DNA

April 25, 2008 -- SACRAMENTO -- California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a new DNA search policy that will improve the ability of local law enforcement to investigate unsolved violent crimes by providing new investigative leads.

DNA bands: Photo by Diego Cantalapiedra    » read more »

April 13, 2008 -- SAN DIEGO — Smoking puts older women at significant risk for loss of DNA repair proteins that are critical for defending against development of some colorectal cancers, according to research from a team led by Mayo Clinic scientists.

In a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the researchers found that women who smoked were at increased risk for developing colorectal tumors that lacked some or all of four proteins, known as DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins.

Smoking: Photo by JonF119 (CC)    » read more »

03 April 2008 -- Three independent teams of researchers have found genes that may explain why some smokers get cancer and others do not, and why some people who never smoke also get the disease. Investigators say the discoveries could lead to better ways to prevent and treat one of the most lethal forms of cancer.

Cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer: Photo by Raul Lieberwirth (CC)

The teams in the United States, France and Iceland scoured the DNA of thousands of white smokers and non-smokers of European descent,with and without lung cancer, looking for genes that have been linked to smoking.    » read more »

March 27, 2008 -- New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte announces that recent DNA test results have provided additional confirmation that Robert Breest is guilty of the 1971 homicide of Susan Randall. Susan Randall’s badly beaten and partially naked body was found on the ice of the Merrimack River in 1971. Robert Breest was eventually arrested for the murder and brought to trial.

The evidence at trial included substantial forensic evidence that tied Breest to the murder including hairs and paint chips. He was convicted by a jury of First Degree Murder and sentenced as a psych-sexual murderer in 1973. Breest was sentenced to life in prison. Under the laws in place at the time of his sentencing, he was not eligible for parole for 40 years.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2008 – More than 6,300 families need to be located to collect DNA samples for the purpose of identifying missing soldiers from World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, a U.S. Army official said yesterday.

The military maintains a database of mitochondrial DNA samples from family members of missing-in-action soldiers in the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab, Army Lt. Col. Julius Smith, chief of past conflict repatriation for Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs, said during a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers.”

Smith explained that the DNA samples help the Army identify missing soldiers’ remains when they are uncovered, so they can be returned to the families.    » read more »

- Federally supported NJ State Police program carries out provisions of Patricia’s Law

March 19, 2008 -- Trenton, NJ – The New Jersey State Police has launched a DNA identification project for long-term missing and unidentified deceased persons that supports the implementation of the state’s new New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine ceremonially signs Patricia's Law: Patricia’s Law sets new guidelines for police to follow in missing persons’ cases, including collecting DNA material. Photo: NJ Gov.'s office.    » read more »

January 31, 2008 -- Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that her budget proposals will include funding to take DNA samples from any person arraigned on a Class A or Class B felony charge as well as from anyone convicted of a felony, a crime against a minor, a violent or nonviolent sexual offense and certain Class A misdemeanors.    » read more »

Announces State’s Success in Elimination of DNA Backlog of More Than 24,000 Samples to Solve Crime in Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, MD (January 10, 2008) – Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, joined by Attorney General Douglas Gansler, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, and law enforcement officials, today announced proposed legislation to expand DNA sampling to arrestees of “Crimes of Violence” and burglaries to improve public safety and solve violent crimes in our communities.    » read more »

27 September 2007 -- An international team of scientists has unlocked the genetic blueprint of hair samples from ancient woolly mammoths found in Siberia. The researchers say the DNA will give them valuable information about the evolution of elephants and possibly other prehistoric animals.

Scientists mapped the entire DNA sequence from the hair shafts of 13 Siberian woolly mammoths.

The mammoths roamed the earth 30,000 to 60,000 years ago and are the common, prehistoric ancestor of the African and Indian elephants.    » read more »

September 10, 2007, LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that the backlog of DNA samples collected from convicted felons—which stood at 295,000 in July 2006—has been eliminated.    » read more »

September 4, 2007, BERKELEY, CA — Three years ago, "ultraconserved elements" were discovered in the genomes of mice, rats, and humans. These are DNA sequences 200 base pairs in length or longer — some are over 700 base pairs long — showing 100-percent identity among the three species. They have been perfectly conserved since the last common ancestor of mice, rats, and humans, which lived some 85 million years ago.    » read more »

Sept. 4, 2007 -- DNA is one of the most popular building blocks of nanotechnology and is commonly used to construct ordered nanoscale structures with controlled architectures. For the most part, DNA is looked upon as a promising building block for fabricating microelectronic circuits from the bottom up. Now a team of researchers at Young propose the marriage of DNA self-assembly with standard microfabrication and lithography tools to form features such as nanochannels, nanowires, and nanoscale trenches.    » read more »

August 21, 2007 -- Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell today highlighted a new law that eliminates the statute of limitations on sexual assaults that can be prosecuted with the use of DNA evidence, calling the change a “major step forward for crime victims in our state.”    » read more »

August 6, 2007 -- BERKELEY, CA — Ionizing radiation, toxic chemicals, and other agents continually damage the body's DNA, threatening life and health: unrepaired DNA can lead to mutations, which in turn can lead to diseases like cancer. Intricate DNA repair mechanisms in the cells' nuclei are constantly working to fix what's broken, but whether the repair work happens "on the road" — right where the damage occurs — or "in the shop" — at specific regions of the nucleus — is an unanswered question.    » read more »

Aug. 3, 2007 -- Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and the Colorado District Attorney’s Council today announced the collaborative formation of a working group to examine how DNA evidence is collected and preserved in Colorado.

An independent team of experts and stakeholders will come together to study DNA collection, preservation and analysis practices in Colorado. The working group also will examine best practices nationally to see if they need to be implemented in Colorado.    » read more »