerism studies.

What this means for treating diseases

Prior studies have observed fetal DNA in many other of the mothers tissues and organs, but this is the first to confirm fetal cells can cross the blood-brain barrier and reside in the mothers brain beyond pregnancy.

We were interested in looking at the human brain because its never been looked at before, and it was really unknown if the cells of fetal origin could reach the brain, study senior author Dr. Lee Nelson, a member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and professor of medicine at the University of Washington, told FoxNews.com. Nelson and her colleagues performed autopsies on 59 brains of deceased females and detected male microchimerism in 63 percent of them.

Male microchimerism was distributed across multiple regions of the female brain, including those affected by dementia, and could persist for decades potentially even an entire human lifespan. According to the study, the oldest female with microchimerism detected in her brain was 94.

The question naturally arises what role might the cells have in benefiting health and what role they play in diseases, Nelson added.

The researchers hope further studies on microchimerism might shed new light on various diseases that affect the brain, such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons or even brain tumors.

These cells have access to the brain could help us understand different treatment options for diseases that arent well treated, Nelson said. Its a very exciting new area that opens up different possibilities, such as, what if these cells have anti-tumor potential? For example, glioblastomas are deadly tumors, (which) have poor treatment options. Were very much in need of new potential options.

View original post here:
Many female brains contain male DNA